James McPherson presents three short discourses on the crucial inquiry of why men in blue and ash diligently attempted to execute each other from 1861-1865. McPherson inspects, in an exceedingly casual manner why men enrolled and why they battled until death or the end of war constrained them to forsake the challenge. In a candid and unashamedly revisionist approach he declares that belief system played a much more imperative part than formerly accepted. The impression perseveres that Civil War warriors, in the same way as their more present day partners, had practically no clue about what they were battling for. The beginning of the book depicts the side of the confederates, the southern oppressionist who spited the Yankees of the north.
The American Civil War has become a point of controversy and argument when discussing key events in shaping America. The arguments that arise when discussing the war tend to focus on whether the Confederate was constitutionally justified in seceding, or whether the North had the right to prevent the secession. However, when discussing the America Civil War and the idea of separation, it is important to be mindful that separation did not simply end at the state level. Letters written by Jesse Rolston, Jr. and Jedediah Hotchkiss portray two significantly different attitudes toward the war, despite the fact that the writers both fought for the Confederate States and give accounts of the same battle, one of which ended in the Confederate’s favor. When examining the documents, both writers express different viewpoints on life on and off the battlefield. This significant difference represents a division amongst the Confederate army.
In the first chapter it shows the side of the southern Confederate armies. They start to compare the Civil War to the Revolutionary War. Their enemies, known as Northern Yankees, were nothing more than just dictators trying to destroy the south. It’s the same technique the British did to the colonists almost a century ago. This is what gave them their southern freedom, by walking in the shoes of their forefathers and fight for their liberties and constitutional rights. He then starts to talk about the Confederates lives by the letters and journals that they wrote during the Civil War. Each letter talks about different things; how the Southern soldiers felt about the war, talks about their enemies the Yanks, slaves,
If the north was to succeed, they would forever be oppressed by their victory, and slaves of their achievements. The Confederates fought to promote the wellbeing of their family and the protection of their land “from Yankee outrage and atrocity”(Mc.Pherson 20) .
The book Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam, was written by James M. McPherson to argue why the Battle of Antietam was the battle that changed the cause of the Civil War. While McPherson argued this he also argues that the Civil War had many other turning points and was not settled by just one battle. McPherson’s targeted audience would have to be those interested in the Civil War and the events that led to it. McPherson wrote this great book which came to be an important contribution to our collective historical knowledge and understanding because this book explains the important arguments that took place and made the Civil War happen and stop.
The American Civil war is considered to be one of the most defining moments in American history. It is the war that shaped the social, political and economic structure with a broader prospect of unifying the states and hence leading to this ideal nation of unified states as it is today. In the book “Confederates in the Attic”, the author Tony Horwitz gives an account of his year long exploration through the places where the U.S. Civil War was fought. He took his childhood interest in the Civil War to a new level by traveling around the South in search of Civil War relics, battle fields, and most importantly stories. The title “Confederates in the Attic”: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War carries two meanings in Tony Horwitz’s
The presidency of Abraham Lincoln came during a highly radical and chaotic period of American history. For historians such as James McPherson, they see Lincoln as the greatest leader in American history. For McPherson, Lincoln succeeded in combining military pragmatism with the political ideologies of the North, as well as Lincoln’s own idealism, thus assuring Northern victory. However, not all historians agree that Lincoln was a masterful tactician. Chester Hearn, believes that although Abraham Lincoln was one of America’s most venerable statesmen, his presidency was marked by flaws and a general misunderstanding of how war is waged. McPherson’s Tried by War and Hearn’s Lincoln, The Cabinet and the Generals, make the argument for each of
In his conclusion, McPherson answer what may lead one to ask if the American Civil War was indeed an extraordinary revolution, one whose likes the world had ever seen. The answer lies in the exact opposite of revolution. Counterrevolution occurred at first chance which in so many ways blanketed the revolutionary characteristics to the best of its applicability. From 1865 to 1866, immediately after the war, black codes began to surface. The purpose of these codes were to keep black labor in a state of dependence and subjection as close to slavery as possible. These codes appeared in the forms of vagrancy laws, contract labor laws the subjected freedmen to peonage and sharecropping, and violence. This code also makes for the final piece of evidence toward support of McPherson’s goal in categorizing the American Civil War as a revolution. Southern redeemers, after the withdrawal of northern Republican interest, went through great lengths to counter evolve them. Why would that be? In order to
James M. McPherson, author of For Cause and Comrades, uses more than 25,000 unaltered letters and closely 250 private journals from Civil War soldiers—both Union and Confederate—in his attempt to explain what possessed these men to endure the roaring, gruesome chaos of war. What better way to express the motivation behind fighting than words straight from the pens of the men who were physically there and experienced the Civil War to its fullest? I personally feel as though McPherson succeeded in his explanation of the different driving forces that kept each man going during these difficult years of battle. The Wall Street Journal describes McPherson’s work as “an extraordinary book, full of fascinating details and moving self-portraits.”
During the Civil War, there were two sides, the Confederate Army and the Union Army. While the Confederates fought for slavery, the Union fought for their freedom. While the
James M. McPherson sets out to discover what motivated the Confederate and Union soldiers to continue fighting in the Civil War in his book What They Fought For. McPherson analyses nearly a thousand letters, journals, and diary of Union and Confederate soldiers to determine what urged them to fight is this defining American Conflict. McPherson reads and groups together the common thoughts of the everyday soldier, from their letters and journals that none of which had been subjected to any sort of censorship, in that time period. He then generalizes the motivations that they used to fight for their country. Whether it be for slavery or for the Union, the author views both sides of the fighting to analysis their ideological issues, how deep their belief coursed through their veins to continue fighting, and how the soldiers held their convictions close to heart in the time of war.
This book was a good analysis of Civil War soldiers' diaries, and letters to their loved ones. Which explains what they were going through in their lives and what they fought for and risked their lives for in this conflict. In the book the author James M. McPherson uses information from l00's of diaries and letters from the soldiers to learn why they fought in this war. The Union soldiers fought to preserve the Nation that was created in 1776, to save it from destruction. The Confederate soldiers fought for their independence, liberty, self government, and for revenge.
The American Civil War was a military conflict between the United States of America (the Union), and 11 secessionist Southern states, organized as the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). It was the culmination of four decades of intense sectional conflict and it reflected deep-seated economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. Many books have been written on this “first modern war” describing how over 620,000 men were killed. Jeff Shaara goes deeper and explores the personal conflicts of four historical figures, two from the South and two from North: General Lee, General Jackson, Colonel Chamberlain, and Hancock.
No other war seems to hold our focus like the Civil War. Scholars have chosen to make it their life's work, authors have written reams about it, and we all feel some kind of connection to the Civil War. This paper was created to highlight some of the major battles that took place during that conflict. Major battles usually marked a drastic change in the momentum from one side to the other or led to massive losses of troops. These battles and their results all played a huge part in the outcome of the war.
The opening chapter of the book is mostly a plot overview of the events that had yet to come. Fratricide, Meaning one that murders or kills an individual (as a countryman) having a relationship like that of a brother or sister, and Rage Military were the main themes of the opening chapters. The fact intrigued me that the Civil War so divided this country that family members would choose opposite sides of this most
In 1994, McPherson wrote the book, What They Fought For: 1861-1865, about his exploration on the motivations of the soldiers that fought in the Civil War (“James M. McPherson” par. 6). He analyzed the letters and diaries of twenty-five thousand soldiers, ultimately determining the reasons for the soldier’s continuance to fight during the Civil War.