Yes. My point was that if a soldier was married and had a family, it would affect his whole outlook on life and the war, and differently if his wife was with him or not. One imagines a considerable level of anxiety among men whose families were left at home. At the same time it might modify his behaviour in relation to treatment of women and children, rape etc. (I said 'might'). So I'm interested in who the men were who formed the army, not just regarding them as cogs in the military machine.

And again, my hunch is that if we knew a lot more about them, we would find that the popular images are quite incorrect. Imagine, for instance, that it was discovered that a large percentage of men in some regiments were married, religious, literate, skilled tradesmen. That would have to give a quite different picture of them and their behaviour than is usually projected.

Cheers

C