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Civil War Dbq Essay

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Hundreds of years of slavery. Millions of innocent lives were lost. If America did not have the Civil War, how much longer would it take until Black Americans would be fully considered equal? Would Black Americans still be used as slaves today? The outcome of the war rather than abolishing slavery was devastating, but if a war this awful needed to happen to stop slavery, then it shows how immense the amount of unethicalness of owning a person is. The Civil War was the first large step in abolishing slavery, and without it, Black Americans could still be treated the same way today as they were in the 1800s. What is a patriotism? It’s fighting for your country, willingness to give your life for your country, and being proud of your country. The …show more content…

What were they battling for? Their country. That may be what they were led to believe, but in reality, they were fighting the enslavement of people, separating their families and beating them for not working hard enough. All of this war just so Southern crop and cotton kings could continue to be rich. Also, “pent-up feelings”? The Confederates were blissfully ignorant of the pent-up feeling of those forced to do grueling work all day. Nice to see that they enjoyed the battle, though, and the screaming. Want to know what the Union saw from the other side of this shouting madness? Document E states, “What a horrible sight! There they were, human beings! Clad almost in rags, covered with dust, riding wildly, pell-mell down the hill towards our home! Shouting, yelling most unearthly, cursing, brandishing their revolvers, and firing right and left.” Later in this passage, the Rebels ransack these innocent people’s houses and demand a very large and expensive amount of resources. These were the people who wanted to keep …show more content…

Dying for something else? Just to go home, go be with their families that they were torn from by force. At least most of the men fighting in the Civil War got to say goodbye to their families and fight on free ground. The brave Black American troops were still enslaved while fighting, each giving their lives to achieve freedom. “...As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.” (Document C) In Document H, Confederate General John Imboden describes General Robert E. Lee as in deep melancholy for not winning the Battle of Gettysburg. “The moon shone full upon his massive features and revealed an expression of sadness that I had never before seen upon his face.” General Lee had presumably thought that the Confederacy was fighting for the freedom of America and Americans' rights. He would say that slavery was constitutional and that fighting was necessary to earn their rights back. General Lee did not realize that freedom is for everyone. Of course, the soldiers fought bravely, even if they had bad beliefs, and many lives were

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To further explain, Lee joined the Confederacy because he felt it was his duty, as opposed to Chamberlain who decides to fight for a cause that he believes the United States stands for, equality. To further elaborate, Lee displayed extreme patriotism for the South, and as a result he felt a sense of obligation to fight for the South, although he was abandoning his post in the army, as he could not fight against his people. This quote indicates that Lee did not agree with the Southern traditions he was fighting the war to keep, but he fight for his people, no matter how much he disagreed with them. He could see no other choice, but to abandon the Union and join the Confederacy. Overall, Lee was a admirable soldier, however, it could be insinuated that because of his weak motive for joining the cause, the confederacy suffered.

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Some came because we were ashamed not too. Many came because it was the right thing to do. All of us have seen men die. Most of us never saw a black man back home. We think on that too.

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The General thought that slavery was immoral. He was fighting for his home state Virginia. Lee was a loyal person and did not want to fight against his state even though he did not support everything the Confederate army was fighting for. He swore to defend his ground, Lee was talking about the south, so he invades the North and he knew as napoleon knew that a defensive war leads to defeat. General Lee’s second in command was a man called James Longstreet.

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This could impact the motivation of any group of men fighting any kind of war. How could one be motivated to fight in a war that they know they are going to lose? This section of the book ends with a highly-detailed description of Lee surrendering to Grant. Lee never made it obvious to men of the Confederacy or the Union the fact that he had come to the point of surrender was internally and emotionally tearing him apart. Lee was always successful and rarely lost anything so one could understand how devastating of a day this was for General Robert E.

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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.

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What They Fought for Book Summary What They Fought For is a comprehensive analysis and reflection of the Union and Confederate sides in the Civil War. To preface, this book is written from the perspective of a third-party researcher, using historical quotes and letters that were archived. The book starts us off with the assertion that most people believe that the Civil War was a very cut-and-dry war, wherein both sides blindly agreed on the causes of why they were fighting. This quote by Brigadier General Marshall sums up this ideology the best, "Men do not fight for a cause but because they do not want to let their comrades down"(1). However, this could be further than the truth.

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On what we now know was to be the final day of battle General Robert E. Lee of the Confederates was pleased with the past two days of fighting. He wanted to continue his attack on the Union flanks but also wanted to once and for all break the Union line. Due to the lack of technology that allowed for easy communication the Confederate troops didn’t move forward as planned which made General Lee reconfigure his attack on the

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Robert E Lee once said, “I would rather die a thousand deaths than surrender.” The Civil War was the deadliest war fought in American history. There was the Unionist with 2,100,000 Unionist soldiers. Also, there were the Confederacy with 1,064,000 soldiers. The Confederacy was greatly outnumbered, but would not surrender no matter the circumstance.

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If General Lee had listened to General Longstreet during the Battle of Gettysburg, they probably would have won, thus leading to the ultimate victory of the Confederacy, since that battle was the turning point of the war. Since they did lose the war, they lost homes. Men, battle tired, worn, and defeated, returned back to their home states to find many of their homes destroyed. Not only homes were lost, but families were lost as well. Families lost fathers, brothers, and sons.

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Lee is a risk taker, and breaks many rules. He is a man of action, and that may have been Lee’s downfall. “They will break," Lee insists. He had directed Longstreet to make three different divisions. Longstreet passes the order along to his generals Pickett, Pettigrew, and Trimble.

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It has been a long 4 months since blood has been shed in the, already finished, Battle of Gettysburg. The battle lasted three long, hellish days, of blood, sickness, amputated limbs, death and everything else that comes along with war. For all that I know, General Lee is completely insane to have tried to invade the North; why would he do that? Already contradicting what I have previously said, insanity is not really the word; overconfidence would be it. Seeing as though he came from a series of wins, it is not a surprise that General Lee would become overconfident, but with overconfidence comes the sense that victory is guaranteed; which is not.

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The Civil War had the most dead men ever in US history. No ordinary person would want to be a part of that gruesome war. Why would Texans volunteer to fight in it then? This all started when “the glue that held America together began to unstick in 1820 (Background Essay)”. The main cause of the Civil War was slavery, which was a huge controversy between the North and South.

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In a letter from General Lee to Jefferson Davis (Doc C), it says “Therefore in all sincerity, request your excellency to take measures to supply my place.” “No one is more aware than myself of my inability for the duties of my position.” This shows that Robert E. Lee didn’t have confidence in himself or the Confederacy winning after the Battle of Gettysburg, and this is a reason on how the battle was a turning point in the Civil War.

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Throughout time, war has plagued the earth with its devious nature and gruesome conflict. However, as humans seek to create a civilization ideal for living, complete with peace and order, they must first suffer through the perils of war. One of the bloodiest conflicts in American history was that of the Civil War, which as seen in Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, was not only very complicated in strategy, but also in motivation. Both sides, Confederate and Union, had their own reasons for fighting. The North fought for preservation of the entire nation while The South fought for preservation of themselves.

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“It is good that war is so horrible or, we might grow to like it”-Robert E, Lee. Lee is saying that Texans didn’t want to go to war, but their willing to do it for their state’s rights. Events that lead up to the war was when Abraham Lincoln got elected because he was anti-slavery President, and he wanted to end slavery in the united states. Texans fought in The Civil War, to protect states rights, Texas secession, and slavery.

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