Reflective Essay: The First Vietnam War

Many individual soldier’s stories also demonstrate the resilience of either side, showing how unwilling they were to give up, and stop fighting, until absolutely necessary. Even John Hay’s efforts to get Florida to join upcoming United States political gatherings, show the unwavering pursuit for unity from the Union’s side.

The article “Hayfoot, Strawfoot!” was published on April 1957 in the American Heritage magazine. It was written by a well known Civil War historian, Bruce Catton, who also won a Pulitzer Prize and Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in the field of history. In this article, Catton covered various aspects of the Civil War experience through the point of views of the mostly amateur soldiers, and how that contributed to the soldiers’ fortitude.

Through “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the soldiers standing, watching as everything goes on around them, are not able to stop what is happening. The soldiers represent the unforgiving nature of war.

Company Aytch, a memoir written by Sam Watkins, tells the personal tale of a lowly private fighting four long years in the American Civil War. Watkins was from Columbia, Tennessee, and was a part of Company H, 1st Tennessee Infantry. He recounts his military career in chronological order, from before the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 to the day the Confederacy surrendered at Nashville in 1865. Watkins is a humble writer, often reminds the reader that he is not aiming to provide a comprehensive account of the entire war, but rather a collection of personal stories. Military history books often recount the lives of generals and of great strategies, but this book insists that history should not exclude the common men who filled the ranks of the military.

Americans had been engaged in a Civil War which had been begun in April of 1861 with shots fired on a fort in South Carolina. In the summer of 1863 in a small town called Gettysburg, there would be a fierce battle fought between the Union Army of the Potomac led by General George G. Meade and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee. The events of the battle would overcome the losses suffered by the Union and put the Confederacy on the run. “Over 165,000 men would converge, and before the fighting ended, the ground would run red with blood. The battle was fierce, and the casualties proved it. But the casualties that resulted would not be in vain, at least for the Union; the formidable power

In the middle 1960s, every male in America had to register for Selective Service Draft at age 18. He would then be eligible for the draft and could be inducted into the Army for a period of two years. If you were a college student, you could receive a deferment and would be able to finish college without the fear of being drafted. However, once finished with college, a students name would be put to the very top of the draft list and could be deployed at anytime. The anti-war movement was about young men being drafted and then sent into war that most Americans did not believe threatened the security of the US. The Vietnam War was America’s rebellious war, a war without popular support

On July 4, 1865 in Savannah, Georgia, the 22nd Iowa mustered out of federal service after a reading of the Declaration of Independence and Emancipation Proclamation. That afternoon, in the aftermath of this explicitly patriotic commemoration of the new improved United States: the encapsulation of the Republican ideal of the conflict as a struggle to reassert the promise of the Revolution, Taylor Peirce, the fervent abolitionist, watched as a mob of townspeople and drunken Union soldiers, some of them perhaps his own comrades, assault the city’s black fire brigade as it paraded in celebration of the nation’s triumph. Once hopeful for his dream of a new South,

In “Company Aytch,” Sam R. Watkins first wrote this book to describe his experience at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, in 1864. As a soldier in Company H of the First Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, CSA, Watkins witnessed the panorama of war in grand scale as he marched and fought with the hard luck Confederate Army of Tennessee across the Western Theater. His honest, vivid, and dramatic memoir, published in the 1880s, is a classic that conveys the horrors, humor, and realism of the Civil War, and the firsthand experience of being in this war

The Civil War devastated families all across the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people died and for many years after, the nation was still divided and trying to figure out how to move forward. Irene Hunt learned of stories of the Civil War from her grandfather who served in the Civil War. Hunt’s book, Across Five Aprils, relates to her childhood because this novel is nothing but a story of the war from one family. This book hit home hard and revealed concepts of realism by examining the effects the war had on everyday life.

Civil War historians view the Battle of Chancellorsville as General Robert E. Lee’s “greatest and most remarkable” victory (Sears 1). Lee, facing an army twice his size, defies all military doctrine and divides his army multiple times in order to out-maneuver and surprise the Union forces. The daring maneuver succeeds and ultimately forces the Union’s Army of the Potomac to retreat. The victory was another major blow to Union troops, but it came at a huge cost to the Confederacy: the loss of General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. By evaluating the battle through the lens of the mission command activities, one can see how Lee’s daring maneuver was actually very calculated and his only option for victory. Throughout the rest of this paper, I will describe the timeline of the battle and how General Lee used the mission command activities of understand, visualize, assess, and lead to ultimately achieve victory at Chancellorsville.

After several volleys, I received notice from Lieutenant James H. Nichols, commander of Company K of the 20th and Major Ellis Spears, commander of the left wing of the 20th Maine, and a messenger sent by Captain Orpheus S. Woodward, commanding officer of the 83rd Pennsylvania, of some suspicious flanking movement by the Confederate forces . I climbed up on a large boulder and saw that while three left companies of the enemy were keeping a steady rate of fire along the front, several were moving to the left end of our men. To avoid being flanked, I ordered my companies to side-step paces to the left and Companies A, H, C, G, and the F, the Colors Company to refuse to the left at a right angle, doubling the original regimental front .

In the work, And Keep Moving On, Mark Grimsley presents a study on the Virginia Campaign that is both pleasant in readability and substantial in material. While numerous historians and enthusiast have covered the Civil War, Grimsley’s work offers clear and distinct coverage that assists the reader in identifying the political backdrop to the conflict and a play-by-play report of military tactics. He remains fair to both Grant and Lee as he takes the scholar through Battles such as Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and The Wilderness. As this is one book in a collection, Great Campaigns of the Civil War, dedicated to the war as a whole, Grimsley’s focus remains set to a short period of six weeks beginning in May of 1864.

While thinking about an upcoming battle Robert E. Lee ponders the battle plan. He remembers when he was in the Union and thinks on his

With the Emerstarians just across the Aarons River, River Point was the next obstacle in their path. The West Vanian General at River Point was extremely mad at Commander Mason's performance at Ventier and assigned him to a defensive position. They couldn't risk another loss on the front. As for the average soldier at River Point, they were commanded to patrol, dig trenches, and strengthen defenses. Sergeant Rick Ianson was overseeing the soldiers and laborers work on digging the trenches and piling up the sandbags. When one of the patrol groups were walking in front of the forest one of the officers said while pointing his gun at the shadow, "Did you see that?" Another officer replied saying, "It's probably just a deer or something." "you're probably right." "yeah, I am. Now let's move on."

In the 1950's, the United States had begun to send troops to Vietnam and during the following 25-year period, the ensuing war would create some of the strongest tensions in US history. Almost 3 million US men and women were sent thousands of miles to fight for what was a questionable cause. In total, it is estimated that over 2 million people on both sides were killed.