Summary Of A Band Of Brothers

In the article “A Band of Brothers” by James McPherson, the purpose is to explain why ordinary men volunteered themselves into the army in the bloodiest war in American history. MacPherson's thesis explains that the main reason men enlisted themselves was due to honor. He uses primary source diaries from soldiers who fought in the ear to help explore this thesis. The first point that McPherson makes includes three sections: pride is self, community, and family. He explains that having pride in self after a fight was more important than life itself. Furthermore, soldiers during the Civil War were terrified of dishonour and being labeled a coward. They expressed that “We are as much afraid as you are, only we are are more afraid to show it.”. However, McPherson …show more content…
Another effect of the pride soldiers held could be seen when that pride got in the way of their safety. Some soldiers believed they were almost invincible and because of this, many lost their lives almost unnecessarily. The next part of honor that McPherson explains is the pride in one’s community. Many soldiers were drafted from the same town. A lot of them wer close-knit and had known each other for almost their entire lives. Furthermore, this resulted in peer pressure influencing soldiers to fight. Soldiers felt like if the didn’t enlist that they could not be taken seriously back home. Some would even write home with the names of people that they considered cowards just to shame them. If neither of the aforementioned reasons pushed a soldier to enlist, it would certainly be to improve the honor of his family. McPherson explains that soldiers would rather die than disgrace their family name. Even more, he states that some soldiers preferred to fight in the front lines to prove their bravery to their families, then sit back and wait for another battle. Occasionally, a Union soldier would get tired of fighting in such a