The Civil War began July1861 when Union troops set out for Richmond, Virginia. They met Confederate forces soon after the left at a small stream in Virginia called Bull Run. The carnage that followed showed the nation that the war was anything but civil. In this war fathers fought sons, brothers fought brothers, and families fought themselves. This no doubt left emotional scars for everyone involved. An example of the emotional impact that the war had left on the soldiers, the families, and the nation is "The Slopes of War" by N.A Perez. This book is about the Summerhill family, which is going through the Civil War. Rebekah Summerhill has three family members who are fighting in the war. Buck Summerhill, Rebekah's brother, is accompanied by his friend Tully Willard. They are both privates in the Union Army. Custis and Mason Walker, Rebekah's cousins, are privates in the Confederate Army. During their childhood Rebekah, Buck, Custis, and Mason were close since the both grew up in the same area. Because of this Buck and Rebekah has the emotional dispute of fighting their own blood in a war.
             The purpose of this thesis is to show the emotional impact the Civil War had on the people involved. And how " The Slopes of War" portrayed it. I will show examples of this in a letter by Jno. D. Dameron, another letter by JN Bennet, and a song called, "The Prisoner's Hope" by George F. Root.
             The letter by Jno. D. Dameron is to his father. In it he writes about his father not writing to him, 'I had concluded that I could not write to any more until I had received a letter from home." (Dameron, letter by author, December 1862) This shows how homesick Dameron was. This is exactly how Buck felt during the first parts of the book, "We're getting close to home" (The Slopes of War, N.A. Perez, PG 3) The quote came from when Buck's squadron i
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