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Review Of For Cause And Comrades: Why Men Fought In The Civil War

997 Words4 Pages

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

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