Brother against Brother
June 8, 2011 (Wednesday)
Yesterday I wrote a few paragraphs about the Civil War. Here we are, 150 years after the war began, still talking about it. Doubtless, Americans (and many throughout the world) will be talking and writing about it for centuries yet to come.
One of the great anomalies of the war was the fact that many people had friends and loved ones on the other side. President Lincoln’s own wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, had several relatives who fought for the Confederacy. The phrase, “brother against brother,” has become an oft-repeated description of the fact that friends and family members were often on opposite sides in the conflict.
One such “brother against brother” situation stands out in Civil War history. It is the case of the Crittenden brothers of Kentucky, George and Thomas. Both of them became Major Generals, one with the Union and the other with the Confederacy. Kentucky was a border state, and the people of such states saw their men walk off towards the war in different directions, some with the South and some with the North.
Such situations highlight the human tragedy of the war, Deaths are now counted as more than 600,000. The population of the the United States was 34,000,000 at the time. If the same percentage of citizens were to die today, the number would be well above 5,000,000.
May we never forget the human cost of that war and all the others that have been fought by our own country. I don’t know what the total numbers of dead and wounded are, but in today’s world, civilians must be included in huge numbers also. Millions upon millions of people down through the years have been maimed or killed. Many are alive and suffering mentally and physically today, not to mention that entire families continue to feel the impact of what goes on in the lives of their soldiers.
To quote a man on the news in California a few years back: “Can’t we all just get along?” The answer appears to be, “No.”