THE OTHER SIDE OF WAR

BY Mark Twain

“There was never a good war, or a bad peace.”

Benjamin Franklin

Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. Twain died on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut at the age of 75.

He was also a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor. •http://www.biography.com/people/mark-twain-9512564

http://www.google.com.br/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=6NBPg00-BQfuaM&tbnid=HmWHGAskxZlWwM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mayavanlines.com%2Faboutuspg.html&ei=ke8rUtHIE4OKjAKr14BI&bvm=bv.51773540,d.cGE&psig=AFQjCNEJhH086ZRieaHhJvPN_gIT7-dYTg&ust=1378696785251201

Th Confederates VERSUS The SOUTH

The beginning...

Resistance was always there...

Why did the war start?• Republicans did not want slavery spread into

the country.

• Lincoln, a Republican, won the 1860 election without any South State support.

• The South wanted slavery and felt misrepresented. They wanted indepence.

Plot• War and its reasons (p.6)

• IS war ever reasonable, justifiable or worth it?

Plot• Narrator: 1st person,

character

• 15 friends form the the Hannibal confederate Company

Characters• Tom Lyman “...knew nothing about

fighting, but he became our leader”. (p.7)

• Peterson Dunlap “Young, intelligent, but didn’t know much – and full of romantic ideas. He read books and sang love songs. He was looking for an interesting war with fine uniforms, good weather, and beautiful women waiting for us at the end” (p.7)

Characters• Ed Stevens“...handsome, as clean as a cat,

and smart as a college professor. But his only goal was to have fun. We had to watch for his practical jokes. The Civil War was a big vacation for him.” (p.7)

• Joe Smith “...wasn’t very smart, in fact he was slow. But he had a warm heart, and he worked hard. He was often homesick, but he was serious about the war. He stayed with the company, and he was killed before the end.” (p. 7)

“We didn’t know anything about war. Tom, Peterson, Ed and the rest of us were just boys, really. What could a

group like us do? Nothing. And that’s what we did.”

(p. 7)

Setting• 1861:Hannibal, narrator’s hometown

(p.7)• New London town, 15 km away -> a

farmhouse (p.7)• General rall’s farm: an old soldier

from american-mexican war ->warning (p.8)

• They Fled to Jeb Mason’s Farm -> false alarm (p.8)

• The 24h guard resolution: at night, nobody sticked to the sunlight deal. (p.11)

• Constant messages of warning: They ran away! (p.12)

• “We didn’t like fighting. When we got these messages, we left. We didn’t stay and fight. We ran away. And, usually, the news wasn’t true. Usually, there weren’t any Union soldiers in the neighborhood. Soon, we didn’t take the messages seriously. One night we didn’t fight or run away. Why should we run? We sat back to enjoy the evening. Then we became nervous. One by one, we went to the window. Were there soldiers out there in the dark? Suddenly, we heard a noise.”

(p.12)

“‘Is anyone out there?’ asked one of the young boys.‘I can hear a horse, maybe horses’, said Tom Lyman.‘I can see a man near the path. Can you see him?’ Ed Stevens asked. ‘He’s on a horse. I think there are other men behind him.’I picked my gun in the dark. I was shaking with fear. Without thinking, I held my gun up the window. Behind me someone shouted, ‘Fire!’ I fired my gun. The noise was terrible. Then the man fell from his horse. ”(p.12)

“ ‘I’m a murderer,’ I said. ‘I killed a man. He didn’t hurt me. I didn’t even know his name.’ (...)

There were six shots fired at the same time. We were all murderers. War was for hard men and we were just babies. Maybe my gun didn’t kill the man, but I tried to kill him. I could never fire a gun again.”(p.12)

“ We learned little about the dead man. HE wasn’t carrying a gun. He wasn’t wearing a uniform. He probably wasn’t a soldier. I dreamed about the dead man. This is what war meant. Soldiers killed strangers. At other times, you helped strangers and they helped you. In a war, you shot them.” (p.12,14)

The Costs of war• 1 in 13 were amputees

More people died in this war than in all the other USA wars combined.

The war produced about 1,030,000 casualties (3% of the population), including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds

by disease, and 50,000 civilians.[

If we don’t end war, war will end us.

H.G. Wells

References• TWAIN, Mark. Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog

and Other Stories. Retold by Nancy Taylor. 2nd edition. Essex, England: Penguin Readers, 2008.

• http://www.marktwainhouse.org

• www.wikipedia.com (pictures and Civil War)

• http://www.biography.com/people/mark-twain-9512564