What they fought for analysis

In the book, he majorly focuses on motivations that influenced soldiers to fight, individually. He originally and exceptionally conducts a civil war analysis by collecting several diaries and letters of an estimated one thousand Union and Confederate soldiers. Through his actions he gave the late soldiers a voice as they risked their lives during the war. Though out the book he reveals that these soldiers had a sense of ideological commitment and patriotism during their time in combat, this counters the belief that they had little to no idea of what they were at war for. In their diaries and letters sent home, the soldiers communicated in writing, of the several issues they felt were connected to their experiences 1. He then goes on to observe, during the 18th century, slavery was a major part of livelihood and a crucial factor.

The southerners viewed slavery as a way of life while the Northerners shared their pragmatism and morality by accepting and supporting abolishment of slavery in a bid to preserve the Union. The author however, recognizes that the civil war was essentially a struggle of the 1776 heritage. In the struggle the northerners believed that the republican experiment would not survive if secession was legitimized and established while the southerners were struggling for freedom from a tyrannical government. It is estimated that over 80% of the combatants were all literate, revealing why McPherson’s sources reflect the experiences and characters of soldiers form the two sides of the war. This reveals why it is still referred to as the War of the Northern Aggression.

The North or the Union fought because they had to. Losing to the confederacy would be humiliating and eventual loss of freedom of the United States. Their soldiers stayed in battle as acts of patriotism by fighting rebels like the confederacy in a bid to protect the nation created by their forefathers. However, not all Union soldiers felt the same, a little more than half their army fought because they believed in the war unlike confederacy whose soldiers mainly fought in regard of their patriotism 3. His conclusion that most of them felt a keen sense of patriotic and ideological commitment counters the prevailing belief that Civil War soldiers had little or no idea of what they were fighting for. In their letters home and their diaries–neither of which were subject to censorship–these men were able to comment, in writing, on a wide variety of issues connected with their war experience.

Their insights show how deeply felt and strongly held their convictions were and reveal far more careful thought on the ideological issues of the war than has previously been thought to be true. Living only eighty years after the signing of the  Declaration of Independence, Civil War soldiers felt the legacy and responsibility entrusted to them by the Founding Fathers to preserve fragile democracy–be it through secession or union–as something worth dying for. In What They  Fought For, McPherson takes individual voices  and places them in the great and terrible choir of a country divided against itself. The result is both an impressive scholarly tour de force and a lively, highly accessible account of the sentiments  of both Northern and Southern soldiers during the national trauma of the Civil War.

SEE LESS In Battle Cry Of Freedom,  James M. McPherson presented a fascinating, concise  general history of the defining American conflict. With What They Fought For, he focuses his considerable talents on what motivated the individual soldier to fight. In an exceptional and highly original Civil War analysis, McPherson draws on the letters and diaries of nearly one thousand Union and Confederate soldiers, giving voice to the very men who risked their lives in the conflict. His conclusion that most of them felt a keen sense of patriotic and ideological commitment counters the prevailing belief that Civil War soldiers had little or no idea of what they were fighting for. In their letters home and their diaries–neither of which were subject to censorship–these men were able to comment, in writing, on a wide variety of issues connected with their war experience.

Their insights show how deeply felt and strongly held their convictions were and reveal far more careful thought on the ideological issues of the war than has previously been thought to be true. Living only eighty years after the signing of the  Declaration of Independence, Civil War soldiers felt the legacy and responsibility entrusted to them by the Founding Fathers to preserve fragile democracy–be it through secession or union–as something worth dying for. In What They  Fought For, McPherson takes individual voices  and places them in the great and terrible choir of a country divided against itself. The result is both an impressive scholarly tour de force and a lively, highly accessible account of the sentiments  of both Northern and Southern soldiers during the national trauma of the Civil War.