Civil War II Term Paper

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American Civil War [...] Civil War event I would most like to eyewitness, and answer the questions: Why? What would I have seen? Would participating in or seeing that event have made you a different person from the one you are today? If so, how? The Civil War event I have chosen is the surrender at Appomattox courthouse.

The Civil War ended nearly where it began, at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, on April 9, 1865. I have chosen this event not because of the defeat of the South, but because it was the meeting of two great generals, and marked the end of a war that had torn the country apart. I believe the occasion was not only historically important, but also important in that it was an end to the bloodshed, and a stepping-stone to peace. While a few Confederate forces continued to fight after the surrender, the war officially ended within a few weeks.

As so much of a race depends on how it faces death, and how it stands personal anguish and sickness; as, in the glints of emotions under emergencies, and the indirect traits and asides in Plutarch, we get far profounder clues to the antique world than all its more formal history"(Lowenfels 293). Walt Whitman understood the horrible cost of the Civil War, for he witnessed the carnage and death firsthand in the hospitals and on the battlefield. He felt the nations' real history came through in the way the people handled themselves during crisis, and this is still true today. During the worst times, Americans are often at their very best. This is why I would like to have witnessed the signing of the surrender at Appomattox, because the surrender brought "normality" back to the country, and gave us a place to begin again.

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I believe I would have seen two tired men who had great respect for each other, both waiting to get on with their lives, and settle the matter for the last time. I believe everyone was weary of the fighting, and the separation in our country. Neither man enjoyed war, but they were both great leaders, who could incite their men to fight to win, and I believe they enjoyed the precision and planning that went into battles. General Lee once said, "It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it'" (Norton 280). It seems certain that neither man enjoyed the casualties of war, which were horrific during the four years of fighting. "Some 260,000 of his southern brothers did fight to the last in a doomed cause, while 360,000 Yankees died to make the United States a nation at last" (Oates 393). I believe the nation was ready to heal, and this historic signing of surrender began the healing process, especially because of the way the two men conducted themselves, and how the entire affair was handled.

The men themselves were both striking and strong individuals, with quick minds and good fighting tactics. Whitman saw Grant several times, and said remembered, "About sundown I saw him again riding on a large, fine horse, with his hat off in answer to the hurrahs; he rode by where I stood and I saw him well as he rode by on a slow canter, with nothing but a single….....

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