Rating: 
Summary: a window into the mind of Civil War America
Review: a very insightful examination of a soldier's mindset during the Civil War...actual correspondence provides the data for analysis in this "psychological profile" of the fighting man (for probably any war) and his perceptions of his own fear and his ideas of what he was fighting for...interesting comparisons to soldiers in later conflicts...worthwhile reading for the battlefield enthusiast
Rating:
Summary: Duty, Honor, and Devotion
Review: Although Professor James McPherson wrote this study of the motivation of the Civil War soldier, it is not a great exaggeration to say that in this book the soldiers speak for themselves. Professor McPherson has read and analyzed a prodigious amount of source material written by Civil War combatants, Union and Confederacy, officer and enlisted soldier. For this book, he has taken a sample of the letters home and the diaries of 1076 soldiers, 647 Union and 429 Confederate to analyze their candid, uncensored reflections of why they fought. Professor McPherson also draws on many modern studies of combat psychology and utilzes their findings in discussing the Civil War soldiers. Professor McPherson's sample is not statistically random and it may be skewed in some ways. For example, the sample does not include (obviously) illiterate soldiers or black soldiers. It tends to be tilted in the direction of those individuals who did most of the fighting and who were committed to their respective causes. Professor McPherson recognizes that many of the combatants were unwilling participants, particularly as the draft was instituted in both armies and that both armies included many shirkers. These individuals are not represented in his sample of letters. But still, these letters, written in the activity of soldiering and not intended for publication, are revealing of their authors' thoughts and feelings in a way impossible to replicate in other writings. The letters reveal much about the motivation of the combatants and about life in Civil War America. Professor McPherson finds that many of the soldiers in the Civil War had a firm idea of why they were fighting. On both sides soldiers fought for the preservation of liberty and the duty they perceived they owed to their country. Patriotism, in a word. Southern soldiers fought to achieve their independence and to avoid what they viewed as "subjugation" and "slavery". Northern soldiers fought to preserve the Union and, increasingly as the War progressed, to end slavery. Soldiers in both the Union and the Confederacy drew sustenance from religious convictions. They were motivated deeply by the camaraderie that developed with their fellows, particularly in their own units. In the Civil War in particular, soldiers fought side-by-side with others from their own state and community. They developed a strong bond with each other, based on the terrors of war and the privations of the camps, and fought in solidarity with each other. The letters in the book speak well for themselves with Professor McPherson's organization and commentary. It is moving to read about how many Americans were driven by high ideals in enlisting and fighting in this, the most deadly and formative of the wars of the United States. There is a sense of poignancy throughout the book. For the Civil War generation, concepts of duty, honor, family, manhood, and patriotism were not viewed with the skepticism that became common following WW I and that remains prevalent with many people today. It was a romantic generation, in part, but one with commitments and ideals. I think there is much contemporary Americans may learn by the devotion shown by the American Civil War soldiers and by the ideals of liberty, duty, and courage for which they fought.
Rating:
Summary: Duty, Honor, and Devotion
Review: Although Professor James McPherson wrote this study of the motivation of the Civil War soldier, it is not a great exaggeration to say that in this book the soldiers speak for themselves. Professor McPherson has read and analyzed a prodigious amount of source material written by Civil War combatants, Union and Confederacy, officer and enlisted soldier. For this book, he has taken a sample of the letters home and the diaries of 1076 soldiers, 647 Union and 429 Confederate to analyze their candid, uncensored reflections of why they fought. Professor McPherson also draws on many modern studies of combat psychology and utilzes their findings in discussing the Civil War soldiers. Professor McPherson's sample is not statistically random and it may be skewed in some ways. For example, the sample does not include (obviously) illiterate soldiers or black soldiers. It tends to be tilted in the direction of those individuals who did most of the fighting and who were committed to their respective causes. Professor McPherson recognizes that many of the combatants were unwilling participants, particularly as the draft was instituted in both armies and that both armies included many shirkers. These individuals are not represented in his sample of letters. But still, these letters, written in the activity of soldiering and not intended for publication, are revealing of their authors' thoughts and feelings in a way impossible to replicate in other writings. The letters reveal much about the motivation of the combatants and about life in Civil War America. Professor McPherson finds that many of the soldiers in the Civil War had a firm idea of why they were fighting. On both sides soldiers fought for the preservation of liberty and the duty they perceived they owed to their country. Patriotism, in a word. Southern soldiers fought to achieve their independence and to avoid what they viewed as "subjugation" and "slavery". Northern soldiers fought to preserve the Union and, increasingly as the War progressed, to end slavery. Soldiers in both the Union and the Confederacy drew sustenance from religious convictions. They were motivated deeply by the camaraderie that developed with their fellows, particularly in their own units. In the Civil War in particular, soldiers fought side-by-side with others from their own state and community. They developed a strong bond with each other, based on the terrors of war and the privations of the camps, and fought in solidarity with each other. The letters in the book speak well for themselves with Professor McPherson's organization and commentary. It is moving to read about how many Americans were driven by high ideals in enlisting and fighting in this, the most deadly and formative of the wars of the United States. There is a sense of poignancy throughout the book. For the Civil War generation, concepts of duty, honor, family, manhood, and patriotism were not viewed with the skepticism that became common following WW I and that remains prevalent with many people today. It was a romantic generation, in part, but one with commitments and ideals. I think there is much contemporary Americans may learn by the devotion shown by the American Civil War soldiers and by the ideals of liberty, duty, and courage for which they fought.
Rating: 
Summary: Why did they fight?
Review: Another in a distinguished line of treatises on the American Civil War from one of our preeminent historians on that subject. For Causes and Comrades proceeds from a simple questions: Why did they fight? Given the hardships to be endured, the terror of battle and the frightening rate of casualties and loss of life, why did they volunteer in the beginning and then continue to fight, once the war started, despite the misfortunes heaped upon them? Armies on this scale could not have been forced to continue if the individuals (volunteers for the most part, not professionals or conscripts in the beginning) were not committed for some deep-rooted reason. Conducting exhaustive primary research (literally tens of thousands of soldiers' letters to home, from museums, libraries and private collections) McPherson develops the premise that soldiers of both sides of the ACW fought for more than the "usual" reasons (i.e. camaraderie, employment, adventure, fear of being "left behind"). The average soldier in the ACW was indeed aware of the issues at stake and felt strongly that military service proceeded from a sense of duty and honor to family and country. The sense that there are ideals beyond love of life in this world propelled them on. This is a book for students of human nature as well as students of the ACW. Psychological analyses are provided as well, drawing on studies performed after WW I, WW II and Vietnam. McPherson will convince you that we cannot use a 1990s yardstick to measure the hearts and minds of soldiers of the ACW. You will have to decide for yourself whether you believe McPherson's arguments. As for myself, after studying the ACW in general and specific campaigns and battles in depth, there is no doubt in my mind that McPherson is correct. Would modern man be willing to offer up such a "last full measure of devotion"? Again, I agree with McPherson - let's leave that question unanswered and just hope we never find out.
Rating:
Summary: Many of these letters swell the heart and water the eyes.
Review: As a Civil War reenactor and living historian I am often asked why men endured so much for vague principles. I thought I knew the answers. This book has provided me with more admiration for these men and more material to share with those I share history with.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and thought provoking.
Review: As a combat veteran my initial skepticism soon gave way to admiration for the scholarly approach taken by the author. It made me want to learn more about the cultural influences that made the Civil War combatant truly different than soldiers of a later era. Read "Band of Brothers" by Stephen Ambrose for an excellent contrast of the WWII combatant versus the Civil War warrior.
Rating:
Summary: SERIOUS WORK FOR THE SERIOUS STUDENT
Review: Excellent work, well written. This is not light reading and certainly gives one much food for thought. This is not a shoot-em-up-bang-bang, rather it is a serious work on a very serous subject. I would highly recommend it's reading and recommend you add this one to your collection. I do wish we had more researchers out their of this quality. Thank you Prof. McPherson.
Rating: 
Summary: Agenda History
Review: I must admit that my excitement over the title of this book was extinguished very quickly as I got into the content. The author may have researched thousands of letters from Civil War soldiers, but, he seemed to be selective in what he chose to use, as his agenda seemed to be to make a few personal points. It appears that this author wants history to portray the northern soldier as being motivated by an end to slavery as his reason for fighting (patently false), and, southerners as fighting to preserve the "peculiar institution". The excerpts he carefully chose from era letters were seemingly carefully selected to further those ends. He doesn't seem to understand that the concept of "country" in the U.S. in 1860 was very ill defined and not of much interest to most Americans, who, mainly agrarian, were trying to just get by. At best, a man was interested in his state, and, more often than not, what was going on in his own county. There were no strong ties to the idea of being a United States of America at that time. A man from Ohio was, indeed, as foreign to a man from Alabama as one from France would have been. 99% of confederate soldiers were small dirt farmers and owning a slave to them would have been as common as owning a second home on the beach is today. The civil war to the common southern soldier was a simple matter of being invaded by a foreign power, and, fighting for a beloved homeland. It was just that simple. The draft riots and lynchings of blacks in the north are solid testimony to the unpopularity of going south to fight. One of Lincoln's great fears was that McClellan would turn the army of the Potomac against him, throw him out of office, and, end the war. Only Lincoln had the amazing forsight and tenacity to pursue this grisly 4 year task to insure that his vision, Union, would survive. Neither was Lincoln that concerned about slavery as an issue over which the war was fought. His failure to extend freedom to blacks in certain politically sensitive border states, and, the caveat that the Emancipation did not pertain to southern states that laid down their arms and returned to the Union is strong evidence of the minor concern that he had for the issue of slavery as it applied to the broader issue of union preservation. No, the book did not do justice to it's ambitious title. Attempting to justify lofty philosophical ideals as the reason that men fight, the author fails to do what the cover promises, which is point out that men fight, because, once a thing like war is in motion, it takes on a life of it's own, and, becomes very personal. You fight for the man with the rifle in the hole beside you. An author with this personal experience would know this and be better equipped to tackle a project that lives up to the expectations that the title of his book raised.
Rating:
Summary: The Civil War, Up Close and Personal
Review: In this latest work by the masterful writer and historian, James McPherson, the reader is introduced to the civil War soldier, "up close and personal." For Cause and Comrades sets out to explain to laymen and scholars alike why men sacrificed so much, including life, to fight in this country's most bloody war. In much of the same language, grace and style as his Pulitzer Prize winning work, Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson eloquently describes the passion and persuasions that pulled Yankees and Rebels into the conflict. Much of the work is in the language of the men of that time, condensed and excerpted in the book from over 25,000 letters and diary entries. Organized by topical reasons for the soldiers' cause(s), McPherson lays out a grid of understanding through which modern-day Americans can attempt to get a grasp on one of the enduring mysteries of history, "Why did these men fight?"
Rating:
Summary: Why men fought
Review: James McPherson has brought together thousands of letters along with over 200 diaries in a wonderfully done book on why men fought during the war. When walking upon the fields of battle it's hard to believe that many regiments continually advanced into overwhelming fields of fire. What prompted these men into action, and better yet, what causes were they fighting? Their motivation was religion, as well as duty and honor. This book answers those questions in an easy to read epigrammatic format. McMherson's analysis has brought forth an outstanding work in regards to the sacrifices put forth during the Civil War. I highly recommend this book for budding historians as well as the serious researcher. It's both captivating and thought provoking.
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