About: Face!

Everybody has a story. Especially those who are fighting to preserve their specific way of life. It's easy  to group all the soldiers together amongst the thousands in his brigade and think about the Army. That's where textbooks teach war incorrectly. They show the numbers and the size of men at war, but they never talk about the one boy from Alabama fighting to protect his home. It's a very human reaction, and we do this every day without even thinking about it. We glance at someone and see everything besides the man. I'll prove it to you:

  What do you see when you see this soldier? Be honest; do you see the uniform? The cannon? The gun? I'm sure some would see the tree first.....Did you see his face? This Union soldier has a name, Private D.W.C. Arnold. What do you think the initials stand for? He has a story, but many wouldn't--at first--notice him. 
How about this young man? I'd like you to meet Private Emory Eugene Kingin. He's not wearing a uniform, but still we just knew he was a soldier. Can you see his eyes? Can you look him in the eye? He looks scared; anxious, worried, fearful. I keep saying that war is personal, and this is exactly what I'm talking about. War isn't about the battles and strategies, (though they're important...) they're about this man from Michigan trying to live his life the best he can, and fighting for his world to stay together. War is the face of a soldier. 

 War is personal. War is about individual faces, the particular men whose lives were changed and who changed others' lives. That's why I called this article "About: Face!". It's all about looking at people for what they really are. About face is actually an Army term; meaning to turn clockwise 180 degrees. Get it, a play on words? 

This is Newton Scott, a private from Iowa. He was just 21 when he enlisted (1862) in the Iowa volunteers. He served as a clerk in the war, and he wrote back and forth with a friend, Hannah Cone, through the whole war. In his letters, he shows the war through a country boy's eyes. His spelling isn't perfect, and he admits multiple times that his handwriting and letter writing skills are lacking. But he pours himself out in his own way, speaking of his fears, boredom, and even  for news of his girlfriend (who later married some "Cavalry boy" without waiting for Scott to return.) Upon being discharged, he wrote home and said "...And you can tell the Friends of the 36th Iowa vols [volunteers] to cease writing to the boys for we will most Probaly [probably] leave Arkansas for home [soon]..." A year after coming home, he married Hannah Cone, and they had 9 children. He died in 1925, and today he is vividly remembered through his letters to his pen pal, AKA his future wife. 

These examples help us to see that there's more to a man than just which side he's on. We group people together out of instinct, but, in reality, they're just as different as you and me. That's why I love learning about soldiers; they all have stories, differing personalities and different reasons for fighting. History literally means His + story, and though it usually is used to mean God's story, it also could apply to every soldier's story. They all have one; we just have to look them in the face. 

~The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter~Marcus Tullius Cicero 




Sources: 
https://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos/#portraits 

http://www.civilwarletters.com/letters_toc.html#1865