The book What They Fought For is a detailed accumulation of accounts from soldiers who battled for both sides in the bloodiest and most gruesome battle in modern United States history, the Civil War. The book was an interesting read into the thoughts of those who helped in shaping modern day civilization. We get to see just how personal some of the men’s motives for fighting were, and dive deeper into the big question the book imposes: did they know what it was they were in a war for? I think that they had an adequate understanding as to what was at stake.
The Union’s primary goal was to defeat the Confederate Army, otherwise known as the “Rebels”. The Rebels were taking over the Union’s land and practicing inhumane habits and had selfish tendencies. The Union soldiers wanted to preserve the land that America’s founders worked so hard for, as stated by a Michigan soldier who said, “Traitors who sought to tear down and break into fragments the glorious temple that our forefathers reared with blood and tears (McPherson 28).” The nation was attacked by the Confederates, and they wanted to rid their land of them. Almost all the soldiers were in agreeance to want to “…kill them all off and cleanse the country… (McPherson 40).” Some soldiers, the idealists, agreed that the “…contest is now between slavery & freedom & every honest man knows what he’s fighting for (McPherson 62).” The pragmatists were “…in favor of killing slavery (McPherson 20),” and it was later said that this “…punishment is light when compared with what justice demanded (McPherson 41).” This demonstrates how the Union killing the Confederates was an easier punishment compared to what they deserved. It can be presumed that the Union had a drive to preserve their land and kill the Rebels, but some soldiers were out for revenge. One soldier saw his brother killed almost right by his side, and this “…did not improve his opinion of the Rebels (McPherson 39).” Another soldier had seen his two friends killed in a ditch during an ambush. Both the Confederates and Unionists wanted to get revenge for the opposing side killing their men. Other men were fighting for the end of slavery. Though, this didn’t mean the Union felt equal to the blacks. They may have hated slavery, but still felt the blacks were inferior to whites. This subject, along with preserving and keeping the peace of our nation, is one of the most important reasons for fighting. The Confederates were destroying too many lives of good people, and this needed to be put to an end.
The Rebels aimed to protect their land, families and other southerners from the so called “tyranny” of the North. Most of the letters and diary entries written by the Rebels were based on “liberty and self-government with expressions of a willingness to die for the cause (McPherson 10).” The Confederates had the lower hand at several points in the war, and they still had “…the determination to die rather than be conquered (McPherson 12).” The Confederate army repeatedly expressed their willingness to die working hard to defend their country rather than living and be subjugated. Patriotic motives were much of the expressions that were written in diaries and letters during the war. Like the Union, the Confederates were fighting for what appeared to be the same fight of their 1776 forefathers. They would’ve been in disbelief to learn their enemies were also trying to “…[uphold] the legacy of the American Revolution (McPherson 27).”
Slavery was a big motive for the Confederates to keep fighting, because it was a matter they didn’t want to lose. They saw the country as nothing without having slaves, as told by a Mississippi lieutenant, “this country without slave labor would be completely worthless…if the negroes were freed the country…is not worth fighting for…we can only live & exist by that species of labor: and hence I am willing to continue to fight to the last… (McPherson 48).” Although, some letters recollect that Confederates were fighting “…for liberty and against slavery– that is, against their own enslavement to the North (McPherson 49).” This concept appears unfair to me, because the North wasn’t enslaving the Confederate army at all, rather the Confederate Army decided to declare war after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which only wanted to help the country from falling apart due to slavery. The Confederates may have stated they were fighting for their liberty, but it is clear they wanted slavery more. Interestingly enough, “…most Confederates believed that they were fighting for liberty and slavery, one and inseparable (McPherson 51).” The Confederates seem mostly in agreeance for what their side was fighting for, but with having a few minor diversions from the set main goal.
At the beginning of chapter two, the book imposes a big question as to why the North kept fighting, and this question appears to be one many have had. The North wasn’t going to just give this fight up. They were going to put an end to the inhumanities that the Confederates offered, and end slavery. Even though the Confederate army appeared to have slight compassion and want liberty and *not* slavery, that couldn’t be further from the truth, “Although only 20 percent of the soldiers avowed explicit proslavery purposes in their letters and diaries, none at all dissented from that view (McPherson 54).” This goes to show that the Confederate Army was for slavery 100% in some shape or form, because none of them disagreed.
So, in one of the most major battles that shaped our country as it stands currently, it appeared that both the Union and the Confederacy had a pretty good idea of their side’s position and roll in it. The North initially sought to maintain the sanctity of the Union after the Battle of Fort Sumter, while the South looked to secede and thus rule themselves, breaking off from what they saw as a tyrannical and oppressive governmental system. Slavery was a call for action for both sides, though the Union didn’t recognize it from the beginning, whereas the Confederacy’s reasonings were deeply rooted in it.
Works Cited
McPherson, James. What They Fought For. Anchor Books, 1994. Print.