Death and the Civil War

PBS right now is showing a program on death and the Civil War, with the premise that the unexpected several hundred thousand war dead forced citizens and governments into the realization that no longer were families alone responsible for burial and remembrance, that all hold the responsibility for remembering.

One historian, commenting on Lincoln’s dedicatory speech at the national burial ground at Gettysburg, said Lincoln’s focus was on the new republic under creation by the war. The old republic, Lincoln said, was dead, and we must begin building the new republic.

That is a surprising statement, the old republic declared dead. Many disagreed with Lincoln then, and many would disagree with the statement now. In truth, though, the old republic did die from the Civil War, and it was Lincoln’s people who killed it.