Billy Yank and Johnny Reb

A lesson created by Michael Hutchison for the PBS Civil War series, 2002

Introduction:

While most people know the major generals of the Civil War, and names like Grant, Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and McClellan are famous, ordinary soldiers did the brunt of the fighting and dying, but most are unknown.

Two such soldiers who became “household words” as a result of the Civil War series were Elisha Hunt Rhodes, a Union soldier who fought with the 2^nd Rhode Island Volunteers, and Sam Watkins, a Confederate soldier who served in Company H, First Tennessee Infantry. Both either kept diaries of their experiences or wrote memoirs about the war, and their writings were used extensively in the series.

In this activity, students will analyze recollections of both Rhodes and Watkins, and make conclusions about those recollections.

Standards:

This lesson addresses the following national content standards established by the Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). (http://www.mcrel.org/standards-benchmarks/):

History Standards:

• Understands the technological, social, and strategic aspects of the Civil War (e.g., the impact of innovations in military technology; turning points of the war; leaders of the Confederacy and Union; conditions, characteristics, and armies of the Confederacy and Union; major areas of Civil War combat)

• Understands issues other than slavery that led to the Civil War (e.g., the appeal of the Northern "free labor")

• Understands the impact of the Civil War on social and gender issues (e.g., the roles of women on the home front and on the battlefield; the human and material costs of the war; the degree to which the war united the nation; how it changed the lives of women, men, and children)

Related resources for this lesson:

Sam Watkins recollections can be found online at http://www.geocities.com/1stdragoon/files/soldier_watkins.html. This page is part of a larger web site of Civil War heroes, located at http://www.geocities.com/1stdragoon/index.html.

Elisha Hunt Rhodes’ writing can be found at http://www.vcsc.k12.in.us/staff/mhutchison/ice2000/life.htm. (Note: The Rhodes accounts are excerpted from All For The Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes (edited by Robert Hunt Rhodes, Orion Books, 1985). The teacher may wish to supplement the accounts listed in the web page with the more complete versions in All For The Union.)

(Special note: Rhodes describes African Americans in terms that were common descriptions of blacks in the mid 19^th Century, especially in the section “Upon Arriving in Washington, D.C.” Prior to using this segment, the teacher may wish to discuss how terms used to describe African Americans have changed over the years.)

Strategy for the lesson:

The teacher might wish to start with a quick overview of the role of common soldiers in the war, including, if possible, other examples of Civil War letters, diaries, or other correspondence. A good reference that may be used is Andrew Carroll’s War Letters, which includes correspondence for several major American wars, including the Civil War. (Note: War Letters was the focus of an American Experience presentation, which the teacher may wish to have the class view to compare letters from different eras. The companion web site for the presentation is located at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/warletters/index.html.)

Next, the teacher can either distribute photocopies of the two soldiers’ recollections, or direct students to read them online. In addition, the teacher should distribute copies of the question sheet. Students will analyze the two accounts and answer the questions. (Note: suggested answers are provided.)

After the students complete the question sheets, the teacher can evaluate them based on individual criteria.

Extension Activity:

Direct students to read Sullivan Ballou’s letter to his wife. (The letter is recited during the Civil War series, is also printed in the accompanying book, and can also be found online at http://www.jayandmolly.com/ballouletter.shtml. The letter is of reasonable length, and may either be printed for student copies if desired, or may be recited by the teacher or a student.)

Ask students to assume they are readying themselves to participate in a Civil War battle in the near future. They should write a letter to someone about their thoughts and concerns preparing for battle. (Suggestions for to whom the letter could be addressed include parents, best friend, other family members, or a fictitious wife or husband.)

The teacher may evaluate these letters based on individual criteria.

Question Sheet for Billy Yank and Johnny Reb

Instructions: Read the two sets of recollections by Elisha Hunt Rhodes and Sam Watkins. Then, answer the questions below.

1. Both Rhodes and Watkins were common soldiers with unique perspectives on the Civil War. How does Watkins view the “lot of the common soldier”?

He says a private soldier is but an automation, a machine that works by the command of a good, bad, or indifferent engineer, and is presumed to know nothing of all these great events. His business is to… perhaps die in the field of battle.

Later in the Watkins reading, he notes that “ a soldier’s life is not a pleasant one. It is always, at best, one of privations and hardships.” Students may find other similar quotes in the reading that they may feel answers the question.

2. In Rhodes’ account, it is mentioned that he would have enlisted earlier except for what reason? What happened that allowed him to finally join the 2^nd Rhode Island Volunteers?

Rhodes’ mother was widowed, and she had begged him to stay home. Eventually, she came to his room, Rhodes recounts, “with a spirit worthy of a Spartan mother of old”, and said “My son, other mothers must make sacrifices and why should not I? If you feel that it is your duty to enlist, I will give my consent.”

3. Frequently, a soldier’s life is drudgery and boredom, but during battle, it became extremely busy and dangerous. Compare how Rhodes describes battle and how Watkins describes a battle. In what ways are their descriptions similar? How are they different?

Answers vary. Both Watkins and Rhodes are frequently fairly descriptive about the weapons used, but probably less descriptive about specific battle casualties. Watkins tends to be more “poetic” about battle fatalities in general (such as in Watkins’ description of “The Weariness of a Long March”), but Rhodes is somewhat more “matter of fact”, reporting about the numbers of dead and wounded, the types of weapons being fired, etc.

4. While Watkins does not mention if he visited Richmond, or saw Jefferson Davis, Rhodes mentions his traveling to Washington, and seeing Lincoln. How does he describe the city of Washington? How does he describe Lincoln?

He notes that he has arrived in Washington, and “what a city!” adding, “mud pigs, Negroes, palaces, shanties everywhere.”

Upon seeing Lincoln, Rhodes noted, “He looks like a good, honest man, and I trust that with God’s help, he can bring our country safely out of its peril.”

5. After the Battle of Chickamauga, Watkins reported, “Dying on the field of battle and glory is about the easiest duty a soldier has to undergo. It is the living, marching, fighting, shooting soldier that has the hardships of war to carry… The dead are heroes, the living but men compelled to do the drudgery and suffer the privations incident to the thing called “glorious war.” How does this observation reflect the views of the common soldier? How does it not reflect those views?

Answers vary. Some students may note, based on this reading, but also from viewing segments of the series, or other readings, that after casualty lists from other battles became known, most soldiers took a fatalistic attitude. The numbers of casualties at battles such as Gettysburg and Antietam were so high, that some soldiers simply felt they would not survive.

On the other hand, some may note that the instinct to survive may outweigh the fatalistic attitude. Both Rhodes and Watkins seem to be less resigned to their own death as to the deaths of others in their respective units.

6. Watkins reported in his memoirs that he always thought of officers as “harmless personages”, adding that he always “shot at privates”. Why did he have this philosophy?

It was his view that privates did most of the fighting, and killing, in the war. Therefore, if he killed a private, he was killing someone who might be more likely to try to kill him. If he killed an officer, there wasn’t the same threat. So, he only shot at officers from “long range”.

7. In Watkins’ account, he spends some time discussing foraging for food, specifically “roasting ears” (ears of corn). Why would this be something that Watkins might want to include in his memoirs?

Answers vary. Watkins may have felt this was a good example of how soldiers would go to extraordinary measures to get ordinary food, such as corn. Most soldiers (on both sides) suffered with food that was less than delicious, so the opportunity to get anything that had a good flavor, or hadn’t been spoiled, or reminded them of home, was worth any risk or any amount of trouble.

8. Toward the end of the passages by Rhodes, he writes about the surrender of Lee to Grant at Appomattox Court House, in April 1865. Speculate as to why Watkins doesn’t mention this in the excerpts from his book. Describe Rhodes’ feelings about this event as he reports them.

Answers to the first question vary. There could be any number of factors why Watkins doesn’t mention this. The most obvious is that the Watkins readings are “selected” by a third party, and they may be somewhat biased toward the South over the Union in this regard. In his original memoirs, Watkins may have mentioned the surrender, but the historian who selected these excerpts may have felt it wasn’t important to include those passages. Another possible answer may be that Watkins, like many other Confederate soldiers, may have simply been embarrassed to think they were defeated by the “Yankees”.

Rhodes’ feelings include obvious joy, but also thankfulness to God that the surrender has occurred. He notes phrases such as “Glory to God in the Highest, Peace on Earth, good will toward men!” He also notes “I cried and laughed by turns. I was never so happy in my life.”

9. Rhodes writes in his diary about his hearing about Lincoln’s assassination, noting that “… President Lincoln was dead, murdered… we cannot realize that our President is dead.” How does Rhodes’ statement reflect how many Northerners must have felt about Lincoln’s death? Speculate how southerners generally felt about the news that Lincoln was dead?

Probably most Northerners would have expressed shock and despair that Lincoln would have died just as the Union celebrated victory in the war. There would also be a great deal of concern about how the post-war period would have been run if Lincoln was not in command. (The teacher may wish to compare this to public opinion in the hours and days after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945, just as victory in Europe in World War II was about to be achieved.)

Answers would vary for the second question. Most likely some Southerners would have rejoiced that Lincoln was dead, but probably not many. More Southerners may have felt genuine sadness that the leader who won the war, and who they looked to also to unite the nation, died as the victim of an assassin’s bullet. Also, they may have been fearful regarding what sort of retribution awaited the former Confederacy now that Lincoln, who had promised lenient terms for the South, was dead, especially at the hand of a Confederate sympathizer.

10. Assume it is 1885, twenty years after the end of the Civil War. Both Elisha Hunt Rhodes and Sam Watkins have been invited to a reunion of Civil War soldiers to discuss their respective views and writings on the war. Which one of the two views do you think most people at that time would have accepted as more historically accurate and objective? Why? Which of the two views would most think more accurate and objective in the early 21^st Century? Explain your answers.

Answers will vary depending on the background information provided and the amount of research students may have done in these accounts (as well as others).

Some students may see Watkins’ views as better mainly because of his insights into the emotional angle of the common soldier. Others may believe Rhodes would be more legitimate because he was on the winning side.