What were most of the soldiers in the civil war like?

Answer 1

On both sides they were farm boys. Even 35 years after the war ended, according to the 1900 census, in 1900 90% of Americans were living on farms. An even higher percentage was still living a rural, agricultural life in 1860. Most had never been anywhere. They got "to town" three or four times a year, unless their farm was close to town. And by town that was usually the county seat, where the courthouse was, and the local government. They went in to trade, sell their crops, buy the few things they could not produce themseves (salt, sugar, gunpowder, tobacco), and to attend the sessions of court held from time to time, which were a great amusement to people, because there wasn't much else to do. The other big diversion was going to church every Sunday. People were extremely religious. This was one factor that helped make the war so bloody. A man who believes he's going to heaven when he dies, and who trusts in the lord, will take chances. Most had never had much schooling, going to whatever school their parents and the parents of other local children had been able to establish. Often these were Old Field Schools, where a farmer donated a worn our field from his farm for the schoolyard, and the neighbors got together and in a day threw up a big cabin for the schoolhouse. The parents united their means to hire a teacher, who taught all grades, in the one room. This school usually met for only about four months out of the year, in the winter, between harvest and planting time. Some of these school were pretty good, others not so good - a lot depended on the teacher. Abraham Lincoln, who of course made great efforts to educate himself, had formal schooling consisting of a few winters in one of these "blab schools" - so called, because a lot of what passed for education was memorization and recitation. Public schools were just being started in some cities, but these were only in the cities. There were few books around. Lincoln would walk to the next county to borrow a book, if he heard of someone that had one. Many households had a bible, and an almanac, and that was it. Ulysses Grant was out of school and working when he was eight years old. Because they had never been anywhere and spent little time in schools, many of the new soldiers of 1861 had never had childhood diseases, like measles and mumps. They got these as soon as they got to army camps. New regiments had to be "put through the fevers" when they first got to camp, and quite a few would die and more would have to be discharged from the army. It was not at all unusual for a new unit to lose half its men from disease, before ever getting anywhere near the enemy.