George,

I’m not one of the fellows, and I surely do not want to understand from a first-person point of view; however, I would like to TRY to understand what motivated any of the soldiers (NORTH or SOUTH)to do what I consider to be heinous acts (whether massacre or not) to fellow human beings. I understand well that we were at war and that these acts are not unique to this war.

George, I’m assuming you’ve been shot at and have shot at others based on your message. If my assumption is incorrect, apologies. Would appreciate your thoughts regarding what you think the motives for these acts were.

I’m picking up on vengenance, fear, maybe hate, inebriation + others. Guess the list could be extremely long in the final analysis, but I think understanding or at least trying to understand is important!

Thanks for any additional attempt at helping me to try understand.

Margaret