What They Fought For 1861-1865. By, James M McPherson. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994. Introduction, Chapters One – Three. $11.99. Paperback.)
James McPherson’s What They Fought For shows readers an inside look of what Civil War soldiers experienced on the frontline. McPherson does this by using diary and handwritten letters soldiers would send home. “The principle sources for that book, and this one, are the personal letters and diaries written by soldiers during their war experience.” (1). McPherson states his reasoning for using such sources because they offer “unparalleled richness and candor- richness because Civil War armies were the most literate in all history to that time and the letters of their soldiers have been preserved in matchless abundance for historians to read; candor because unlike modern armies, those of the Civil War did not discourage diary keeping or subject soldiers’ letters to censorship.” (1). McPherson’s main point for his book is to show case what the soldiers believed they were fighting for and their experience …show more content…
The Confederates who saw the Northern Yankees as nothing more than tyrants. A young Virginian officer’s letters stated this belief “confident that the Confederacy would win this “second War for American Independence” because Tyranny cannot prosper in the nineteenth century” against “a people fighting for their liberties.’’ (9). Like how the British had done to the colonists a century and a half ago. McPherson also shows how the Confederates lived through letters and journals they wrote in during the Civil War. These letters told about many things; how the Southern fighters felt about the war, the tyrannical Yanks, southern ideology, slaves, and a yearning for the war to be over. It was surprising that only a handful of Confederate soldiers had come from slaveholding
James McPherson’s What They Fought For shows readers an inside look of what Civil War soldiers experienced on the frontline. McPherson does this by using diary and handwritten letters soldiers would send home. “The principle sources for that book, and this one, are the personal letters and diaries written by soldiers during their war experience.” (1). McPherson states his reasoning for using such sources because they offer “unparalleled richness and candor- richness because Civil War armies were the most literate in all history to that time and the letters of their soldiers have been preserved in matchless abundance for historians to read; candor because unlike modern armies, those of the Civil War did not discourage diary keeping or subject soldiers’ letters to censorship.” (1). McPherson’s main point for his book is to show case what the soldiers believed they were fighting for and their experience …show more content…
The Confederates who saw the Northern Yankees as nothing more than tyrants. A young Virginian officer’s letters stated this belief “confident that the Confederacy would win this “second War for American Independence” because Tyranny cannot prosper in the nineteenth century” against “a people fighting for their liberties.’’ (9). Like how the British had done to the colonists a century and a half ago. McPherson also shows how the Confederates lived through letters and journals they wrote in during the Civil War. These letters told about many things; how the Southern fighters felt about the war, the tyrannical Yanks, southern ideology, slaves, and a yearning for the war to be over. It was surprising that only a handful of Confederate soldiers had come from slaveholding