ipl-logo

What Motivated The Soldiers In The Civil War Essay

993 Words4 Pages

Ever since the end of the Civil War, historians have been highly intrigued in identifying the reasons that motivated the soldiers both the northerners as well as the southerners to fight. There have been differing opinions given by historians depending on how they interpreted the reasons for why the soldiers fought in the Civil War. The Civil War holds its uniqueness both in the American history as well as the world history due to its intensity and massacre. When the war was declared, the initial impulse was merely the military rage, but in this scenario, the initial excitement did not slow down as if the men were being driven by something big. In any other war, the soldiers' eagerness would have declined with the passage of time, but in this …show more content…

McPherson in his book, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War has identified that regardless of all other issues, the most significant factors that became the motivators for the people to join the army were a combination of duty, honor and patriotism. Both the ideas of duty and honor were "powerful motivating sources" (McPherson, p. 5) for the soldiers. As compared to what others believed, ethnic hatred and religious fanaticism were not the issue but the confederacy valued personal honor more than their lives. McPherson (p. 77) believes that "personal honor is the one thing valued more than itself by the majority of men." The Union soldiers spoke of duty while the Confederate soldiers spoke of honor that motivated them to risk their lives. This division between the soldiers was due to the fact that the Southerners held a high sense of honor and believed in holding a high public reputation whereas, the focus of the Northerners was on their own ethics and conscience (McPherson, p. …show more content…

Furthermore, "most Southern volunteers believed they were fighting for liberty as well as slavery" (McPherson, p. 20). The southerners fought for their independence and the right of their state unlike slavery being the cause of Civil War as has been highlighted in the history The Southern soldiers were strong in their belief that fighting is the only way through which they could actually preserve their Southern nation and if they backed off from the war they would "no longer have a country worthy of the name" (McPherson, p. 99). Southerners refused that they fought for slavery as they strongly believed in preserving the honor and culture of their Southern

Show More
Related

Compare And Contrast Makers Of America And Billy Reb

299 Words | 2 Pages

In Makers of America: Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, it was interesting to learn that Union and Confederate soldiers shared a common commitment to fight for the cause of liberty, independence, and republican government. However, their interpretation of liberty, independence, and government are very different. The societies from the Union were more literate, intellectual, practical, and efficient. Therefore, they abolished slavery because they think it was immoral and favored a strong central government to make things efficient. The societies from the Confederate were more emotional, religious, and personal.

Read More

What They Fought For Chapter Summaries

156 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More

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

997 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

The View From The Ground Chapter Summary

804 Words | 4 Pages

Summary: The View from the Ground: Experiences of Civil War Soldiers is a collection of writings in which men and women express their views on the situations regarding the war such as slavery, racism, and even their faith. Several Civil War scholars used diaries from soldiers themselves to gain their views on the Emancipation, the conflicts between Union and Confederate soldiers, and the horrible truth of what warfare is. The book begins by examining the questions that

Read More

James M. Mcpherson's What They Fought For: 1861-1865

1091 Words | 5 Pages

The United States Civil War is possible one of the most meaningful, bloodstained and controversial war fought in American history. Northern Americans against Southern Americans fought against one another for a variety of motives. These motives aroused from a wide range of ideologies that stirred around the states. In James M. McPherson’s What they fought for: 1861-1865, he analyzes the Union and Confederate soldier’s morale and ideological components through the letters they wrote to love ones while at war. While, John WhiteClay Chambers and G. Kurt Piehler depict Civil War soldiers through their letters detailing the agonizing battles of war in Major Problems in American Military History.

Read More

Analysis Of Killer Angels By Michael Shaara

931 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Victim And Free State Of Jones

1533 Words | 7 Pages

While the popular image of the Confederacy, and indeed the Secessionist Southern States as a whole, are looked at as containing white populations uniformly supportive of the Confederate cause, the reality is more complex. As portrayed in Victims: A True Story of the Civil War and Free State of Jones there existed sizable pockets of dissent among the populace whom the Confederate government failed to convert to the cause. In places like the mountains of western North Carolina and southeastern Mississippi this led to desertion, passive resistance, and even outright armed rebellion which sapped Confederate resources that were needed to continue to fight the Union. Though this anti-Confederate feeling would often translate into support for the Union, this was not based on some inherent loyalty to the Federal government. As shown in Victims and Free State of Jones the disunity within the Confederacy stemmed from the failure of the Confederate government to get their non-slave holding lower classes to buy into the pro-slavery ideology of the nation, which was compounded by the lower classes bearing many of the harsh measures of the war including the draft and the

Read More

Civil War Chapter Summaries

793 Words | 4 Pages

Nationalism was a big factor, both Union like Confederate soldiers believed in making their fellow founding fathers proud of what they had become. The book portrays the Confederate soldiers as proud of being “rebels”, quoting names like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson as examples of “rebellious” men in their time period. The Unionists stuck to their idealism of preserving the union, making nationalism more prominent in their area. Both sides also appealed to what the United States was founded on, freedom and liberty. The Unionists believed that they should conserve the government which granted everyone liberty.

Read More

Reconstruction Dbq

1103 Words | 5 Pages

During the war, Confederate soldiers lived struggle filled lives, constantly having their lives threatened by starvation, hunger, exhaustion, and diseases. Southern desires that caused

Read More

Essay On Confederate Soldiers In The Civil War

1432 Words | 6 Pages

From the beginning of the Civil War, the Union and Confederate soldiers had preconceived notions, yet similar views, about one another. One example was both Secessionists (Confederacy) and Unionists agreed that the war was brought on by a ‘political treachery’ and it was this treachery that governed the military actions of either side, that it shouldn’t have come to war. Throughout the course of the war, the North and South both engaged in actions that were seen as less than noble, and even mentally cruel. One young Union Soldier recalled a late night in which his group heard cowbells in the woods; believing it was just cows roaming around.

Read More

Essay On Confederate Soldiers During The Civil War

737 Words | 3 Pages

Logan Fuller-Delmont 6/8/16 Period 3 English 9 During the civil war the lives of the soldiers in the union and confederate armies had many differences but also many similarities. They are different and similar in the food they eat to the medical treatment they received throughout their lives as soldiers. Some of them are small things and others are bigger in differences. For starters I shall note some of the differences in the soldiers between the Northern also known as The Union and the Southern also known as The Confederates the average soldier for the Union were between the ages of eighteen through thirty-nine, while the Confederates soldiers were around the ages of sixteen through forty-nine years old. At first the average

Read More

Civil War Dbq Essay

1049 Words | 5 Pages

The Civil War was a terrible tragedy that affected millions of people, but helped toward the abolition of slavery. Compromises over slavery failed, huge disagreements over slavery developed, and the people were in outrage in both the North and South. Slavery was the main reason for sectionalism and the outrage over it. The nation was divided on the subject. Ultimately, sectionalism slavery were the main reasons for the Civil War.

Read More

Sojourner Truth: African-American Women During The Civil War

956 Words | 4 Pages

The Civil War was about the treatments of slaves and why slavery should be abolished. When the Union was fighting the Confederates, multiple African Americans volunteered because they felt they needed to be part of the cause (29). One flaw was that many African American troops were discriminated against, leading to a lack of supplies, such as food, weapons, and clothes (29). Most of the time, the weapons would be broken, or they would run out of ammo. Food disappeared quickly, and their uniforms were tattered and the fitting was wrong (30).

Read More

Civil War Dbq Essay

1328 Words | 6 Pages

African Americans played a major role in the causes and effects of the Civil War. Between 1861 and 1870, African American slaves went from being the reason why the war started to changing the nation to allow more rights for blacks. Before the war, African Americans were treated horribly whether they were free or enslaved. There were many occurrences that diminished the rights of blacks. Due to the fact that African American slaves were running away from their owners to the North, the Fugitive Slave Act was established in the Compromise of 1850.

Read More

Confederates In The Attic Analysis

1063 Words | 5 Pages

The living legacy of the United States Civil War is a complicated time in American history one finds difficult to describe. The ramification of the war prior, during and after still haunt the current citizens who call The States their home. Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War looks at the wide gap of discontent that still looms in the late 1990s. For some southerners, the Confederacy still lives on through reenactments, stories and beliefs. For others in the South, reminders the land was dedicated to the Confederacy spark hatred and spite.

Read More

More about What Motivated The Soldiers In The Civil War Essay

Related Topics

Open Document