Confedrates in the attic

Tony Horwitz in the book, â€Å"Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches of an Unfinished Civil War† travels throughout the south following the path of the Civil War he meets many people interesting and different people and visits the cities and towns along the path of the Civil War there are many themes throughout the book, but the two I found most important were Reality, and The Life of a Solider. The reason I choose these as my most important topics are because I feel it is necessary to understand the reality of the Civil War and to do that understanding the life of a solider is necessary.During Horwitz' travels one of the first things he learns is that the reenactments are not as easy and fun as he had expected, however there are people who have the same love as Horwitz but do not take Reenactment's as seriously, â€Å"We try to be authentic, but no one wants to eat rancid bacon and lie in the mud all night. This is a hobby, not a religion† (Horwitz 130). The life of a soldier in the 1860's was difficult and for the thousands of young Americans who left home it was an experience none of them would ever forget.The average reinactor was male thirty-four, and did this for fun, so magine how harsh it was for an eighteen year-old drafted solider to leave home and eat rancid bacon and lie in the mud all night. â€Å"Soldiers would carry their cards, dice, writing utensils, letters, and other necessary goods for passing time in their haversacks. Soldier often had to carry these supplies as well as several other things that they needed with them at all times. The types and amounts of supplies available to these soldiers depended on the resources of their armies. â€Å"( Capman and Jankoviak 9).Here the textbooks goal is to make students aware of what the reality of a solider as carrying the personal with them twenty-four/seven. Racial Tensions in the civil war Throughout the Civil War racial tensions grew exponentially, this was not a very good thing f or African American soldiers either fighting with the north or being forced to fght with the south. Getting a Haircut in the army â€Å"The Union and Confederate armies were haphazardly raised, badly organized, poorly trained, inadequately fed, clothed and housed, and almost wholly without comforts, sports, entertainments or proper medical care†(Commerger 1).Im one of ommerger's articles he writes about getting a haircut during the Civil War something that seams so normal to any of us but at camp Cameron there was only one person who knew how to cut hair, one time a man came running through the camp screaming,† The Yankees are coming! † and right there in the middel of his haircut they picked up their weapons and marched into War. How The Civil War Soldiers Marched No hardships were harder than the marching The roads were dusty in the summerand muddy in the winter; the soldiers were dressed in heavy wool, loaded own with fifty or sixty pounds of equipment, often w ithout food for most of the day.It is no wonder that straggling was almost universal, or that thousands of men fell out of line and got lost. It is difficult to know whether the Confederate or the Federal soldiers suffered most from marching. More Confederates than Federals were country bred, and theretore more accustomed to cross-country hiking; on the other hand the Confederacy was low on shoes, and there are any number of stories of Southern soldiers marching barefoot, even in the winter months.