Summary Of Killer Angels

The story Killer Angels provides an in-depth perspective of both Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War. The author, Michael Shaara, accomplishes a special feat due to the fact that throughout the novel he rarely breaks away from the factual aspects of America's bloodiest war. The Civil War had seemingly various causes despite numerous soldiers and outsiders believing it was entirely about slavery. The Union and Confederates weren't just fighting over the rights and ideas of slavery, they were fighting for much more. It was a power struggle. Throughout all of history, it has been perceived that slavery was at the forefront of the causes of the Civil War. Slavery may be the common perception of why the war was fought, but in reality

They started to take a statistical approach. "The New York Times conducted an exercise in which they compared population growth, property values, manufacturing agriculture, railroads, canals etc;" (Foner 340) and with this research Republicans said "socially, economically, politically, the slave labor agriculture system is a failure" (Foner) It was clear that the South wasn't appealing to the North's moral stance on the subject of slavery so the North conducted this research to hopefully appeal in a more economic and political way. However, within the Republican argument was a major flaw. "The Republicans did not always make clear what it was in slavery that caused the impoverishment of the South" The logical and statistical approach was dismissed by the South because they claimed that the negro was naturally lazy and wasteful. Eventually the disagreement would lead to a war over each side's moral and political

From the North's perspective they couldn't understand why the South would fight for such a ignoble cause. A cause that treated other human beings so inhumanely and unethically. From the South's point of view, they just wanted freedom to govern and live by their own rules and standards. They believed that the Union didn't have a place for them and that they were going to establish themselves as their own entity. Neither the Union or Confederate understood the other's perspective and this power struggle along with the confusion led to America's bloodiest war. The most disgusting part being that numerous soldiers didn't know why they were fighting. " Things I cannot understand. Things I never will understand. How they can fight so hard, them johnnies, and all for slavery." They fought for pride, manhood, duty, and for the their country. They didn't necessarily have to believe in the immorality or morality of slavery, they just had to fight for the pride and justice of their people's beliefs and morals much like we do today. "Chamberlain raised his head. He had forgotten the cause. When the guns began firing he had forgotten it completely." In the midst of war, soldiers are so absorbed by pride, fear, and adrenaline, they can't quite grasp the reasoning for their