Soldiers Motivations For The Civil War

1.) The author of this letter was A.G. Argenbright and he wrote this letter in 1861. He writes about a doctor appointment that he had. His audience is a Captain.

Hatred lied within the motives behind acts of the Civil War as well as peace. This fuel was held and carried centuries after 1861, when the fight first rose. Has it helped or worsened us people of the nation stood for with such bold voices? When we look back on the timeline that once was and the timeline that now is, not much has changed though a lot has changed. This war was a complete contradiction of all things "American".

The United States Civil War is possible one of the most meaningful, bloodstained and controversial war fought in American history. Northern Americans against Southern Americans fought against one another for a variety of motives. These motives aroused from a wide range of ideologies that stirred around the states. In James M. McPherson’s What they fought for: 1861-1865, he analyzes the Union and Confederate soldier’s morale and ideological components through the letters they wrote to love ones while at war. While, John WhiteClay Chambers and G. Kurt Piehler depict Civil War soldiers through their letters detailing the agonizing battles of war in Major Problems in American Military History.

The Civil War had the most dead men ever in US history. No ordinary person would want to be a part of that gruesome war. Why would Texans volunteer to fight in it then? This all started when “the glue that held America together began to unstick in 1820 (Background Essay)”. The main cause of the Civil War was slavery, which was a huge controversy between the North and South.

Texans fought in the Civil War because they wanted to preserve slavery, preserve their way of life, and preserve states’ rights. I think that people shouldn’t have risked and lost their lives to keep slavery. Even though this war was crucial to Texas, people should not have fought and died to support a cause that was wrong. All people are created equal and I am thankful that the South and Texas

Uncompromising differences between the South (Confederacy) and the North (Union) created a civil war that lasted five years. During this war, Abraham Lincoln was president. His election led to the secession of many Southern states. After refusing to recognize the Confederacy as its own nation, the American Civil War commenced in 1861. The three main causes of the Civil War between the North and the South were industrial and agricultural economies, politics, and slavery.

“Yale students did rush away to get weapons and join the war in 1775 ” ( Collier and Collier 214). The students liked the idea of war and challenged others to join. “ Oh God, Sam fight? Is it worth war to save a few pence in taxes” ( Collier and Collier 21). The adults did not agree.

Furthermore, Jeffries states that service members fought to avoid shame as well as to support their fellow troops. Additionally, many of the troops fighting were relatively unconcerned with Roosevelt’s plans for America. “Only 13 percent could name three of the ‘Four Freedoms’ that FDR had declared as the nation’s war aims- freedom of speech and religion, freedom from want and dear- while one third could name none. Studies indicated that just one in twenty GIs fought for such a clear idealistic reasons as the threat to democracy,” (Jefferies, 172). These soldier’s opinions of the war were far different from the “proud” American citizens who were willing to give up a great deal to win the

Life for the Union Soldier was not only brutal on the battlefield, but the camp life for a Union soldier was just as cruel. With the lack of personal hygiene, unsavory and repugnant food, and the shortage of clothing made living, a very difficult thing to do. Growth in the number of people with diseases was also a contributing factor to the massive amounts of death within the camp and as well as the post-battle wounds that often left either a man with one less limb or put in a mental institution. A Union Soldier’s life during the Civil War was cruel and horrific during their stay at the camps.

I could not understand the reasoning behind someone owning a person. I also had to take off my binoculars when looking at the tactics being used in the Civil War. I was annoyed at the Civil War movies because the soldiers were in tight lines shooting at each other with really no cover. To be honest it looked like suicide to join the armies. Also the color guard to me seemed foolish and more suicidal because people run into battle carrying no weapons but a large flag and to me the was like “please kill me, I can be easily seen, look at this flag of your enemy, and try to shoot me!!!!!”

Imagine seeing a friend get shot but not being able to do anything to help because if one would help they’d be the next to go. This is what was happening in the American Civil War from 1861-1865. Many soldiers came back and very different, some in good ways but many in bad ways. During the Civil War, soldiers experienced horrific and terrifying things often causing severe psychological trauma; as a result of this trauma, men often suffered mistreatment and went wrongly diagnosed until Jacob DaCosta discovered and researched what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

You’ve probably heard of the Civil War, but do you really know the motivation behind the fighting? Just imagine, the year is 1861 and a war starts to break out. However, it is not just any war, it is the Civil War. This war dragged on over 4 years, taking down nearly 15,000 young men with it. These men were in their twenties and thirties, as young as thirteen, and were turned into soldiers.

Nick Baxter What caused the Civil War? DBQ The Civil War was caused by three main reasons are economic differences, interpretation of Constitution, and moral beliefs. The North and the South were very different economically.

In chapter one of What They Fought For, I learned about the letters and diaries of the Confederate soldiers. The themes of the letters were home-sickness, lack of peace, and the defense of home against their invading enemy. The thought of soldiers fighting for their homes and being threatened by invaders, made them stronger when facing adversity. Many men expressed that they would rather die fighting for a cause, than dying without trying and this commitment showed patriotism. Throughout the letters, soldiers claimed their reason for fighting, was for the principles of Constitutional liberty and self-government.

The living legacy of the United States Civil War is a complicated time in American history one finds difficult to describe. The ramification of the war prior, during and after still haunt the current citizens who call The States their home. Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War looks at the wide gap of discontent that still looms in the late 1990s. For some southerners, the Confederacy still lives on through reenactments, stories and beliefs. For others in the South, reminders the land was dedicated to the Confederacy spark hatred and spite.