War has always been known to be ugly, but the further back in history we go, it seems to become more primitive. Observing the photo of the soldiers in their living quarters brings a realization to how relatively spoiled soldiers at war today really are. Although none of the soldiers in this specific photo look particularly displeased, they don’t have any comparison to give as this is the only standard of war they know. You can tell each soldier was a very hard working individual. In the photo, you can see soldiers participating in various laborious activities from sweeping to chopping wood. Everything was more involved than it is today with a much lower quality of living during the Civil War. To me, this single photograph goes a long way in telling the story of the life of a soldier during the Civil War. Others could take a look at the photograph and gain a better understanding for the hardships of the Civil War and further appreciate those in the military today. We can also gain a better appreciation for the improved living standards for any United States campaign today. Of course, technology has come a long way for us to look at this photo and find it hard to believe that this is how war was conducted, but to see it in a photograph really makes it real. I strongly believe photographs are worth a thousand words, and can, at times, teach more than a text book is able to. Going further into the difference in the standards of living during the Civil War and present day can clearly be seen in the photo of an on-site amputation being conducted. This was a very common sight on the battle field at medical tents, and of course was very unsanitary. However, not much was known then about germs, disease or proper medical techniques and sanitation. Several diseases were spread this way, and many died from falling ill from their own wounds. Viewing it from common practice today, we could compare soldiers being treated even worse than animals. It was a harsh reality, and would be hard to believe without so many accounts of it happening. No one in the photograph seems too pleasant, but at the same time, no one seems surprised or shocked at all. This was such a common thing, it wasn’t ever thought of as a radical form of treatment. Not to mention counterproductive in a sense. The website itself is very informative and provides a lot of resources to go through. The user interface is clean and modern, but viewing the images by contextual hyperlinks is very outdated. No one wants to click through each and every title to be linked to a photo. They could improve on this by using a gallery with a caption/title for every photo. In addition, they could add the filters for each of the categories they’ve placed each photo into. This would be a much more effective way for users to view and learn about the life during the Civil War.