Jacob Walter was able to show in his diary the lack of caring the soldiers had for the people and the families they encountered. For example, while staying with a family who had a small baby, Mr. Walter gave the baby some brandy to drink. He continued to do this until the baby became intoxicated. The baby was intoxicated to the point that Mr. Walter had to hold the baby up so it would not fall down off the pillow. Mr. Walter commented on how fun this was and how it did not do any harm to the baby (pg.27). In my opinion, Mr. Walter did not know how the alcohol was affecting the little baby although he thought he did. This shows what little respect, for even the youngest members of society, the soldiers had. In another village, Mr. Walter told of how he began lying to the well-to-do peasant family that he was assigned to. He told the sister of the peasant man that he was once a Capuchin monk and therefore that was the reason why he was always reading. His fellow soldiers, who were also stationed in the little village, played along with the lies and began calling him by various fake names. By the end of their stay in the village, Mr. Walter’s host family became saddened by the fact he had to leave (pg. 29-30). Although Mr. Walter was assigned to this family, and therefore they had to provide him shelter and food, he exploited them in other ways. He exploited their emotions as well as everything else they had. This passage again shows the reader how much the Napoleonic army was willing to play on the emotions of the common people in order to get what they wanted and or needed. During this campaign, Mr. Walter was again still rather young. He was only about twenty-one years old when he was called up for duty the second time. As I stated before, I believe that age played a role in Mr. Walter’s immature behaviors. At the age of twenty-one, I do not believe that Mr. Walter had any factual knowledge concerning little babies. Therefore, an immature person would not think that alcohol would harm a young developing baby. In addition, at that young age, young people rarely care about how they make people feel or who they hurt. In regards to the well-to-do peasant family, I believe that Mr. Walter was comfortable with the idea that he would never see those people again so he had little, if any, concern for them when he was lying and exploiting their emotions.

As Mr. Walter’s journey continued, he and a few fellow soldiers found another village in which they stayed with a Jewish family. “The meals were usually attended by violence on account of stinginess and uncleanliness; and, since clean chinaware was always set up for the Jews, [they] took over all that chinaware and ate with it, causing such an uproar in the house that a crowd of people gathered in front of the house to listen” (pg. 8). These t

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