# data[].attributes.body
Both the amount of violence and scale of death in the Civil War came as a great shock and horror to all Americans, Northern and Southern. This was a result of the reality that the Civil War was far more deadly than any American or Colonial war before. In fact, the death total of the Civil War is about equal to that of the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American
War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War all combined. Not only this, but both during and after the war, Americans had to learn to cope with a new type of death. Specifically, in the past many American deaths were a result of high infant mortality rates and low life expectancy, rampant deadly disease, and fatal injury. However, from the Civil War, many now had to mourn the loss of otherwise healthy young adults, many of which died instantaneously.

# data[].attributes.body
From this excerpt, I found it interesting to hear that Post-War America came together through nationwide mourning. The fact that death was a shared experience seems to have been essential in healing the country, which is pretty upsetting to think about. I think the reason that this was possible was because the Civil War was a relatively close battle, it wasn't like one side completely dominated the other. As a result of this, suffering was experienced by all, leading to unity through pain rather than continued vengeance.

# data[].attributes.body
During the civil war, the sheer number of deaths and the nature of these deaths made soldiers and people alike reconsider their ideals for how one was supposed to die. In addition to this challenge to their ideals, they were then forced to deal with the death of a loved one, friend, or just forced to witness the sheer number of fatalities. The soldiers apparently struggled to find ways to describe the ways that many bodies or wounded came back. Overall the civil war forced Americans to come up with new ways to deal with death, and prompted them to question their faith and ideals. 

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that the sheer brutality and quantity of dead bodies actually forced many to reconsider their idea of judgment day in relation to a corporeal awakening. I hadn't known that a corporeal awakening was linked with the idea of judgment day, nor did I think that the people of this time were subjected to such horrors that they would question one of the core pillars of their faith. Overall, this just paints a picture of a brutal war full of death and suffering that forced many to question their cause.

# data[].attributes.body
The violence and scale of death played a key role in shaping the experience of Americans during and after the war. Simply due to the sheer number of people who died in the war, both civilian and soldier, caused a massive shift in attitude and greatly shifted the experiences of americans. But also, the civil war forced America to reexamine their perceptions of death as it was no longer about surviving childbirth with a high mortality rate, but rather young, healthy men surviving war. The “harvest of death,” as the excerpt describes created a sense of unity between the north and south and brought forth the idea of “shared suffering.” Despite having such vastly opposing views in which they were willing to fight for, they came together post-war because of their shared experience of death. Death pushed people to change their perception of the social aspects of society when people's loved one were being killed. Also the political and spiritual aspects of society, where African Americans were willing to die for their freedom, and people sought answers to what comes after death. Violence and death transformed the perception of Americans and fostered a united sense of suffering throughout the entire nation.

# data[].attributes.body
During the Civil War, a war that killed over 600,000 Americans, death was a crucial factor that played a major role in altering American society. Unlike previous conflicts in American history, the Civil War was a conflict that especially hit Americans hard due to the sheer amount of deaths that were caused by it. Of course, the war changed American life during the war, but American life was far from what it was before 1860 during the era of Reconstruction. From religion to government, American society was transformed due to the massive conflict of the war. Although many of these transformations were terrible for various institutions, death also helped shape positive experiences for Americans. Firstly, the sheer bloodshed of the war caused the American government to do more for its soldiers. While the American government has always honoured its soldiers, the Civil War helped them see that their Veterans were entering the civilian world with virtually no assistance. Seeing American soldiers go through so much death and destruction caused American government officials to see soldiers more as people rather than objects used in war during Reconstruction. While the rights of Veterans did improve thanks to death and bloodshed, religious beliefs among American citizens dropped significantly. Many Americans, soldier or civilian, witnessed the sight of brutal death, and this caused many to realize the falsehoods of religious doctrine. In the hospitals and on the battlefields, people saw total carnage, and this strongly disagrees with the religious belief that “corporeal resurrection and restoration would accompany the Day of Judgement.” Before the war, the church painted death as this perfect thing that will bring peace and a new life, but by seeing the carnage and missing limbs on soldiers, people saw this as untrue and they walked away from religion. In essence, coping with the deaths of hundreds of thousands proved very difficult for Americans and this was a major reason why American society during Reconstruction totally changed from pre-Civil War American society. 

# data[].attributes.body
When I think of the civil war, I think about the emancipation of slaves and the division between North and South, but from this excerpt I learned just how impactful death was for America at the time. It was interesting how death was so unifying for the country and how regardless of the tension between the north and south, the ultimate loss of human lives could bring the two together. It seems that a tragedy often brings people together, even more so than something positive and I think that is something recurrent throughout history. Another interesting point that the excerpt brought up was “the work of death” and how death is participatory where death requires action and people to incite it. We mourn death and recognize how damaging it is yet in order for there to be death in war, a country has to actively invoke violence and chooses to not avoid it.

# data[].attributes.body
This document taught me about a new vision for the Civil War. While learning about the Civil War in previous years, I understood that the war was brutal, but I never knew that death totally changed American society as described by the author. Firstly, my younger self could not imagine that the Civil War took the lives of over 600,000 people. I always thought it was much less, and I was always confused when confronted with the idea that the Civil War took more American lives than almost any other war in which America was a part. 600,000 is a mind-boggling number, and this document definitely helped me imagine that more clearly. Secondly, I never knew that death influenced society so much during the Reconstruction era. Although I knew it was a major factor,  I never knew that the reputation of certain institutions like the church was severely tarnished by the war and the death caused by it. I always thought that the church’s influence has been strong for hundreds of years in American history, but at this moment, I learned that this influence was rapidly fading away due to people realizing the terrible falsehoods that church doctrine told them. Overall, this document was very helpful in helping me understand the impacts of the Civil War on American citizens. 

# data[].attributes.body
The violence and scale of death during the Civil War played a major role in shaping the experience of many Americans during and after the war. Although the country was divided, with the North fighting against the South, both sides shared one common experience: death. Setting aside the fight over slavery and uniting the nation, almost every American living through the war suffered from the loss of a loved one, or from dying themselves. According to Drew Gilpin Faust, nearly 620,000 American soldiers died during the war along with an unrecorded statistic of approximately 50,000 civilians. Americans were forced to discover new ways to deal with all of the death surrounding them. While at the time many deaths resulted from childbirth and coincided with a high infant mortality rate, the war killed off many of the young healthy men who had been assumed to live much longer. The country as a whole was forced to acknowledge the dead and deal with the suffering, pain, physical bodies that accompanied it. Additionally, the overwhelming presence of death allowed people to come to terms with who they were and confront the reality of death itself. These new ideas and situations led to social change, as  described in the excerpt. Family structures were changed and African Americans used their comfort in the idea of dying and killing in hopes to win their equality. Furthermore, because so many people died, the excerpt explains how human bodies began to be treated on the same level as animal bodies, as they were carelessly disposed of and grouped together in pits. Overall, as a result of the hundreds of thousands of deaths throughout the war, Americans needed to find a way to manage both the figurative and physical aspects of the dead.

# data[].attributes.body
After reading this excerpt, I learned a lot about the scale of death during the Civil War and the effect it had on the country as a whole. It was surprising to read that the total amount of dead American soldiers added up to the American deaths in the Revolution, World War I, World War II, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, and the Korean War combined. While I was aware of the severity of the Civil War, I did not realize the magnitude of American casualties during that time. Additionally, I was surprised to learn that civilian deaths were not recorded in the original number of military Civil War casualties. I found the most interesting piece of the excerpt to be Drew Gilpin Faust’s unique perspective on death and its effect on the American experience during the civil war. He describes it as “America’s most fundamental and most demanding undertaken.” While I do not disagree with his perspective, I never thought about the major impact death would have, not only on an individual who died or suffered from a loss, but on the nation as a whole. I also found it interesting how the author argues that, in the face of so much death, people began to define who they were and examine their own beliefs and feelings.

# data[].attributes.body
The scale in which death occurred during the Civil War drastically affected the social aspects of American life. While Americans had been used to deaths previously caused by infant mortality and shorter life expectancy,  the onslaught of dead soldiers from both the North and South brought a new view of death to all Americans. The death toll of the Civil War caused 1 in 5 men to die, which lead to a revolution of the ways in which people viewed death. People who were expected to live much longer had been killed,  and the mass of dead bodies forced many people into questioning their own mortality. The death toll of the Civil War heavily impacted both Northern and Southern Americans, starting a revolution in social and ideological dynamics of death in society.

# data[].attributes.body
The scale in which death occurred during the Civil War drastically affected the social aspects of American life. While Americans had been used to deaths previously caused by infant mortality and shorter life expectancy,  the onslaught of dead soldiers from both the North and South brought a new view of death to all Americans. The death toll of the Civil War caused 1 in 5 men to die, which led to a revolution of the way in which people viewed death. People who were expected to live much longer had been killed, and the mass of dead bodies forced many people into questioning their own mortality. The death toll of the Civil War heavily impacted both Northern and Southern Americans, starting a revolution in social and ideological dynamics of death in society.

# data[].attributes.body
The most surprising part of this article was learning that both Northerners and Southerners were able to connect through death during such a violent time. I was shocked to learn that the death toll of the Civil War reached a total of over 620,000 casualties, leading to a complete change of societal structure. The fact that so many were killed on both sides, yet the North and South were able to connect through death was surprising to me. I would have thought that this connection would have led to the stop of the War if this both sides were affected that dramatically. Finally, I thought it was interesting to learn about the affects of death on people who did not fight in the war. Learning about the trauma that family members, doctors, and other soldiers experienced was incredibly saddening, and it was shocking to see how many different types of people were affected throughout the country.

# data[].attributes.body
The excerpt two main ways that the violence from the Civil War reshaped the nation, soldiers views of the carnage and the views of those with loved ones fighting. The daily violence the soldiers faced was unmatched by any other war, with a death count of around 620,000 people. The violence in the Civil War was not just cruel, but also physically and emotionally tolling for the soldiers. They saw comrades die and severed limbs and innocent people killed over and over again. This has a permanent effect on ones mental and emotional health and those who can back from the war could and would never forget the absolute carnage of this four year battle. While those not fighting in the war did not face the same vivid nightmares as those fighting, they were faced with their own demons. They lived in constant fear and worry for those they knew fighting in the war and their safety and the uncertainty of their return. They also rightly worried about their own safety in their towns because the war did not know the difference between a battlefield and a home. This is to blame for the many civilian lives lost in this battle of violence and suffering.

# data[].attributes.body
It was interesting to read how the excerpt used the word 'work' to convey their meaning while talking about the death toll and jobs of the soldiers. It seemed odd to say it was work to kill someone, but looking at it, it was the soldiers job to will the war and to do that was to kill people on the other side. The concept seems a bit morbid but I think it helps the reader realize the impact of the deaths and the dedication and sacrifice of the soldiers. "Death in war does not simply happen; it requires action and agents." This quote was surprising because I had never thought about death in war like this. I had known about the action, but not the agents, how it is work to die because you must know how to come at the action of death. To go into something such as a war knowing there is a high chance of not surviving, one must work in order to make peace with their life ending in such a violent way. The excerpt opened my eyes to another, peaceful, side of death in war that I had not seen before.

# data[].attributes.body
Death during the Civil War changed people’s views on life. Being a soldier increased one’s chance of death by five times than someone who was not. These men were dying at such a young age and their families and friends grieved the lives they could have had left. Men played an significant role in society and for their families and they were seen as strong and powerful. Some came back from the war with missing limbs or badly hurt, and because of this the assumptions of who should or will die were changed. Death does not discriminate against in war, so losing a loved one was shared between many Americans at this time. As Faust writes, “this shared suffering would override persisting differences about the meanings of race, citizenship, and nationhood..” While the Civil War ended slavery, death seemingly allowed people to come together to honor the dead. Death also appears to have become a more talked about subject. More cemeteries and pension programs were created for both the dead and living. With the large number of deaths, “the modern American Union” was created “by shaping enduring national structures and commitments.” People had to find ways to come together and deal with the deaths throughout the nation.

# data[].attributes.body
I did not know how bloody the Civil War was. It surprised me that the number of people who died was about equal to the total American fatalities in in many other conflicts and war.  I did not know how greatly death took its toll on the nation. So many people lost a family member that it was a shared experience with those who may have been very different. The North and South faced the same things which let the nation work through the outcomes of the war together. I also did not realize how much social views were changed.  Because people were forced to deal with death, an increase in cemeteries were made to honor those who died. It became a more acknowledged topic.

# data[].attributes.body
The violence and scale of death in the Civil War played an enormous part in shaping the experience of the war. The war brought upon a new connection and understanding of death. This is because it was the bloodiest conflict in American history as 620,000 soldiers died. Yet the impact of the violence is grasped beyond the data. Of course, Americans had seen death before, but it was mostly in infant mortality. A new light of death was seen when healthy, young men started to die. Faust writes, “Death’s significance for the Civil War generation arose as well from its violation of prevailing assumptions about life’s proper end–
about who should die, when and where, and under what circumstances.” So, despite American existing in such diverging sides during the war, death actually brought everyone together. All Americans were feeling the impact of death and learning how to live with it together. The violence compelled all Americans to revisit life values and meanings.  

# data[].attributes.body
I learned about the impact that death had on bringing the nation together. Sadly, in history, it is revealed that it takes horrific events to bring such a divided nation together; take 9/11 for example. After the Civil War, Americans too were able to come together under a shared experience of death. We learn much about the Emancipation Proclamation and new laws as a result of the war. Yet is interesting to think about how much the effect of death conducted change within the people as American’s were revisiting their life morals and values. I also was surprised about the sheer facts of the war and comprehending just how bloody it was. This made me wonder about the American people’s perspective on future wars as this new experience of death changed the whole country.

# data[].attributes.body
Although many people do not focus on the role of death when studying or remembering the Civil War, death and violence are crucial factors in shaping the lives of American people during and after the war. Death was a shared experience among the Americans of the nineteenth century, from the North and South. While many think the war only killed the young and healthy men fighting in battles, the violence also killed civilians making the war even more devastating. Even though these deaths were oftentimes not documented, the battles would carry through farms, rioters would target innocent people, troops spread epidemics, and the lack of food in the south resulted in starvation. Not only did Americans have to mourn the losses of their friends and family, this scale of death made them question their faith and their commitment to the war. As well, it challenged their ideas about the value and meaning of life and how life should come to an end. While the amount of deaths was overwhelming, these experiences shaped the society, culture, and politics in America today.

# data[].attributes.body
After the war, death became a concept that was grieved, yet widely accepted. Due to the war, 620,000 soldiers died, and American society was left to adjust this great loss. Death on such a large scale made it a commonality across America and Faust writes that, “By the midpoint of the conflict, it seemed that in the South, ‘nearly every household mourns some loved one lost.’ Loss became commonplace; death was no longer encountered individually; death’s threat, its proximity, and its actuality became the most widely shared of the war’s experiences.” People had to figure out how to live and manage without the men who died, and this not only impacted society, but also Americans’ views on death. Americans were forced to adjust their ideals on how/why/when death occurs and had to reconsider how great of a presence death had. They began to see death head on and realized its extreme impact on society as a whole as well as on individuals. However, the mass amount of death and violence almost brought people together, and related them in a new way. American society brought people together as, like Faust says, “a republic of suffering” and united people with common experiences and suffering.

# data[].attributes.body
The role of violence and the scale of death contributed to the overall American experience during and after the war. During the years 1861 -1865 alone, around 620,000 lives were lost, with 1 in 5 men not surviving the war. Described as the "harvest of death", the war affected both sides roughly equally, killing anyone who stood in the path of the other side. In a someone morbid sense, death became something that was normalized, something that almost formed communities and culture. People would often bond over that shared experience of loss, seeing that it affected most of the population. This lead to an overall change in culture, allowing for different bonds to be formed, a different definition of death and loss, and a new mentality on war in general.

# data[].attributes.body
I was really surprised that the amount of American soldiers that died during the Civil War is equal to the amount of soldiers that died in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American war, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined. Even though the Union was divided at the time, people from the North and the South were connected through their similar experiences with death. Even though the nation had split opinions on the meanings of race, equality, citizenship, and nationalism, they were connected through the same form of suffering. It is interesting that Americans had to change their views regarding who should die, but also when and how they should die because of the shift from a high infant mortality rate to half a million Americans dying in a war. I found all this interesting and I have never thought about the Civil War in this way before.

# data[].attributes.headline
The role of violence and the scale of death contributed to the overall American experience during and after the war. During the years 1861 -1865 alone, around 620,000 lives were lost, with 1 in 5 men not surviving the war. Described as the "harvest of death", the war affected both sides roughly equally, killing anyone who stood in the path of the other side. In a someone morbid sense, death became something that was normalized, something that almost formed communities and culture. People would often bond over that shared experience of loss, seeing that it affected most of the population. This lead to an overall change in culture, allowing for different bonds to be formed, a different definition of death and loss, and a new mentality on war in general. 

# data[].attributes.subject
The role of violence and the scale of death contributed to the overall American experience during and after the war. During the years 1861 -1865 alone, around 620,000 lives were lost, with 1 in 5 men not surviving the war. Described as the "harvest of death", the war affected both sides roughly equally, killing anyone who stood in the path of the other side. In a someone morbid sense, death became something that was normalized, something that almost formed communities and culture. People would often bond over that shared experience of loss, seeing that it affected most of the population. This lead to an overall change in culture, allowing for different bonds to be formed, a different definition of death and loss, and a new mentality on war in general. 

# data[].attributes.body
I am shocked by the fact that the number of deaths during the 1861-1865 period of the war was equal to "approximately the total American fatalities in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined." I am absolutely appalled that so many people lost their lives over the war, especially since when it comes down to it, half of them lost it trying to defend slavery and state rights, a useless endeavor since it is wrong by principal. I find it interesting that it is this death that brought the country together again, over the destruction that they themselves caused one another.

# data[].attributes.body
I thought that one of the most interesting facts in the excerpt was the death toll comparisons between various wars. In the beginning of the except, Faust writes, “The number of soldiers who died between 1861 and 1865, an estimated 620,000, is approximately equal to the total American fatalities in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined. The Civil War’s rate of death, its incidence in comparison with the size of the American population, was six times that of World War II.” I had not known that more soldiers died in the Civil War than seven other wars combined. I also thought it was surprising to learn how much American came together as a result of all the death and violence going on. Everyone was grieving and feeling the effects of the war and every aspect of society was impacted. I think it is interesting to read about how people’s mindsets about death changed so greatly too. Death became rampant during the war, casualties were recorded at a new level that people were not used to. Since everyone was going through similar experiences, they could relate to one another in a way that had not been able to before, no matter their race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, or geographic location.

# data[].attributes.body
I think it is easy to brush over post-war details and the actual rebuilding of the union. From a historical perspective, deaths are really easy to think of as numbers. However, this article brought my attention to how the actual death and tragedy of the war was what truly brought the country back together. I had never really considered the details of rebuilding and I had never thought about the different personal impacts that it had on people at the time. Additionally, I was extremely surprised by the magnitude of deaths; one in five white southern men of military age died. I had no idea how much I had previously minimized this war.

# data[].attributes.body
The Civil War was a unique experience for American warfare both by the number of casualties, as well as by the percent of population who died. The 620,000 deaths rival the combined total of all other American armed conflicts. These deaths would shape not only the lives lost in battle, but also those of their families, as well as their societies, as the large number of men who died created gender imbalances. Additionally, it was not only soldiers who were at risk--women, children, and civilians were  often caught up in the conflict. American ideas about death were challenged: while the infant mortality rate was high, it was expected that those who survived past infancy would generally live to "at least middle age," however, the war killed or disabled many young people. In response to the war's immense casualties, the United States created social programs and formed new ideas about combat. In a pure sense, Americans were forced to think about life and its meaning, and death and its meaning, in the face of huge loss.

# data[].attributes.body
Both the North and South experienced an extreme scale of death and violence during the Civil War with 620,000 soldiers dead between 1861 and 1865. The sheer size of this carnage shaped the experience of Americans during and after the war. Before the Civil War, no American had “ever lived and faced death in such a time, with its peculiar conditions and necessities”. The fear of death created a new outlook on Christianity and the afterlife as a way of peace for soldiers in the war, or for people who had lost someone. Further, the universal suffering in America created social and cultural changes (such as wives losing their spouses or African Americans hoping to win their freedom through fighting in the war), and caused the North and South to come together and become a more united republic once again.

# data[].attributes.body
I found the postwar societal impact of the huge number of deaths compelling. I would not have thought, although in hindsight it seems obvious, that the huge casualty count of the Civil War would shape conceptions of life and death and force consideration of religion, coping, unity, and mortality.

# data[].attributes.body
Prior to the war, Americans had strong constructs around who should die, and when. However, they lost many young, healthy men (and even civilians) who were not in that construct. This left them with an assortment of questions not only surrounding slavery, but also around religion and humanity. In this time of great uncertainty, many people began to question and look for answers about some sort of afterlife and the separation of body and soul. Each side experienced these same unknowns and the same grievances of the massive amount of death. In turn, the war and post-war experiences ended up shaping a common American identity. The Union and the Confederacy may not have agreed on issues such as slavery or tarriffs, but the massive loss brought up an issue that seemed to trump their disagreements: their actual humanity. In this way, the great loss actually helped construct a “unified” post war America.

# data[].attributes.body
Although I knew that the amount of carnage during the Civil War was substantial, I was still extremely surprised by the statistics and comparisons that highlighted just how extensive the scale of death was. I had no idea that the number of American soldiers dead between 1861 and 1865 was about equal to “the total American fatalities in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, and the Korean War combined”. Not only had I never fully realized the scale of death during the Civil War, but I did not know that all the deaths helped to reunite the North and South. Additionally, I found it interesting that the amount of deaths, and the fear of it, shaped the ideas about Christianity and the afterlife as a way to cope.

# data[].attributes.body
The amount of violence that took place and the deaths caused by the war changed both the experiences and impact of the war. As only Americans were involved, deaths on either side were a loss to the country. In just four years, over 600,000 American lives were lost at the hands of other Americans. Because of this, after the war, the union and the confederacy were joined in their grieving, and able to become a united nation once again. This also caused people to rethink their morality and religion, and how they view death. Specifically, more focus was placed on the afterlife creating a sense of comfort, knowing that many soldiers would die.

# data[].attributes.body
I did not know how incredibly devastating the war was. Today, 620,000 American deaths would be considered horrific. Considering how much smaller the population was, one can imagine the devastation was even greater. I also was unaware of how much of a role religion played in how both soldiers and civilians coped with the death and destruction caused. Though I was not surprised by the emphasis placed on the afterlife during the war, I had not considered how important it would be to soldiers and their loved ones, especially with how bloody the war was.

# data[].attributes.body
The Civil war was extremely deadly and killed over 600,000  soldiers The violence that surrounded Americans during this time caused them to reevaluate their perception of death and become more desensitized to violence. The trauma extended far beyond the soldiers and commanders who fought in the war. Families were forced to mourn the deaths of sons and husbands as a significant portion, including 1 in 5 southern men,  of the young male population were killed during the war. With death all around them, many Americans began to question their faith and what would happen to their loved one's spirits. If nothing else, the shared trauma of Americans during this time fostered a sense of community and national identity.

# data[].attributes.body
I was surprised to learn that the Civil war was so much more deadly than World War I and II. I also learned that the Civil war was the reason national cemeteries were created. The most surprising fact, however, was the amount of violence and it's affect on Americans during the war. I was shocked to read about the way soldiers were forced to dispose of mangled bodies in mass graves. The impact of that many deaths hit me when I read about how the war affected an entire generation of men.

# data[].attributes.body
With a soaring and unrivaled death toll amassing over 600,000 casualties, the American Civil War’s impacts were inescapable. Unlike any other period in American history before it, Americans experienced first hand what it was like to send their children off to war and understand that they had a one in five chance of being murdered on the battlefield. This was not the only risk, however. Anyone near conflict-zones in the Civil War was at risk. The death toll from the Civil War also included civilian casualties, many of whom died burning in their own homes. Average life spans were lowered, and there could be no promise of safety during this period. Until this point, there was no event in American history comparably catastrophic, and with that, the event had massive influence on every person in America every second.

# data[].attributes.body
I found it utterly shocking to see just how many people died in comparison to other wars. The fact that almost every major American political conflict combined resulted in fewer deaths than the Civil War is jaw-dropping. I was also floored when I read about the role of bodies in the war and how they were disposed of. It surprises me that it took the complete and total destruction of the South in order for the confederate army to surrender due to all the bloodshed that had already occurred.

# data[].attributes.body
Because this was such a deadly war, with such large amounts of death, many Americans had experienced great trauma from sending their loved ones to the war, and then often times mourning their death. 1 in every 5 young southern male had died, which was a staggering number. Because of the sheer numbers of deaths, Americans started questioning what their faith looked like, and their meaning of death and sacrifice. There was a focus on afterlife in religion, and what would happen to the dead. Since so many people were going through similar things in terms of what they were going through, there was a real sense of community and national identity which began to foster.

# data[].attributes.body
I found it extremely interesting and suprising that the civil war fostered a sense of national identity and community. I would have thought that the remaining tensions about slavery, and the south being butthurt that they lost, would have fractured the country even more. I was also very surprised to learn that the confederates refused to surrender, and thats how dedicated they were to the cause of slavery. It took a destruction of the south for them to surrender.

# data[].attributes.body
Despite death and premature mortality still being a fairly common aspect of life in the mid nineteenth century, the sheer magnitude of the loss of life challenged Americans' perception of the war on many fronts. The carnage of the war, as well as the reports from the field of the mamed and dismembered highlighted a shift the author described as, “In Civil War death the distinction between men and animals threatened to disappear,” and it was especially horrific that it was men in the prime of their lives that suffered the heaviest casualties..This shift caused Widows and families began to question the notions of ordinary and noble death, the war itself and possibly their own religious beliefs around death. The excerpt highlights that the initial reaction and view of the war is far different from the way it is interpreted today, and it was a view that was dominated by the grief and loss of the war. The collective national experience of grief was unifier amongst the people of America and the author describes the attitude towards death in America “Sacrifice and the state became inextricably intertwined,” as each individual family had sacrificed for the preservation of the union, and to rectify that the government created the most sweeping outreach and compensation programs to date. It was these developments that shaped the immediate aftermath of the war for the average American, as questions of race and economics were not able to be considered before first addressing the loss of over half a million men, women and children.

# data[].attributes.body
One thing that greatly interested me was considering the questions of the short term ramifications of the war. Oftentimes when learning and thinking about the war and its aftermath, little is focused on the impact on the home front of each side. The societal impact of such immense death on society is a subject that I had never considered, but it made me think that the unity achieved by the shared experience of death makes me think that it may have allowed for a more sympathetic and noble recount of events. The country reunified immediately after the end of the war, and it is natural to assume that by the end many North and South people alike began to see death as a collective experience in the creation of a “Republic of Suffering” which could have contributed to a romanticization of the southern cause. The excerpt’s examination of the concept of death in war as ‘work’  as a transactional relationship of cause in effect was jarring, as it forces one to consider the undertaking that is required for it to occur but also recover from on an individual and national scale. Millions of men participated as willing executioners, thousands endured death, but the most enduring and forgotten aspect is the loved ones and nation as a whole left behind to handle and reconcile with the extraordinary loss of 620,000 men.

# data[].attributes.headline
Violence and the scale of death shaped Americans during and after the war by introducing new questions and gaps in the structure of the nation. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Violence and the scale of death shaped Americans during and after the war by introducing new questions and gaps in the structure of the nation. 

# data[].attributes.body
Violence and the scale of death shaped the experience of Americans during and after the Civil War by introducing new ideas about death and exposing areas where the government was lacking. The Civil War resulted in 62,000 deaths, accounting for a loss of roughly 2% of the nation. These lives lost are not exclusive to soldiers in battle, as the effects of the war reached into civilian life, bringing deaths due to warfare, food shortages, and disease epidemics. No one in America had witnessed this kind of death and destruction before the war, leaving many shocked and hopeless at the terrible things they had experienced.  Part of the shock that came with the loss of life was the age at which most died. Although death was not an uncommon occurrence at the time, it was believed that those who survived childhood would make it to old age. As the soldiers were young, able-bodied men in the prime of their lives, many began to question death. Additionally, the idea of fighting for ideals such as union, citizenship, freedom, and dignity complicated the concept of sacrifice as it related to serving in the war. The immense numbers of deaths resulted in a need for government intervention to take care of those who had died in service. This extended the powers of the federal government beyond what they had been up to that point in time. Overall, violence and death shaped the experience of Americans by changing the shared presumptions about death, sacrifice, and government responsibility.

# data[].attributes.body
While reading the article, one aspect that stuck out to me the most was the sheer quantity of lives lost. At that point in history, a mass loss like that of the Civil War was unprecedented, leaving those who survived questioning death. The article emphasizes this quantity by stating that the Civil War had more casualties than the total American fatalities in the Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War, Spanish-American War, both World Wars, and the Korean War combined. The consequences of the war left America in a widespread state of mourning, leaving many to examine their beliefs about death. This was surprising to me as I hadn’t thought about the effect that death of this scale had on the nation. Even though America was fighting itself, Americans were still fighting each other, meaning every loss on either side was a deficit in the nation.

# data[].attributes.body
Before reading this passage I had not considered how the mass destruction that the civil war caused might have affected american’s perception of religion, and how it related to their bodies. Because of the carnage of the war, bodies would often literally pile up in a horrible display. One observer described the bodies as “in bunches, just like dead chickens”. Christians had religious connections to their human bodies, and each Crhistain believed their body and soul had a direct connection to god. But during the civil war, the carnage became animalistic. Bodies piled up like slaughtered livestock, and it became harder and harder to solidify the idea that each discarded arm and limb had divine meaning and connection. Although it was believed that the soul would live eternally in the afterlife, there was an expectation that one the day of judgement, those who were good children of god would be restored in their bodies. This became difficult to accept when soldiers saw their fellow man’s mutilated body.

# data[].attributes.body
During the civil war, death became something that was dreaded, but never distant. It was a possibility that loomed over every American’s head as violence roared during the war. In the span of 1861-1865 there were an estimated 620,000 fatalities, which is “approximately equal to the total American fatalities in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined”. There were also a lot of civilian deaths not included in this total, caused by brutal guerilla warfare, food shortages, and disease. Unlike previous wars that America had been involved in, this one was on their own soil, and there was no escaping the war. It was not only soldiers who feared for their lives because conflict could occur anywhere. One in five white southern men did not survive the war, and grieving became a routine part of everyday life. Drew Gilpin Faust claims that “Loss became commonplace; death was no longer encountered individually; death’s threat, its proximity, and its actuality became the most widely shared of the war’s experiences”. While in our studies in American history we might view the Civil War through the lens of political strife and conflict about slavery, but for many at the time it was just a time of desperation for the death to cease.