Soldiers and the Experience of Killing

Relying on extensive research in diaries, letters, memoirs, and the like, Steplyk, who teaches at Texas Christian University and UT Arlington, explores the ways in which Civil War soldiers coped with the necessity and experience of killing, not only during the conflict, but also in reflection during the years after it.

Steplyk opens with a look at the religious and moral “baggage” which the troops carried into service. He devotes several chapters to the ways in which men coped with various aspects of killing, from revulsion to elation and much nuance in between. So a chapter on how men reacted to the experience of killing during battle, is followed by one on the “language” of killing, fraught with euphemisms and gallows humor. There follows a chapter on the experience of hand-to-hand combat, then one on snipers, addressing not only how they coped with their mode of killing but also how their comrades perceived them; many observers considered sniping close to murder.

Steplyk devotes an entire chapter to “The Extremes of Killing”, that is massacre, murder, and vengeance. This sets that stage for his final chapter, in which he addresses the particularly brutal encounters between African-American men in Blue and Confederate troops, both carrying very different “baggage” into battle.

Steplyk makes a point of taking into account the many surprising acts of mercy or charity on the battlefield. So we learn of instances when troops ceased firing on a retreating enemy or succored the wounded and dying during brief unofficial ‘truces’.

Fighting Means Killing breaks new ground in understanding how Civil War soldiers managed the problem of killing, and is certainly important reading not only for those interested in the Blue and Gray, but also in experience of combat in any war.