Interesting piece from Franklin, Tennessee.
It strikes me as interesting that the story emphasizes the fraternization and "comradeship" that soldiers blue and gray engaged in during the campaign. While I'm certain veteran soldiers felt a multiplicity of emotions by the fall of 1864, its unlikely that a deep sense of comradeship toward the enemy was foremost among them. On a side note, I've spoken with two "real sons" and one "real daughter." Only one of the three, Eileen Shouse, didn't appear to promote a thoroughly reconciliatory version of the war. Shouse, whose father joined the 11th Illinois Infantry in 1861 when he was 16, explained to me that she saw the war as "irrepressible" and America's cultural reverence for Confederate "heroes" as "disappointing." She preferred to embrace the Union memory of the war, reunification and emancipation.
It strikes me as interesting that the story emphasizes the fraternization and "comradeship" that soldiers blue and gray engaged in during the campaign. While I'm certain veteran soldiers felt a multiplicity of emotions by the fall of 1864, its unlikely that a deep sense of comradeship toward the enemy was foremost among them. On a side note, I've spoken with two "real sons" and one "real daughter." Only one of the three, Eileen Shouse, didn't appear to promote a thoroughly reconciliatory version of the war. Shouse, whose father joined the 11th Illinois Infantry in 1861 when he was 16, explained to me that she saw the war as "irrepressible" and America's cultural reverence for Confederate "heroes" as "disappointing." She preferred to embrace the Union memory of the war, reunification and emancipation.
And just to provide a bit of context for this story, Harold Becker's father, Charles, fought at the battle of Franklin in 1864. William A. Stanley, my great-great-great-great grandfather, was also there.
That aspect of the story definitely seems like the typical, post-war reconciliationist line. If the soldiers were feeling particularly high levels of comradeship at Franklin and Nashville, they had an odd way of showing it.
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