What Is The Point Of View Of What This Cruel War By Chandra Manning

Chandra Manning expresses her interpretations in What this Cruel War was Over through analyzing soldiers’ journals and letters home. Throughout the content of the book, Manning effectively establishes why each soldier fought. She clearly defines the differences each confederate, white Union and African-American Union soldier believed and how those beliefs changed throughout the war. Manning also efficiently defines the similarities with the soldiers by using the commonality of liberty and patriotism, and what those ideals meant to each solider. Manning describes the Confederate troops’ initial motive as protecting manhood, family concerns, and self interests. Comparatively, white Union troops expressed their causation of war to preserve the United State constitution. The North also wanted to sustain the United States Government. However, many initial causes for the war changed once the

As aforementioned, the southern states fought to protect manhood, family concerns, and self interests. Coincidentally, their concerns corresponded with the issue of slavery. Although slavery was the main cause of the Civil War, the Union’s concept of liberty did not depend on the existence of slavery unlike the confederate’s. For example, Manning described a scene where Cyrus Boyd expressed their energy to win the war by the desire to protect the government which shined as a “beacon of liberty” for the oppressed. Comparatively, an example for the confederate’s angle was portrayed when a southern high ranking officer expressed that he had “family concerns” because having rebellious black people in his household was threatening to his family. The Union and Confederate armies obviously had different views of liberty. However, both armies were equally shocked when they received the news of the Emancipation