Every war has both physical and mental effects on individual soldiers. The Killer Angels shows us the affects that the battle of Gettysburg had on individual soldiers. Some were injured, some died, some refused to fight, and both sides fought to keep the moral of their side up. .
The men of the 2nd Maine refused to fight after their regiment had been disbanded. Their regiment had been disbanded because many of the men in the 2nd Maine had only signed for two years while others had signed for three. When the two years was up for the men who had signed up they left. Only one-hundred and twenty men from the 2nd Maine remained because they had signed up for three years rather than two. These men were refusing to fight and had been sent to Chamberlain because he was also from Maine and they figured they'd fight for him. Chamberlain was told to shoot anybody who refused to fight, but Chamberlain had a different strategy he talked to the men and saw things from their point of view. He gave them the option to fight alongside his regiment. After the men of the 2nd Maine had finished eating the regiment began to move and Chamberlain had his brother Tom find out how many of the 120 men would be joining them in the fight. Tom told him that 114 men had decided to fight which meant that only six men refused to right. The six men were kept as prisoners. However during the battle three out of the six men had decided to join the fight because they didn't want people to see them as cowards. This is one of the mental affects war has on individuals. When some men leave after only two years but others get sent to another regiment because they had signed on for three years. Some individual soldiers do not see this as a fair thing because they signed to fight for a regiment. Then when they have a year left in that regiment, that regiment gets disbanded and they get sent to another.
There were deaths in the war on both the North and the South side.