What They Fought For Essay, Research Paper

The author of the book What They Fought For is James M. McPherson. James McPherson is George Henry Davis Professor of American history at Princeton University. His other books include Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1989; and Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.In What They Fought For, James M. McPherson discovers what motivated the soldiers to fight during the Civil War. The principal sources used in the book are the personal letters and diaries written by the soldiers during their war experience. McPherson focuses on a range of attitudes and motives of the mostly volunteer soldiers, including peer pressure; group cohesion; male bonding; ideals of manhood and masculinity; concepts of duty, honor, and courage; functions of leadership, discipline, and coercion. McPherson tells us what each side fought for. The Confederates fought for liberty and independence from what they regarded as a tyrannical government; Unionists fought to preserve the nation created by the founders from dismemberment and destruction. Chapter 1 is entitled “The Holy Cause of Liberty and Independence.” This chapter takes a look at how the Confederate soldiers felt about the war. Bitter enmity and a desire for revenge became the consuming passion of many Confederate soldiers. Many of the diaries and letters were to the families saying that they would be back and they would fight to the end. The Confederates fought for their independence, for their property and way of life, and for their survival as a nation. Chapter 2 is entitled “The Best Government on God’s Footstool.” Throughout the chapter, it is seen that the Yankees did not have the same consciousness of fighting to defend home and families that the Confederates had. This chapter also takes a look at the Union side and what they fought for. The Yankees kept fighting because of the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln’s first and second inaugural address, and the peroration of his message to Congress on December 1, 1862. Like Lincoln, many northern soldiers saw secession as a deadly challenge to the foundation of law and order on which all societies must rest if they are not to degenerate into anarchy. The northerners had a better literacy and education rate than did the southerners and this was seen in the letters and the diaries that were written by the soldiers. The issue of slavery lay at heart of what many soldiers on both sides’ thought they were fighting for. But it was not a simple clear-cut issue, and for one side it threatened for a time to divide more than to unite them. The third chapter, “The War Will Never End Until We End Slavery,” analyzes the soldier’s perceptions of the slavery issue. It was seen that even in private letters, Confederate soldiers professed more often to fight for liberty and against slavery-that is, against their own enslavement to the North. On the other hand few Union soldiers professed to fight for racial equality. McPherson said that it had been a tragic war of brothers whose issues were best forgotten in the interest of family reconciliation and not of slavery. McPherson says that the only way we can really know and understand what the soldiers were feeling or fighting for is to read the letters and diaries.

I thought this book was pretty interesting. I enjoyed reading the letters and diaries of the soldiers and getting a better understanding of what they were feeling. I think the reason I enjoyed reading this book so much is because I ‘m from an area where the civil war took place. Since I’m from the south, I sometimes wonder what life would be like if the south had won. McPherson showed a lot of different viewpoints and opinions from the soldiers and I liked that.