Civil War Camp Life

About the Book

The Civil War, the most disastrous war in American history, almost destroyed a generation of young men. Disparities in resources and technology between North and South highlighted the conflict. Haphazardly recruited, inadequately trained, poorly clothed and malnourished they perished in battle. An undisciplined, unskilled corps of soldiers not only faced an enemy, but waged a personal battle for survival. They foraged for food and stole what they could get their hands on. Those who could scrape up money supplemented meager rations provided by travelling sutlers. at exhorbitant prices. Between battles, soldiers, consumed by boredom, wrestled, played games and gambled, Many stooped to excessive gambling, heavy drinking and acts of mischief.. Prostitution thrived, and venereal disease was rampant. . The Civil War united the nation, freed the dispossessed from slavery and gradually moved the country closer to Lincoln’s ideal: “Malice toward none and charity for all.”

About the Author

Gloria Sananes Stein, a freelance journalist and educator has spent 25 years writing articles on subjects from ballerinas, cattle contests and church dinners to Civil War Reenactors and local historians. She is the author of Country Legacy: Lancaster County One-Room Schools, Marguerite: Journey of a Sephardic Woman, and Leaving Fingerprints. She is currently working on a travel guide to Florida’s exotic barrier islands. Stein is the mother of three children and lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Arnold, a photographer.