United States History 1492-1865 Term Paper

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American History

During the American Civil War, Walt Whitman wrote insightful pieces that captured the war from an angle that reflected an understanding of the daily effects of the reality of the war on everyone involved.

Whitman himself was effected by the war from almost the beginning when, after riding with a trainload of wounded men on the way to Washington, he decided to take a job at the Army Paymaster's Office. He stayed there for three years, where he kept the company of wounded soldiers, befriending those victims of the war.

Whitman understood a sense of despair in the country before the war, which is expressed in his poetry. He thought the cause of the war was one that came from within the country and his poetry focused on the individual impact the war had on people as opposed to writing about the larger issues such a s emancipation, slavery, and reconstruction. Poems such as "Two Brooklyn Boys," "A New York Soldier," "Bad Wounds, the Young," and "A Secesh Brave" emphasize this focus on the common men of the war rather than the generals and battles of the larger picture. It is Whitman's view and his vision of that time that many claim gave the war a soul and a face.

As Whitman's poetry took a more focused look at the minute details of the war, the larger impacts of the war were happening all around him. Washington had been a rather small rural town before the war, eventually ended up housing about fifty hospitals.

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East Virginia became one of the main areas of military activity, which consisted of battles between Washington and Richmond. Union forces continued to struggle with the Confederates through 1862, suffering terrible defeats along the way.

Contrary to popular belief, America had already started industrializing by 1860. However, there was no centralized national effort at industrialization. The war created the need for mass production of goods, which quickly brought about the end of cottage-style manufacturing. The North was industrially far more industrial than the South, especially in the areas of manufacturing and banking. The South out-produced the North in only one area, and that was of cotton manufacturing. But it is safe to say that neither the North of the South was prepared for the war or how long it would last (Davidson 766).

One of the economic aspects of the war was the restructuring of the federal banking system. Before the Civil War, the federal banking system based on gold and silver coins. In 1862, congress passed the Legal Tender Act, creating America's first "greenbacks" and in 1863, the National Bank Act was passed. These two acts helped generate what is now known as the American national currency (Davidson 766).

One of the most influential political figures that rises above all the rest during the time of the Civil War is Abraham Lincoln. Whitman seemed to have a deep respect for….....

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