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For Cause and Comrades

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Submitted By AyoQueen820
Words 1677
Pages 7
Ayomide Sekiteri
United States History to 1865
Due: November 19, 2012
For Cause and Comrades

A war is a state of open, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried nations, states, or parties. The civil war was not a war between two countries fighting for land or control. The civil was within America, where citizens were dividing in their ideals and motivations. Northern states and the southern states differing ideals lead to fighting which separated them. Every war has its reasons whether it is a good and acceptable reason or a bad reason. People are killed in the heat of battle and the country itself can be damaged because of war; people want a reason for why their fighting. Some wars are inevitable and some are not, it all depends on what they are fighting for. In James M. McPherson’s book “For Cause and Comrades” he discusses the reasons why men fought in the civil war.
1. What are the primary sources used by McPherson to explain the motives of the 3 million soldiers who fought in the Civil war? What are the advantages and drawbacks to this approach?
In the book, For Cause & Comrades—Why Men Fought in the Civil war, James M. McPherson uses collected diary entries and letters written by soldiers that were fighting for either the Confederate or Union army as his primary resources for this book. McPherson gives us these primary sources to give us insights into the life of soldiers fighting in the civil war. He explains that the “evidence consists of the personal letters written by soldiers during the war to family members, sweethearts, and friends, and the unrevised diaries that some of them kept during their service” (pg.11). These personal descriptions of life on the battlefield reveal the real motives behind the about 3 million soldiers that decided on fighting in the civil war. Some entered the fight with this mentality, “The man who does not dread

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