Would you have volunteered to fight in the American Civil War?

[Cory]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

Yeah, right.

It's easy to say on the internet that you would do think knowing that it won't actually happen. The American Civil War was a brutal, horrible war involving horrendous injuries and maiming. I would've gone if drafted (Union) but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm some kind of hard-ass.

[Sumner 1868]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

Yeah, right.

It's easy to say on the internet that you would do think knowing that it won't actually happen. The American Civil War was a brutal, horrible war involving horrendous injuries and maiming. I would've gone if drafted (Union) but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm some kind of hard-ass.

"I wouldn't, thus nobody would"

[Cory]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

Yeah, right.

It's easy to say on the internet that you would do think knowing that it won't actually happen. The American Civil War was a brutal, horrible war involving horrendous injuries and maiming. I would've gone if drafted (Union) but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm some kind of hard-ass.

"I wouldn't, thus nobody would"

That's not my logic, and you know it. Don't be disingenuous. I'm just pointing out that probably most of the people who claim they would eagerly volunteer wouldn't if they actually had to fight in the war in real life.

[Zioneer]

Assuming I was in good enough shape to fight in the first place... I'd like to think I'd volunteer before they drafted me. Plus, crush the confederacy and all that.

[ingemann]

  Option 1 (not a coward).

It's always tasteful to be brave after the war.

[Torie]

I had two great grandfather's who fought in that war, one on each side (the one who fought on the Union side taking two bullets, which he carried to his grave some 70 years later). Obviously where I lived would have a big impact, but I would like to believe that if I lived in the South, I would have had enough good conscience, and character, to have fled and taken up arms against it. Its enterprise and objects were truly evil in every respect.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No (coward)

[SWE]

I'd like to think yes, but in all honesty I'd probably pussy out

[Indy Texas]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

And help ensure the Northern industrial capitalists would not be deprived of Southern-grown staple crops? And force the white Yankee proletariat to degrade themselves as their wages were undercut by a glut of new Negro labor streaming up from the South after the war?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I'd like to think yes, but in all honesty I'd probably pussy out

^^

This. In the same way I'd like to think I'd have gone to help the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War had I been alive at the time.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

1....preferably artillery or intelligence.

Grant turned a number of the heavy artillery regiments defending Washington into infantry because he needed the latter more than the former.  It proved quite a shock to those who thought they'd found a relatively safe berth to serve in.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I had two great grandfather's who fought in that war, one on each side (the one who fought on the Union side taking two bullets, which he carried to his grave some 70 years later). Obviously where I lived would have a big impact, but I would like to believe that if I lived in the South, I would have had enough good conscience, and character, to have fled and taken up arms against it. Its enterprise and objects were truly evil in every respect.

If you truly had felt that strongly about slavery, you probably would have left the South well before the war.

[morgieb]

I'd like to think yes, but in all honesty I'd probably pussy out

[dead0man]

1....preferably artillery or intelligence.

Grant turned a number of the heavy artillery regiments defending Washington into infantry because he needed the latter more than the former.  It proved quite a shock to those who thought they'd found a relatively safe berth to serve in.

And they often got overrun, had sh**t blow up in their face, had to lug around heavy sh**t, deal with horses and probably a dozen other horrible things I don't know about.  I'd want to do it for the cool engineering involved, the math and the BOOMs, not for the safety.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Too weak to fight, but if I weren't I'd volunteer.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Yes, I'd have signed up with the Union to help wipe out the traitorous slaveholders and help free the slaves. (Normal)

Yeah, right.

It's easy to say on the internet that you would do think knowing that it won't actually happen. The American Civil War was a brutal, horrible war involving horrendous injuries and maiming. I would've gone if drafted (Union) but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I'm some kind of hard-ass.

Let's not forget that the conventional wisdom in June 1861 was that the war would be over in a mater of months. Most of those who enlisted prior to Bull Run/ Manassas did so thinking it would be a wonderful adventure and didn't really understand what they were getting into. The average Atlas poster being a young male, it seems highly likely that most of those who've said they would have rushed to enlist probably would have.