TFSmith121
Banned
You may wish to reconsider your opinion:
You may wish to reconsider your opinion; the Civil War generation in the north and west was very literate (90 percent of the US forces), was eager (in 1861-62) to volunteer, and understood both the risks and the point of nationalism (ie unionism vs secession); you may wish to consider the points presented by:
Gallagher, in The Union War;
Manning, in What This Cruel War was Over;
McPherson, in For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, and;
Wiley, in The Life of Billy Yank
are all pretty clear on this. Here's Gallagher, quoting Color Sgt. Peter Welsh, 28th Massachusetts Volunteers, in 1863:
Within the context of the mid-Nineteenth Century western world, the United States offered the broadest political franchise and the most economic opportunity. Vast numbers of immigrants believed that however difficult the circumstances they might find, relocation in the United States promised a brighter future. As one Irish-born Union soldier put it in early 1863...if the Union loses the war "then the hopes of millions fall and...the old cry will be sent forth from the aristocrats of europe that such is the common end of all republics." Without an appreciate of why the loyal citizenry went to great lengths to restore the Union, no accurate understanding of the era is possible....loyal citizens remained steadfast enough to push through to victory, despite far more casualties than in any previous war...they did so because they believed to do otherwise would betray the generation who established the Union as well as future generations..."
More than half a million men did volunteer for the US forces in 1861 alone because of slogans, headlines, chest thumping, or rhetoric...they saw the rebels as the oligarchs they were, to the extent of using such descriptions in private letters:
"I have faith in an overwhelming Providence, that He will not permit the triumph of so wicked and justice-destroying an Oligarchy as the Southern confederacy." Capt. D.S. Parker, 113th Illinois.
Gallagher's work goes on for 200 pages, based almost entirely on primary sources. The US volunteers knew what they were fighting about, certainly based on their private letters...
As a very astute historian once wrote, the vast majority of people write what they do because they believe it, and the historian who ignores what they write - especially at the time contemporaneous with the events under study, and especially when what is written was not for publication - does so at their peril.
Best,
You may wish to reconsider your opinion; the Civil War generation in the north and west was very literate (90 percent of the US forces), was eager (in 1861-62) to volunteer, and understood both the risks and the point of nationalism (ie unionism vs secession); you may wish to consider the points presented by:
Gallagher, in The Union War;
Manning, in What This Cruel War was Over;
McPherson, in For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, and;
Wiley, in The Life of Billy Yank
are all pretty clear on this. Here's Gallagher, quoting Color Sgt. Peter Welsh, 28th Massachusetts Volunteers, in 1863:
Within the context of the mid-Nineteenth Century western world, the United States offered the broadest political franchise and the most economic opportunity. Vast numbers of immigrants believed that however difficult the circumstances they might find, relocation in the United States promised a brighter future. As one Irish-born Union soldier put it in early 1863...if the Union loses the war "then the hopes of millions fall and...the old cry will be sent forth from the aristocrats of europe that such is the common end of all republics." Without an appreciate of why the loyal citizenry went to great lengths to restore the Union, no accurate understanding of the era is possible....loyal citizens remained steadfast enough to push through to victory, despite far more casualties than in any previous war...they did so because they believed to do otherwise would betray the generation who established the Union as well as future generations..."
More than half a million men did volunteer for the US forces in 1861 alone because of slogans, headlines, chest thumping, or rhetoric...they saw the rebels as the oligarchs they were, to the extent of using such descriptions in private letters:
"I have faith in an overwhelming Providence, that He will not permit the triumph of so wicked and justice-destroying an Oligarchy as the Southern confederacy." Capt. D.S. Parker, 113th Illinois.
Gallagher's work goes on for 200 pages, based almost entirely on primary sources. The US volunteers knew what they were fighting about, certainly based on their private letters...
As a very astute historian once wrote, the vast majority of people write what they do because they believe it, and the historian who ignores what they write - especially at the time contemporaneous with the events under study, and especially when what is written was not for publication - does so at their peril.
Best,