Introduction
620,000 people died (Civil War Trust), and countless were wounded. The civil war was bloody, and frightening. Anyone who fought in it was lucky to survive. But they didn’t survive without trauma. On the loud battlefields soldiers constantly saw their friends and fellow townsmen drop dead on the ground all around. But guns weren’t the only thing to be afraid of, disease was as well. (Yale National Initiative). It claimed the majority of the 620,000 lives lost. In the end, the Union tasted victory, but not without a cost. The life of a soldier in the civil war was hell.
Although he was lucky to get out alive, James Monroe Sargent was no exception to the suffering of soldiers. After being wounded two times, and being scarred for…show more content… His dad was a farmer, and his mother helped around the house. At the time, the population of Norwich was 1,978. His home wasn’t just any old Vermont farm. It was a poor farm. During the 1850s, 22 people lived on the Sargent’s small farm. 6 of them were James’s family and himself. His father Walter, his mother Lodisa, and his 3 brothers Edward, Henry, and Lyman. The other 16 people had disabilities or were very poor. Their ages ranged from 5 years old to 90 years old (US Census 1850, 1860). James might have liked to play with the 5 year old Frances White and his brothers Edward and Henry. However, James was not fond of the other people staying on his farm because they constantly needed assistance. As James grew older, life on the farm in the late 1850’s and 1860 became a lot more arduous for him. His dad expected that James did the same work as he did everyday (Flow of History). Things did get easier when the crowd of 16 people had moved from his house. James grew fascinated with the outside world as he grew older. One example is, that He wouldn’t put the newspaper down until he had read every inch of…show more content… He could now let his mind process all what had happened in the 3 years that he fought for the Union. The next day James mustered out of the army. He felt sad. Sad that he was leaving all those dead friends behind down South. But James also longed to be back at home in Norwich. He took a horse carriage back to Norwich. He embraced his family with hugs. But he wondered who these new children were. He quickly realised that they were his new family members. However, all his love for his family didn’t stop him from starting his own household. He married a pretty woman named Emma. Together they moved to a small plot of land that they had received from James’s father Walter (US Census 1870). Together James and Emma had a child, Harry. James enjoyed his life, but he couldn’t get the horrific battles out of his dreams. James suffered from this at least 4 days a week. That is until a therapist from Burlington came to aid the Norwich soldiers. James saw some improvement but not too much. James went on with his life like an average Vermont farmer. But he eventually grew tired of this. James moved to Lebanon to become a stagecoach teamster (US Census 1880). The job proved to be fun for James. It reminded him of the brave cavalry soldiers in the war. James raced his wagon from Norwich to Montpelier many times. As James’s age started to catch up with him the teamster job started becoming more and more
