Life as a soldier was taxing, exhausting, and oftentimes stressful. For those who had not volunteered, they had been drafted and were not even there of their own willingness. Also, in the case of draftees, they were also sometimes younger boys who were quite inexprienced and to which the war would only be a harsh slap into the brutality of the life. Many volunteers who joined simply for the glory, fame, and honor it would bring them soon found that it was much less glamorous than they had expected. Men who enrolled to gladly defend the honor of their home and country found themselves in the midst of a nightmare. Then there were soldiers known as "skulkers and sneaks," who had been either drafted or bribed into service avoided the dangers of battle and combat by faking sickness, hiding, hanging back, or simply deserting in the middle of battle in groups. "Of the more than three million Civil War servicemen, 2/3rds were younger than 23 years of age and came from rural areas" and we're not used to the constant demands of the military life. As the casualty lists grew, as did the number of draftees as opposed to volunteers. To fix the problem of untrained troops, men were sent to army training camps, where the recruits faced their first doses of the tough soldiering.
The following is a link to a letter a soldier in the Civil War wrote back to his wife back home read aloud:
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