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ETD Abstract Container

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Death and Memory in the Napoleonic and American Civil Wars

Fields, Kyle David
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1278824193

Abstract Details

2010, Bachelor of Arts, Miami University, College of Arts and Sciences - History.
My thesis investigates the popular memory of battles in the Napoleonic and American Civil Wars. Asserting that the battlefield tactics and casualty rates show striking similarities, this paper examines the inaccurate common perception of the Civil War as exceptionally deadly and attributes it to some developments of the first half of the nineteenth century. This work of comparative history presents a case study in the introduction, establishing two battles as highly similar: the Battle of Austerlitz (1805) from the Napoleonic Wars and the Battle of Chancellorsville (1863) from the American Civil War. Having demonstrated the validity of comparing these events, the non-military developments of the telegraph, newspaper correspondents, photography, lithography, and public education that occurred in the interim period are considered to explain the very different ways that the conflicts passed into popular memory. The paper concludes that cultural and technological developments between the wars created a memory emphasizing loss, explaining the “exceptional deadliness” of the Civil War better than the traditional assumptions about improved weapons and lagging tactics.
Andrew Cayton, PhD (Advisor)
Tatiana Seijas, PhD (Committee Member)
John Forren, PhD (Committee Member)
77 p.
American History; Communication; European History; Military History
history; american history; memory; popular memory; napoleonic wars; civil war; battle of austerlitz; battle of chancellorsville; lithography; photography; telegraph; letters; culture of death; newspapers; embedded correspondents; military tactics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fields, K. D. (2010). Death and Memory in the Napoleonic and American Civil Wars [Undergraduate thesis, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1278824193

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fields, Kyle. Death and Memory in the Napoleonic and American Civil Wars. 2010. Miami University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1278824193.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fields, Kyle. "Death and Memory in the Napoleonic and American Civil Wars." Undergraduate thesis, Miami University, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=muhonors1278824193

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

muhonors1278824193
544
© 2010, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University Honors Theses and OhioLINK.