Jordan Hevern
1/9/15
McPherson Assignment
Just like coming into this class, I will be approaching this book with an open mind and willing to give it a chance like any other book that I would be assigned to me. Of course this book will be knowledgeable and accurate to a certain extent because we are reading this in a college class, and I feel that the books that I have previously had to work in have been informational and accurate to what is being taught in the class. I will be approaching this book also with excitement to learn whatever it may teach me, and to get more in depth information of on the civil war.
The issue that I am worried about is the accuracy of the names of all the soldiers that were involved in the war. Being that the battle was in 1861 the names of everyone was probably not accounted for. I am nervous that we will not get a sense of all the men that were involved, because back in those days they did not have computers or filing cabinets to keep all records of all the fighters. I know that we will get accuracy of all the leaders, because they were noble men that were in charge and they were the talk of the war. Also many men probably didn’t all die because they bleed to death or of an accurate shot, many men died of disease, starving, and other natural killers, making it hard to differ from battle kills and natural causes. For me, I would like to know how many men died from battle compared to other elements.
For this topic, I don’t really trust any internet sources because the internet is so much easier to alter and fill with false information. When it comes to war and known historical events, I would prefer to learn the information from book and hand written work. Books give me a sense of the truth. They go through so much to get published; it’s hard to believe that a known, published book would get by with false information. I will look stuff up on the internet, but I only trust sources that were not related with wiki and the URLs that do NOT end in .com, because that’s something that can be altered. Also when looking up information, if a sight doesn’t have a specific author that I can look up, or isn’t a respected historian it would be hard to trust.
I do have a general knowledge of the Civil War topic, but there is always more I can learn. This subject is not new to me, but it has been a while since I have done any studying or look into the civil war. I am confident that I will do well in this class because I am excited about this class and to learn more of our history. I have the legist of the parties that were involved, why they were in the war, and some of the leaders in the war. I am unfamiliar with other aspects though.