The Civil War to Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris
Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris take a non-stereotypical attitude toward the Civil War in The Private History of a Campaign that Failed and A Story of the War. The traditional view of the Civil War is that the Southerners were very spirited about beating the Yankees and keeping their slaves while the Northerners and slaves were spirited about beating the Rebels and giving slaves their freedom. The Southerner and slave, narrating The Private History of a Campaign that Failed and A Story of the War respectively, break away from these stereotypes. The Southerners seen in Twain's story take a lackadaisical approach towards the war and actually want to avoid fighting at all costs. The slave in Harris's story shoots down a Union soldier fighting for his freedom to protect his slave owners. The actions of the characters in Mark Twain's The Private History of a Campaign that Failed and Joel Chandler Harris's A Story of the War cause the reader to question the significance of the Civil War altogether. From the onset of The Private History of a Campaign that Failed the reader questions the war from both sides. The motives of the men fighting in the war are doubted as members from both the Union and the Confederacy would switch s
Later, when they both switched to the Confederacy, the soldier says that the narrator could not be with the Confederacy because his father was "willing to set slaves free". At one point a Union soldier says the narrator can not be in the Union because his father owned slaves even though his father was opposed to slavery. It was very rare for white folks to beg for anything from a black. Though a win by the North says that he is free on paper, Remus knows that more difficulties will arise as clashes between North and South and between blacks and whites would heighten. When they approach a farm-house with a guard of five Union soldiers, the men decide to avoid conflict and flank the farm-house. Twain gives an amusing detailed explanation of how one member's name was changed from Dunlap to d'Unlap to d'Un Lap and called Peterson Dunlap and because of this genius he was put in charge of naming the different camps (Twain 145-6). It is clear when looking at The Private History of Campaign that Failed and A Story of the War, that while both authors see the wrong in slavery they see the wrong in the Civil War as well. In his story, Uncle Remus tells a visiting Northerner about the time that the war came to his own plantation. "Harris himself believed that the South would have abolished slavery. After, the men cheer for their "first military movement" and proceed to their "Horse-play and laughing" (Twain 147-8). Like the soldiers in The Private History of Campaign that Failed, Uncle Remus, a slave and the narrator of A Story of the War, does not see much reason for the Civil War. Miss Theodosia describes Remus, when meeting him for the first time, as "picturesque" a term that is endearing and is not often used to describe a former slave (Harris 178). Another member sees the military expedition as "simply a holiday" while the narrator simply wanted a change of scenery (Twain, 146). The hope for a united North and South is seen in Remus's education of a Northern visitor about the "truths" of the South and symbolically in the son of the wounded Union Soldier and Miss Sally.
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Acceptance Essays
