The Biggest Choice

If I were a teenage male during The Civil War, I would choose self-preservation over joining the army of my choice. While the idea of joining a side and fighting for what you believe in an intriguing one, the risk is not worth the reward. Even though choosing not to fight might result in an outcome you don't enjoy, at least you still have your life. 

Choosing to be a solider is a gigantic risk. There are so many things that can go wrong and so many dangers that could end your life. For example, about 1 out of every 4 people that enlisted in the war died. One reason that so many soldiers died was because of the technology of the oblong Minié ball, which shattered bones when it hit them. This made procedures for surgeons even more difficult, and many wounded soldiers died before reaching the war infirmary. The two options for wounder soldiers were not pretty. The two options were amputation or resection.

First, resection was an extremely painful process. It involved cutting open the limb, sawing out the damaged bone, and then closing the incision. This procedure requires extreme skill from the surgeon and some war surgeons became proficient at this procedure. However, there were may risks involved. For example, there was a big risk of profuse bleeding and infection. Next, there was the option of amputation. This process was fairly simple, you made a cut around the damage limb, and sawed the bone off while removing blood vessels and nerves. For this process, bleeding out was a big concern because sometimes surgeons could not stop the bleeding. Also, with a big open wound, infection was often a sidetrack when amputation had been done. Another reason for many soldiers deaths was the misuse of chloroform. It was used to knock out a patient, but many times the patient would receive too much and would end up dying. These challenges were ones that were tough to overcome for surgeons and ended up causing many deaths to injured soldiers. 

Overall, joining the war was too much of a risk for a teenage boy during this time. With the advanced weaponry, one hit was basically signing your death warrant. With the odds of survival stacked against you, injury had to be avoided which was nearly impossible. For that reason, if I was a teenage boy during this time, I would choose self-preservation over joining the war. 

Image Link: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/04/03/science/03CIVI_SPAN/03CIVI-articleLarge.jpg