wHAT THEY FOUGHT FOR
... Old South was not so bad after all. McPherson's new work confirms that the Civil War was indeed "about something" and that many of its participants knew quite well what that was. What They Fought For, 1861-1865 was written, in the author's words, to dispel "the general impression that Civil War soldiers had little or no idea of what they were fighting for." In an attempt to answer this complex and important question, McPherson examines a number of the factors that motivated Northern and Southern soldiers to join the fight and then sustained them in the face of terrible hardships. He discusses prevailing conceptions of duty, honor and manhood, the influence of religion, problems of morale and discipline, the importance of support on the home front, and so on. Much of this is illuminating and certainly speaks to why arm The author comments eloquently: “The conviction of Northern soldiers that they fought to preserve the Union as a beacon of republican liberty throughout the world burned as brightly in the last year of the war as in the first. It seems as if the South is still trying to fight to keep the slaves and also to prove themselves and the North is constantly fighting for the slaves and dislikes the cruel treatment of African Americans. By the end of the war it seemed as if is it mainly had to do with the government and how the south wanted a better economy. A soldier from Lincoln's home state wrote: "It is astonishing how things has changed in reference to freeing the Negros. It always has been plane to me that this race must be fr...