Still a very sad point of the war, particularly in the west, that so many died and their families never knew what happenned to them. Toby MaGuire's character is making a joke of it but the point remains that in the type of war they were fighting it was a very real possibility they could be killed and their families would never know.

For those unfamiliar with the fictional movie "Ride with the Devil", Toby Maguire's character is Jake Rydell, a Missouri bushwhacker. He gets his pinky finger shot off in a fight with Union troops and later tells a humorous story of 'the good of it'. 'The good of it' being that if he gets killed in the bush and his body decomposes someone will see the missing pinky and recognize "that's nubbin finger Jake Rydell" and they can tell his father so he won't be "tormented by uncertain wonders". The movie ignores our modern political correctness and propoganda and therefore the movie's marketing was suppressed so many have never heard of it. It can be found via eBay or Amazon and is probably inexpensive -- sometime back I bought the DVD for about $4.

Ken