A glorious and noble civil war has often been seen and expressed. It is a war that divided the nation into two regions, the north and the south. It divided families between moral opinions, those in favor of slavery and those opposed to the institution. The Charles Frazier novel “Cold Mountain” goes against tradition. He imagines war as it really is. Frazier shows the reader the cruel destruction that war causes, the fate of the sick and wounded, and the effects of war on the men and women who live through it.
It brings with it war and terror and inhumanity. There is nothing glorious in the death of countless men. During Civil War the first “dog tags” were used to help many dead. Some of the dead had cards pinned to their clothes to tell who they were, the rest were just anonymous.” Those without tags became like another soldier dead.
Soldiers left in the war. Killing became just another job.
“Inman walked through the house and backyard and saw a man killed by the group badly wounded Federals by hitting him on the head with a hammer. The Federals in They are arranged in order, with the head all pointing in one way, and the man questioningly moved the order” (13-14).
Insanity was also infested with dreams and images of war. He was one of those who were dying, whose wounds were so horrible that they resembled flesh rather than man.
Modern medical practices were not yet known at this time. The sick and wounded were badly treated. Most of the men on both sides died from the contagion which they obtained in the ill-constructed hospitals. Frazier used the description of Bali’s wound to illustrate how poor conditions helped contribute to the patient’s decline.
“His right foot was taken from a grape in the Cold Harbor, and when he looked at the stubble it did not seem to heal, and he had a rotten finger from the ankle. His amputations had already preceded the knee and felt all the time like hams of the year.” (6)
There are many inns. The patients were least cared for, especially those who expected to die. “They gave him a gray cloth and a basin to clean his wound” (7). The doctors, unable to decide whether the wound in Inman’s neck was fatal or not, left him to be treated on the road.
Always known for stubborn pride. The southerners felt that war was a necessary evil; a noble cause must be fought in the order to protect his life. People join the Confederacy to fight for that cause whether they believe in it or not. It was a matter of southern pride. Many feared the words of courage in their hearts. “Afterwards admitting the drunkenness and insolence of the night, Blount was frightened and almost certainly intended to fight” (142).
Although Frazier made something of the Inhuman strongman, he made him very human. Inhumans, like most soldiers, saw and did things they were not proud of. “Nor did he wish to enumerate the acts which he himself had committed; for he wished to judge himself at some time in a time when men did not so much die, to judge himself by another reason” (432).
War breeds opportunists. Teagues and his housekeepers were opportunists. “Teague and his cohorts are rustling around the House like a band of robbers. Making their own laws as they see fit” (45).
The captives were also badly treated. The refugees were not treated well. “They were given nothing to eat, and to drink, except what water they had, they could bend down and draw a cup with their hands, whenever a journey was made” (226). Many captives and fugitives were killed simply to save the trouble of a house guard for caring for them (227).
The war had an effect on the minds of both those who fought the wars and the civilians who remained at home. Frazier describes the effects of the war as being left at home. In her previous life, Ada had taken little part in Monroe’s garden had always paid someone to grow it for them; and therefore his mind was devoted to work, fodder to the table, not to be gained there. Ruby abused this habit of hers” (104).
Another example of the cruel effect that war had on women was Sara, the girl who had met the Inman in the woods this way to Cold Mountain. She was only eighteen years old, but she was already old. “He would be old in five years from such a burden… He saw with pain that his life could enter and hold him toiling from night to death… He saw the whole world hanging over the girl like a certain death. A snare, let down and crush” (306).
Inmanes himself speaks of the terrible effects of war. Acta recounts, “On the reparation I perished” (419).
The war changed both Ada and Inmanus. “Certainly neither she nor Inmane were these people who were together last time” (422). Ada had done enough of the war for herself, and she had learned to survive the Inmanus. He learned the ugly nature of war.
Frazier did not make the war to be glorious on “Cold Mountain”. Civil War described it as it was. It was a war that claimed more American lives than any war before it.
