You'll Be Scared. Sure-You'll Be Scared - Fear, Stress, and Coping in the Civil War

"Fear is contagious, but so is courage." Fear-it's merely a warning to the senses of potential injury or threat. It directs actions away from danger and increases the chances of survival. It grips every soldier's heart as he draws near the enemy. But before that happens, this emotion has been altered by a concoction of physical and mental stresses that affect the reaction to danger and the ability to manage fear. Stressors such as physical fatigue, lack of sleep, hunger, conflict of values, the clash between self-preservation and the obligations to duty and fellow soldiers all shape responses to actions. How did they struggle through combat yet still manage to perform? Proper motivation, morale, discipline, and training all helped. Diversions aided soldiers by directing their attention away from fear. Some managed fear through denial, others by acclimation, or some simply accepted their destiny as fate. This work explores how fear and stress challenged soldiers in the Civil War and the means used to cope through their desperate situations. It includes many eyewitness accounts and observations of what soldiers experienced as they approached battlefields, engaged in combat, and the impressions stamped into their minds that lasted a lifetime.

…This work, likely to become quite popular, provides descriptions of every facet of fear soldiers involved in any major conflict might experience. Philip Cole dissects fear with an expertise that is hard to match. He takes an intangible emotion and breathes life into it. Fear influences our thoughts and actions frequently without our knowledge. Using this premise, he explores factors influencing fear. Additionally he describes the cause-and-effect relationship between fear and stress. Understanding these factors is extremely important in order for commanders to be effective. Weather, fatigue and lack of food, sleep and clothing all play an important part in how a soldier reacts during battle. Reactions during conflict are almost as different as the individuals fighting. Preparations made prior to battle may or may not alleviate certain fears. Actual combat almost always causes different fears. These not only include the fear of dying but also of being surrounded by death, isolation and loneliness… Many historians struggle to understand why Civil War soldiers were willing to make frontal assaults like Longstreet’s Gettysburg attack, better known as “Pickett’s Charge,” where certain death appeared imminent. Cole provides a very good answer: the close-knit community among soldiers and good communication between leaders and subordinates… Another interesting observation is that Civil War soldiers suffered many of the same emotional and mental traumas that soldiers face in modern combat zones. This book appeals to a wide audience. It is reasonably priced, well written and extensively researched. The author makes learning how soldiers in combat overcome their fears a more enjoyable experience…
Reviewer for the Civil War News, Richard J. Blumberg, gives this book a “strong recommendation.”