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How many lives were claimed by the civil war in the story "An Episode of War"?
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The story "An Episode of War" by Stephen Crane focuses on the individual experience of a lieutenant wounded in the American Civil War, highlighting the personal horrors of war rather than presenting a comprehensive death toll. Although the story does not specify the number of lives claimed, historical estimates suggest that around 620,000 to 750,000 men died in the Civil War, including deaths from battle and disease.
Crane's story is, like The Red Badge of Courage, a series of snapshots, so to speak, of the enormous conflict that was our Civil War. We are shown the action from a localized viewpoint, in which the enlisted men and the lower-ranking field officers who command them do not themselves see the big picture, but can only follow orders and guess at what the tactics and the strategy of the commanders are. When the lieutenant is wounded and goes to the rear of the line for treatment, he catches glimpses of the generals, the delivery of messages that involve the battle plan, the movements of the big guns, and all is like "an historical painting." The lieutenant's vision of this symbolizes the fact that soldiers and combat officers alike have no direct idea of what is happening on the highest level of war, or why it's happening. Each man,...
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and each unit, are just a tiny piece of a huge, incomprehensible event.
The usual estimate by historians is that approximately 620,000 men died in the Civil War. This includes deaths from disease as well as directly in battle. More recently, some historians have speculated that the total is even higher. In Crane's story, the focus is on one man, the lieutenant, and a bullet to his wrist which necessitates the amputation of his arm. That we are not shown details of the massive carnage that took place at this particular battle, and the number of men killed, is in keeping with the selective, individual viewpoint that Crane typically gives us, which is horrific enough in itself.
"An Episode of War" is a short story by Stephen Crane that chronicles an incident during the American Civil War in which a lieutenant is injured by a bullet. The bullet has struck the officer's arm, which ultimately needs to be amputated. The purpose of the book is to demonstrate the daily horrors of the American Civil War.
The American Civil War was the most costly military engagement in the history of the United States. The death count is nearly half of all of the military deaths in the history of the republic. For decades, it has been widely accepted by historians that 618,222 men died in the Civil War (360,222 from the Union and 258,000 from the Confederacy). A new study by historian J. David Hacker in 2012 has suggested as many as 750,000 perished on the battlefields of the American Civil War.