...about the men that fought in the Civil War than from journals and letters from the soldiers themselves. For Cause & Comrades: Why Men Fought In The Civil War by James M. McPherson pulled from copious amounts of personal letters and journals to show the history of the thoughts and reasoning behind the war. You are able to get exceptional background why the Northerners and Southerners enlisted in the war, and see how both sides had very diverse reasons why they enlisted, from the sense of manliness to patriotism. During the time of enlistment, there was considerable pressure to enlist. If a man did not enlist, they were thought of lacking manliness and a disgrace to their family. McPherson stated, “The belief of duty,...
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...in Disguise The Civil War, it is a defining moment in America’s history. The Civil War happened between the years of 1861-1865. The war determined what America’s future would hold. Two sides participated in the war; the North and the South. However, the North would claim victory. Within that victory was 625,000 lives lost. It was perhaps one of the most destructive wars in the United States’ history. The Civil War started over conflict because of the differences between the free states and the slave states. Many thought that the war went on due to the act of abolishing slavery within the southern states, but was that really the cause? While reading through sources, a common question re-appears, was it really slavery that caused the...
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...What Caused The Civil War? “Civil War was not a mere strife for territory and dominion, but a contest of civilization against barbarism.” – Frederick Douglass. The Civil War was consist of the South vs the North. The Civil War was also known as the “War Between States”, happen in 1861 and lasted for four brutal years. Why did this happen and for a nation that should've been together? The three main causes of the Civil War between the North and the South were abusive slavery, contradicting political views, and the chaotic economy. The first main cause of the Civil War was conflict between the North and the South about slavery. Both sides had different point of views about slavery. North was anti-slavery and the South was pro-slavery. Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist, in his speech, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” goes on about how most people celebrate the 4th of July with freedom, but how can a black man participate if he doesn't have those rights. “To him, your celebration is a sham.” (Document G) Then, you have a southern, George Fitzhugh, stating that slaves are “the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world” (Document H). You get to see the South’s perspective about slavery thinking that slaves have a better life because they provided them with work and a home. These...
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...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...
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...Union War “Without an appreciation of why loyal citizens believed a Union that guaranteed democratic self-government was worth great sacrifice, no accurate understanding of the Civil War era was possible” (Gallagher). I agree with this statement by Gallagher because if it wasn’t for the decisions and executions of the Union I am not sure if I would be living in a democratic, free society today. In The Union War, Gallagher “offers a companion volume that extends his manifesto against hindsight, what Gallagher calls the ‘Appomattox syndrome,’ to histories of the Union” (Gallagher, 79). According to Gallagher, researchers who work backward from emancipation and Reconstruction have expanded northern devotion to race, slavery, and abolition while complicating loyal Americans’ major war aim, the Union. The above quote stated by Gary Gallagher is one of the main causes as to why the North won the Civil War because with the joining of citizens who wanted to fight for their democratic government, it gave the Union more soldiers that wanted to fight than the Confederates. They won the Civil War simply because they had more people. The North won the Civil War they were on the right side of human ethical issues. They had their best interest in helping the morals of humans and this alone helps citizens be able to trust the Union’s tendencies and this can also make a citizen loyal. The North clearly had more men to fight for them and there were more people that wanted to end slavery, consisting...
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...American Civil War The American Civil War is a very misunderstood war. It is known for the war that ended slavery. What most people don’t know is the war was not originally fought for the abolition of slavery. The South, or the Confederate, wanted to exercise their rights as states and split from the north. Well Abraham Lincoln thought that would be the downfall of the United States. The Civil War was fought to between the Union and the Confederacy on the issue of splitting up the United States. The country was divided between two philosophies, either they thought the country could only survive and prosper as a whole, or they believed the south had the right to split from the union. The country was divided between two different philosophies. The North believed if the South seceded from the North the country would crumble. While the South believed they had the right as states to separate themselves from the Union. (Malvasi) Abraham Lincoln was the head of the Unions thinking. He had a great sense of political knowledge. He realized if the south did secede the Union wouldn’t stand a chance against attack because half of the country essentially would have been gone. Lincoln originally had no plans of abolishing slavery all his focus was on keeping the country together in one strong unit. (Malvasi) The South on the other hand felt they had been mistreated by the Union and were being taken advantage of. Soon the idea of secession came around ...
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...assessments of the events which occurred during the Civil War from 1861-1865, but none seem to justly satisfy the absolute, complete, and thorough accounts of James McPherson’s extremely detailed book, Battle Cry of Freedom. McPherson recounts the entire story of the Civil War, stresses on themes such as slavery and writes with a style of contingency to help create a deep study of all of the events- what did and did not happen. Battle Cry of Freedom is a masterful, fast paced retelling and remembrance that comes in the shape of a detailed resource. Published in 1988, it is critically acclaimed for its ability to provide in-depth factual storytelling. The amount of thought put into this expansive book by McPherson is researched meticulously as it calls for the skills of cogitation and contemplating. McPherson is a political...
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...Civil War and Slavery January 30, 2011 HIS 325: African American History Civil War and Slavery The decade of 1850s was a very fateful and turbulent time in the US history. This is when the seeds of the US Civil War began due to the North and the South disagreeing on the status of the slaves and the idea of slavery. The South had many plantations that were run by the slaves and the North was in favor of abolishing slavery. The South knew that if slavery was abolished, they would stand to lose a lot as they would have to pay their farmers instead of them being their slaves. The North was more industrialized and it really did not have much need for slaves and slavery. It is perhaps most interesting to note that slavery had a very direct relation with the Civil War as one of the root causes for the start of the war was because of slavery. Slavery was introduced in the America during the early colonial times and the American Revolution had established that all men should be equal. There was a lot of debate amongst the Americans and the North and the South came across a rift when it came to the ideas regarding slavery. The South had more plantations and needed more workers and this is why they favored slavery. The North had different ideas and they wanted the freedom of the slaves. This caused a rift and was the cause of the Civil War between the North and the South. The South really needed the slaves to work on...
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...The deadliest war on American soil is the Civil War. The Civil War started when the Confederate States of America seceded from the Union. The first shots fired in the Civil War was in Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. On May 9, 1865, the Confederate army surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. In total, there was about 620,000 soldiers that died from combat, starvation, and disease. The Civil War was caused by the varying economies in the North and South, whether slavery should exist (expand westward), and the failure to establish a compromise. The first main cause of the Civil War was the varying economies between the North and the South. The North’s total population was 23,000,000 million,...
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...historians: what is the cause of the Civil War? There are two main causes of the war, slavery and sectionalism. Many people believe that slavery was the only reason as to why the Civil War even happened. That however is not true. First, slavery was a huge issue debated by a very diverse group of people. In reality the North wanted to abolish slavery and the South wanted to maintain it and let it grow. With Abraham Lincoln coming into office many Southerners feared that he would take slavery away from them all together. Slavery was their way of life, it was their way of keeping the Southern economy up. When they heard that Lincoln wanted to stop the spread they took it as he was taking their property because slaves were considered property. The Southerners feared Lincoln and his coming into office. The antebellum south was coming to feel very threatened at how the North seemed to believe that they could exist without slavery, except the South was planted in the idea that they would not be able to exist without their slaves. There was a feeling of fight or flight, in this case it was both for the Southerners. Second, sectionalism was becoming more present than it had been in the past. The North and South had different morals and ideas. The South believed that slavery was perfectly fine, and that they absolutely needed it to survive. Slaves were property in the eyes of Southern people, to take away slaves would be to take away their property which is why the South felt very threatened...
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...Over the years people have thought of many different causes for the civil war that took over 600,000 American lives in 1861-1865. Many people believe that the only true cause of the civil war was because of slavery but the war itself was fought over something much bigger than just slavery it was fought over the great political difference between the North and South. The actions of the Democratic politicians from the South and Republican politicians from the North kept the conflict between the states at the center of the political debate for years and made the war inevitable. Key political causes of the civil war include the acts congress passed, the split that happened throughout the years between congress, and most importantly the election in 1860 that elected Abraham Lincoln as president. Congress, throughout the years since America won independence passed laws they believed would help their nation. But as slavery became more of a problem in the nation, acts passed by congress became more important and affected the outcome of the American nation and its citizens much greater. Congress passed many acts throughout the years leading to the Civil War, but some very important ones that both held off the civil war and pushed the civil war are the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Connecticut Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas – Nebraska Act of 1854. The Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 after Missouri requested in 1819 to be part of the Union as a slave state. Missouri’s request...
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...John Novitsky ECO 326 Topic Paper The Civil War was something that was caused by many varying factors but these factors all have some relation to one another. Over a couple decades that the North and the South began to separate more and the differences in their lifestyles became more apparent. While the North was oriented toward the production of iron and steel, the South had vastly more land and were geared toward large plantations to grow a variety of things but mostly cotton. It was with these large cotton plantations that the owners used African-American slaves to tend to the crops and to allow for an easier lifestyle for themselves. Slavery was a very hot topic leading up to the civil war in 1861 and one that the Northerners and the Southerners felt very different about. The enormity of the slave dilemma was enough to cause the civil war and the debate that still remains among historians is why it truly was the main cause of the American Civil War. As Robert Whaples states in proposition 15 of his article, “Where Is There Consensus Among Economic Historians? The Results of a Survey on Forty Propositions”, a near majority of the economists and historians agreed that slavery was nowhere near extinction on the eve of the Civil War and most would concur that it was reaching new heights near the start of the war.[1] This gives way to the thought that slavery was the breaking point that sent a divided county into war. The economist Jeffery Rogers Hummel has a text...
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...“To what extent was the Civil War a war over slavery?” In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any Country. Robert E. Lee 620 thousand of soldiers lost their lives, war cost 5 billion dollars, large destructions, especially in the South. 4 million freed slaves by Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Brother shot to brother. Slavery in America has its origins from the beginning of United States existence. In nineteenth century U.S could be called as an young country with wide, noble ideas of independence, equality and economic development; with their own basic law, the first constitution in the World. Regarding to mentioned words; why was it possible to America to start Civil War? The case of America was multidimensional. United States Constitution did not explain laws and behaviour towards blackskinned slaves clearly. The South States of America were place where slavery flourished. Hosts of latifundiums needed ''hands to work'' – slaves were the cheapest solution because hosts after buying a slave with reasonabe price had to care only of the fact that their slave is still alive; they provided slaves with hunger food rations and water – it was a cheap labour which made large land holdings profitable. In general opinion this unhumanitarian situation was the reason of Civil War. But... Was it that clear? Was the ...
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...Mexican-America war: included California as well as parts of other Western territories. Fire-Eaters: A general unofficial term used to describe a group of Southern politicians who were extremely in favor of slavery and thus advocated for secession. Underground Railroad: A route that slaves took to secretly escape from their masters to freedom. Harriet Tubman: A particularly famous conductor of the railroad, helping to sneak hundreds of slaves out of servitude. William H. Seward: A somewhat radical politician who advocated for the abolition of slavery on moral grounds. Higher Law: The stance that...
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...John Wilkes Booth was a famous American actor, known as “the handsomest man in America”, but soon became the first person to assassinate an American president. On April 15, 1965, Booth shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln while he was attending the play Our American Cousin, at Ford’s Theater, in Washington DC. Shortly after, he jumped on stage yelling, “Sic semper tyrannis!”, meaning “the South is avenged” (History.com Staff 1). He managed to assassinate the president with the help of planning with his co-conspirators. Booth and his co-conspirators were found at a barn, yet Booth refused to surrender. John Wilkes Booth died three hours after being shot in the barn by an investigator.There are a few possible motives as to why he assassinated...
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