Taylor Headrick
Review of: McPherson, James M. For Cause & Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
In James M. McPherson’s book, For Cause & Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, he investigates Civil War soldiers’ diaries to discover why men from both sides chose to fight in the Civil War while also examining the different motives for each side. McPherson challenges traditional knowledge about the motives and mentalities of Civil War soldiers, offers new insight that differs from typical historians, and provides readers with specific details from soldiers’ journals and letters. While naming his wife and Civil War soldiers as his co-authors, McPherson also dedicated his book to his fellow scholars,
…show more content…
Even though McPherson’s discoveries are different from most historians, he proves his thesis with strong arguments, supportive evidence, various sources, and clear information prior to and after the Civil War. By investigating events in chronological order, McPherson allows readers to learn exactly how and why men became motivated to become soldiers in the Civil War. Once McPherson set the scene with information prior to the Civil War, he began to examine the different categories of motivation for men from both sides who enlisted in the Civil War. Traditionally, historians say duty, honor, and strong beliefs are what caused men to become soldiers …show more content…
In McPherson’s final chapters, he examines the need for revenge from both sides. On page 147, McPherson states, “The darker passions of hatred and revenge also motivated men to kill.” According to McPherson, the passions and motivations of soldiers became stronger as the war continued. McPherson provides proof that shows how men were fueled by the thought of revenge on the other side throughout the war by stating on page 153, “…the motives of hatred and revenge burned with a white-hot intensity.” McPherson investigated the journals of soldiers who were exhausted, full of hatred, and wanted to win the war for their side. Even though soldiers wanted to win the war for their side so badly, they wanted to see their enemy suffer just as badly, but possibly even more. A quote McPherson included from a soldier’s journal on page 153 reads, “’[We] will have an eye for eye and toth for toth…if I live, I will be revenged. Yes I will draw their blood and mutilate their dead bodies and help send their souls to hell.’” Even though there are many motives for why men fought in the Civil War, revenge was a shared motive for both sides that pushed men to their limits during the Civil War. Through McPherson’s use of soldiers’ diaries and letters, it is clear that revenge was an irrefutable motive for soldiers to fight and continue to fight until the
However, within McPherson’s book, he supports the idea that soldiers motives within the Civil War may have been influenced by social pressure, companionship, “masculinity; concepts of duty, honor, and courage” (McPherson pg. 1). Men who did not fight for this reason fought for their country as many believed that if “Our Fathers made this country, we, their children are to save it”
The goal of this section of the book is to expose the little details of the American Civil War that greatly impacted the future of a young United States. What this part really stresses is how close Robert E. Lee was to extending the war, which could have greatly changed the history of the United States. The time period of the war that this book focuses on is towards the end of the war. Lee’s men are incredibly out-numbered, starving, exhausted, and losing motivation to fight. It seems like at this point in the war, most of Lee’s men were beginning to realize that the odds of the Confederacy winning this gruesome, unnecessary war were slim to none.
Innately people can be selfish, so in times when not only their own livelihood is in danger, but the lives of thousands is when a spotlight illuminates from the writer’s pen of Shelby Foote. The Civil War was not fought by superheroes, but by soldiers and he makes this clear. Foote shows us that being heroic can only be in instances and gives cases where soldiers were unheroic to paint the entire picture for readers to make their own conclusions. Dramatic irony is drawn from his toolbox to further drive home this point. Shakespearean moments that Foote could not even dream of are included for both the pleasure in telling the story and telling more about the war itself, even more specifically the Seven Days Battles.
As a farmer, James Kelso may not have known much about the savagery that was associated with war, however he would soon learn. After signing up to fight for the Union cause, Kelso recruited men from Cumberland County as well as neighboring areas, to form Company D of the 130th Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Bravery may have seemed like something that was running rampant throughout the countryside considering the number of men that signed up to join both the Union and Confederacy, however war has a way of turning the bravest of men into cowards. The fact that Kelso rallied his town to join the Union provides valuable insight into the close knit nature of the town of Shippensburg.
James M. McPherson’s For Cause & Comrades analyzes and discusses the different reasons why men fought and died in the Civil War. McPherson uses the journals and letters of 1076 soldiers, 647 from the Union army and 429 from the Confederacy. Using these first-hand accounts of the war, McPherson aims to answer the question of how and why soldiers participated in the war. McPherson’s thesis contends that “Duty and honor were indeed powerful motivating forces.
The Civil War remains one of the most devastating, horrific conflicts in American history. During this period of time, relationships with family and friends disintegrated as everyone decided whether they would side with the North’s cause, the South’s cause, or stay neutral. Men were being killed left and right, both on the Union and Confederate side; they urgently needed more men in their armies. In order to obtain a larger army, people must be persuaded that putting their lives on the line for this cause is what they truly want to do. Though that may seem like a rather arduous task, Alfred M. Green proved with his speech delivered to slaves in 1861 that persuasive words and tone is key.
The United States Civil War is possible one of the most meaningful, bloodstained and controversial war fought in American history. Northern Americans against Southern Americans fought against one another for a variety of motives. These motives aroused from a wide range of ideologies that stirred around the states. In James M. McPherson’s What they fought for: 1861-1865, he analyzes the Union and Confederate soldier’s morale and ideological components through the letters they wrote to love ones while at war. While, John WhiteClay Chambers and G. Kurt Piehler depict Civil War soldiers through their letters detailing the agonizing battles of war in Major Problems in American Military History.
McPherson addresses an issue/problem people have had when we talk/write about the Civil War. That problem is what was both sides truly fighting for. This war broke up the Union into two parts, North and South. Without the war happening, America would not be same America as today. We as Americans need to know the real reason why in 1861, the North and South went against each other and that was because of slavery.
Life for the Union Soldier was not only brutal on the battlefield, but the camp life for a Union soldier was just as cruel. With the lack of personal hygiene, unsavory and repugnant food, and the shortage of clothing made living, a very difficult thing to do. Growth in the number of people with diseases was also a contributing factor to the massive amounts of death within the camp and as well as the post-battle wounds that often left either a man with one less limb or put in a mental institution. A Union Soldier’s life during the Civil War was cruel and horrific during their stay at the camps.
Green expresses the importance of determination towards fighting for rights and freedom. He states, “While we remember the past and regret that our present position in the country is not such as to create within us that burning zeal and enthusiasm for the field of battle which inspires other men in the full enjoyment of every civil and religious emolument…,” (Green 25-30). He describes the significance of creating enthusiasm and determination in battle, as it could inspire other men in the army to fight with enthusiasm and with a strive to win. Using passionate topics like religion and patriotism, he gets his audience to feel all kinds of emotions such as motivation, confidence, boldness, and persistence. He also inspires hope for the future by describing what changes could be made in the future if the Union army actually succeeds in winning the war.
While the effort of America was important in winning the war, there was a lot of discrimination and prejudice against blacks, Native Americans, women, and homosexuals within the military. The men who fought in the war saw terrible conditions and many had mental breakdowns. This chapter in the book explains the deaths that many soldiers witnessed and how many men became separated from humanity. This caused many soldiers to become insane. The final two chapters in the book talk about changes in the American society throughout the war and the results from the war.
The draft pulled them into it. They did not want to dishonor their fathers, their country and society who told them fighting is honorable. In “The Things They Carried,” it was this ‘dishonor’ that had lead them to enter the war, it was “nothing
In chapter one of What They Fought For, I learned about the letters and diaries of the Confederate soldiers. The themes of the letters were home-sickness, lack of peace, and the defense of home against their invading enemy. The thought of soldiers fighting for their homes and being threatened by invaders, made them stronger when facing adversity. Many men expressed that they would rather die fighting for a cause, than dying without trying and this commitment showed patriotism. Throughout the letters, soldiers claimed their reason for fighting, was for the principles of Constitutional liberty and self-government.
The living legacy of the United States Civil War is a complicated time in American history one finds difficult to describe. The ramification of the war prior, during and after still haunt the current citizens who call The States their home. Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War looks at the wide gap of discontent that still looms in the late 1990s. For some southerners, the Confederacy still lives on through reenactments, stories and beliefs. For others in the South, reminders the land was dedicated to the Confederacy spark hatred and spite.
American Civil War historian, James M. McPherson, in his essay How Lincoln Won the War with Metaphors, argues that if the Union and the Confederacy had exchanged presidents the Confederacy might have won the war. He supports his claim by comparing and contrasting Jefferson Davis’s lack of ability to communicate in an uplifting fashion to Abraham Lincoln’s use of figurative language, especially his metaphors that have the persuasive power of concreteness and clarity which everyone understands and by providing numerous examples of Lincolns metaphors. McPherson’s purpose is to demonstrate how Lincoln was a powerful leader due to his ability to communicate in an inspiring way and appeal to the peoples’ emotions through his use of figurative language