Book Review Of What This Cruel War Was Over By Chandra Manning

Chandra Manning’s book was, What This Cruel War Was Over is a great book that mixes civil war history, with first person accounts from the soldiers, which just brings history alive. Manning explores many topics throughout this book such the soldier’s family life, culture in both the north and south, and of course what the civil was over. Manning makes it very clear that the civil war was over slavery. I find this argument very convincing, because she uses ample of evidence supporting this statement through first person accounts, and it is a very simple and reasonable point to make when talking about the Civil War. However, I think she fails to recognize that there were other contributions that could easily be blamed for the Civil War, such

In the beginning of the book, Manning explains that soldiers on both sides of the war both fought because of slavery. This was shown by Manning on both sides. While quoting a union solider from the third Wisconsin, “‘the rebellion is abolotionizing the whole army.’ Time in the south forced troop ‘to face this sum of all evils, and cause of the war,’ slavery (45).” By quoting this union solider, she proves that the Union became an “abolitionist army” of sorts, with the goal of eventually eradicating slavery from the United States. On the opposite side, she quoted a confederate soldier, “James Williams fumed, ‘confound the whole set of psalm singing ‘bretheren’ and ‘sistern’ too. If it had not been for them…preaching abolitionism from every northern pulpit,’ William was convinced, ‘I would never have been soldiering (32).’” This thus

Manning displayed this through this quote from an African American solider, “We of the free states have yielded to this peculiar institution… until it has become so deeply rooted that [removing] it will shake the nation and our institutions to the very center.’ Like many of his fellow enlisted men, Bailey knew a revolution when he saw one (85).” This quote proves that the Emancipation Proclamation did not just free the slaves, but also increased the number of Union troops. This gives the Union an advantage in manpower. Manning then goes on to discuss how religion played in to the war. The common belief was that this was because both the North and South had sinned and they must suffer through this war to pay for their sins. Many Northern troops blamed the punishment of God on the south as they saw slavery as a sinful institution, “‘a curse… upon the country for the toleration