Quick Thoughts on this November 11th
Nov. 11th, 2008 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twincityhackerToday I finally learned why November 11th is remembering living veterans in the US. I knew it was because the US already had a day to remember war dead, but it never came up why Memorial Day was established. Turns out that it marks the end of the American Civil War - and that the American dead in WWI was about half that it was in the Civil War.
This diffrence is probably how there became such a large gap between the reactions on making this a holiday. In 1918, people remembered the Battles of Gettysburg and Chickamunga and the rest of the bloodbaths that pretended to be battlefields.* Not to mention the neighbor vs neighbor warfare in the border states. While the last war to be fought on European soil was the Crimeian War, the last large war that took place was the Napolionic Wars.
I think now, the reverse is true. People in Europe remember WWII, and the last large war that took place on US soil is still the Civil War. I don't think this has anything to do with each continets thoughs on warfare, as the US has had troops in combat almost every single year since the Declaration of Independence was signed. But it does put a little more truth into the maxim "Those who forget the past are condemmed to repeat it."
*To put this into perspective, the Battle at Gettysburg had about 51,112 in three days of fighting, and Chickamauga had 34,624 in one. The total war dead for the Civil War is 618,222. In WWI, the Battle of Battle of Passchendaele from July 11 to November 10 had about 857,100 casualties.
This diffrence is probably how there became such a large gap between the reactions on making this a holiday. In 1918, people remembered the Battles of Gettysburg and Chickamunga and the rest of the bloodbaths that pretended to be battlefields.* Not to mention the neighbor vs neighbor warfare in the border states. While the last war to be fought on European soil was the Crimeian War, the last large war that took place was the Napolionic Wars.
I think now, the reverse is true. People in Europe remember WWII, and the last large war that took place on US soil is still the Civil War. I don't think this has anything to do with each continets thoughs on warfare, as the US has had troops in combat almost every single year since the Declaration of Independence was signed. But it does put a little more truth into the maxim "Those who forget the past are condemmed to repeat it."
*To put this into perspective, the Battle at Gettysburg had about 51,112 in three days of fighting, and Chickamauga had 34,624 in one. The total war dead for the Civil War is 618,222. In WWI, the Battle of Battle of Passchendaele from July 11 to November 10 had about 857,100 casualties.
