How many times must we humans go to war before we realize that war is not the answer to so many of our problems? That is the question that I was continuously asking myself as I read Bull Run. I have found myself in earlier years obsessed with reading John Jakes series about the Civil War in America and the relationships that were torn apart and literally shot at because of different opinions and people desiring to make money. Bull Run was no less a novel at inspiring me that war was and is evil. I do find it interesting that so many of the people who were in the Civil War were shapers of our great country today. Many of the men who were commanding officers and generals studied beside each other at West Point and later fought beside each other in the Mexican-American War. You would think that these men who had been companions in such life changing situations would not fight against each other or be used by politicians and the wealthy to reenact blood slaughter and sorrow that they know war causes. It is usually the innocent who are harmed in war and not the guilty. No, the guilty stay safely hidden away while informing the innocent to do their deadly bidding for them. I was again surprised by the irony I saw within the characters of Bull Run. Many of them sought to seek glory from war, to make a name for themselves, just like our notorious Custer who certainly was predicted to do great things (as Edmund Upwing informed the readers!). That same bravery that won Custer the name of being a hero and a courageous man also cost him and many others their lives when his pride became too large, in later life.
It still amazes me how many think at the beginning of a war that the war will be over in weeks, maybe at the latest, months. I remember our nation thinking this when we went to war with Iraq in 2002. We are now in 2007 and we still have soldiers and civilians being killed in a war that is in a land that most of us will never visit. The people also thought that war was a pretty situation. I found a sad hilarity in Flora Wheelworth’s eldest daughter running after the train telling her husband not to soil his coat and supplying him with all the things that he would need in the war: a razor, a mirror, a hairbrush, a nail file, calfskin slippers, and a fine suit of clothes to be saved for his triumphant entry into Washington. Later on in the book we find out that this man was wounded and that it was uncertain if he lived or not. I guess that no amount of toiletries preparation can prepare a person for the entrance into a deadly war.
Gideon Adams was one of my favorite characters in Bull Run, because he knew why he was fighting and was a courageous man to fight for his freedom. Now days we teach students that the Civil War was fought to free slaves, because the North housed people who didn’t believe in slavery. I am sure that that is a true statement for some people, but not for everyone in the North. Also, not everyone in the South believed slavery was right. The irony in Gideon wanting to fight and being told to go home because this was a “white man’s war” is outrageous but very true for that time. The Civil War for some was to free slaves and to ensure that all in our country are treated equally, but for many more it was fought to make bank accounts larger and to prove a point that one section of the country was better than the other (almost like at a sports event).
My heart went out to Shem Suggs, the orphan who only felt at home with horses. He did not want to kill people for one cause or another. He wanted to be near horses and to possibly have his own. I can imagine that after the battle of Bull Run that he buried the horses, who had been killed, with reverence and with solemn tears. This is a man who knew that relationships were worth more than wars and the only time he shot someone was to protect Greta, his horse (and to an extent – family member).
If righteous people step back and don’t speak up, it is the evil and greedy people who will take over in our world. It is up to the righteous and intelligent people in the world to say that we need to find a better way than fighting, a better way than innocents being killed, and a better way than war in general. War. Is it a necessary evil, or just a evil?
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