In the book Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier, it is recognized as one of the best novels written about the Civil War. While this book isn't about specific battles, it shows a perspective on the Civil War era that most authors don't talk about. His book shows the good, bad, and ugly sides of the Civil War without going into the details of a single battle, which makes this book very different from regular Civil War books. The Civil War era in North Carolina is expressed in this book by the use of the National Guard hunting down deserters, by women showing great perseverance while their husbands and sons are away fighting, and by the physical trauma and mental health caused by the war. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The Home Guards were groups of Confederate soldiers who sought out deserters and brought them back to fight or killed them for their crimes. Inman encountered the National Guard on several occasions in the book. The first encounter Inman had with the National Guard was when he met Junior. This meeting occurred after Junior convinced Lila to drug Inman and then tell Veasey and Inman that he had gone to get the National Guard. The book then went on to say that the National Guard pays Junior, "five dollars each for every outlier I deliver." This gives people an incentive to report any defectors they see as they were all very poor at the time. Inman spent the next few days “walking tied by the wrists to the end of a long rope with fifteen other men.” This shows how these poor men were treated during the Civil War era for not fighting in the war. Inman had his last encounter with the National Guard in the final chapter of the book. This happened when Inman and Stobrod were traveling and were spotted and trapped by the National Guard. Inman then decided to "charge directly into the ragtag group of scouts,... at full stride, he shot a rider from the saddle,... the two remaining riders were clustered together, one of the horses was on the ground and screaming, its rider he was grasping at his own leg, ... Inman raised the large pistol and the charge hit Teague in the chest and opened it. Inman knew there was a high possibility that these men would shoot and kill him and Stobrod, so he did so. 'only thing he could to protect them. It wasn't over yet, one of the knights ran away and Inman noticed that he was just a boy and wanted to spare him, but fear ended up shooting and killing Inman was ruthless in finding and killing deserters, and Charles Frazier shows this part of the Civil War era very well in the book. Cold Mountain shows how women during the Civil War learned quickly and took on roles that husbands and sons usually filled. These roles were to manage their farms and search for food. Ada had recently lost her father and was left with the farm to look after, which she didn't know how to do. One afternoon a woman named Ruby came to the farm while Ada was sitting on the porch and asked her if she needed help saying, "if you have a horse I can plow all day." This is in response to Ada saying that the help she needs is very tiring and implying that it is a man's job. Ruby shows a change that is happening to women during the Civil War era. It is then that women learn that they must do strenuous work if they want to survive the war. The book also shows this when Ada, “slowly raised her gun aimed at the following birds, fired and to her great amazement the two.