Soldier Privations / by kevin murray

America would not have won its independence if it was not for the soldiers that fought the battles in order to achieve such hard-fought independence.  The Continental Army was made up of those that volunteered, local militias, and those drafted from state militias to fight in our war of Independence.  The soldiers that fought for our nation's Independence risked all, for a cause in which they as individuals suffered great privations, such as the lack of good shelter, of clothes, of munitions, of food, of water, of their life, and of safety from pestilence and epidemics, in addition to the fact that the pay received, was typically delivered in funds that held little or no value.  It can be said that to be a soldier in the revolutionary war was to risk one's life in the most trying of circumstances.

 

 Fast forward to our civil war, and each side, once they recognized that this war would not be over anytime soon, had little choice but to compel additional men to fight via conscription, so as to fill mandatory quotas by state, and to thereby get as many able-body men to take up arms for their respective sides.  These men were to suffer many of the same privations as their revolutionary forbearers, in which it was actually diseases such as dysentery, typhoid fever, and malaria that felled more soldiers than the many that died via the bullet, in which, the conditions inside those that were captured in battle, especially those captured by the southern side, were inhumane and the cause of a significant amount of pain, suffering, and deaths.  Additionally, with the increased firepower of civil war weapons, many soldiers were wounded and with the lack of field doctors available to assist quickly enough, many amputations had to be performed, because significantly injured limbs left unintended often became infected, and only amputation could then prevent the unnecessary death of the soldier.

 

 In the 20th century, soldier's food rations markedly improve, from once tainted canned beef, to being fed warm freshly cooked food in the mess halls at our established military bases, which often resembled miniature cities in their ability to accommodate the soldiers with temperature-controlled shelter, entertainment, medical facilities, and other typical daily needs.  So too, the communications of soldiers which once took months for mail to reach them or to reach their love ones, now was instantaneous through email, texting, or tools such as Skype or similar which provides face-to-face interactions with family members.

 

The one thing that has not changed for soldiers over the years is the fact that they still risk their lives, their limbs, and their sanity in the foreign battles that America so often takes part in, and while it is comforting to have an incredible support group that keeps our soldiers fit and at their best, it is still these soldiers that are on the front lines with the attendant dangers that they must deal with.  Those that are not soldiers or are not part of the military world, have a tendency not to consciously recognize enough the dedication, the sacrifice, the privations, and the devotion that these soldiers have made on behalf of their country; it is then our responsibility as non-combatants, to do our best, to see that these soldiers who act courageously in the field of fire, will have never fought heroically in vain, for the very worst of all privations, is to lose the very thing that this country stands for and what we fight for, which is that all are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.