In Their Words: Why they fought

by William Chapman

The Civil War bitterly divided our nation.  Not only were North and South severed from each other, but it divided the nation ideologically as well. From Galveston to Governor's Island, from Fort Tejon to Fort Sumter, from Manassas to Mobile, the minds of our nation were in a struggle greater than any battle.  The blood spilt in Devil's Den, or in the trenches at Petersburg, or in the confused slaughter in the Wilderness, was all for a cause.  Even today, that cause is illusive.  Just what is it that made brother turn on brother?  What was the reason people felt so strongly about their cause?  Let us explore the psychology of the Civil War, in their words.

Perhaps one of the most famous men of the era, Abraham Lincoln, presented a summary of one cause of the war in an address in 1858.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all the one thing or all the other."

That was really the heart of it. Either the country went one way or it fell apart.

Causes became viral.  Whatever the popular belief was in any particular area was the belief that prevailed.  Mark Twain, the famous American author who spent some time at the beginning of the war in the Confederate militia, wrote an account of his time in the war some years later, titled "A Private History of the Campaign that Failed."  In this account, he related a story of a conversation he had in 1860 on a Mississippi River steamboat with a New Yorker.

" He was strong for the Union; so was I. But he would not listen to me with any patience, my loyalty was smirched, to his eye, because my father had owned slaves. I said in palliation of this dark fact that I had heard my father say, some years before he died, that slavery was a great wrong and he would free the solitary Negro he then owned if he could think it right to give away the property of the family when he was so straitened in means. My mate retorted that a mere impulse was nothing, anyone could pretend to a good impulse, and went on decrying my Unionism and libelling my ancestry. A month later the secession atmosphere had considerably thickened on the Lower Mississippi and I became a rebel; so did he."

Wayland Fuller Dunaway of Virginia related:

"I loved the Union and the flag under which my ancestors had enjoyed civil and religious libery.  I did not think that Lincoln's election was a sufficient cause for dissolving the Union, for he had announced no evil designs concerning Southern institutions..."

Later, after Virginia's secession, Dunaway's outlook changed.

"The conviction was growing in me that, if my native state was about to be invaded, I must have a place in the ranks of the defenders."

This was the same sentiment that Robert E. Lee had.  In 1861, Winfield Scott offered Lee top command in the US army.  Lee declined, telling one of his officers:

"I shall never bear arms against the Union, but it may be necessary for me to carry a musket in defense of my native state, Virginia."

There is a story told by historian Shelby Foote in the series "The Civil War" that talks about a malnourished and ragged Confederate picket who was captured by the Federals at some point during the war.  When asked "What are you fighting for?" he replied, "Because you're down here."  This sentiment seemed to be shared all over the South.

Sullivan Ballou, a Major in the Federal army, is well known for a letter he wrote to his wife the week before Bull Run.

"The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days-perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.  I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing-perfectly willing-to lay down all the joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.  Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield."

Delavan S. Miller, a drummer boy from New York, wrote in a memoir after the war that:

"The shot (at Fort Sumter) electrified the North, and the martial current that went from man to man was imparted to the boys.  Favorite pastimes lost their zest.  Juvenile Millitary companies and mimic battles were fought every Saturday afternoon."

Regardless of his loyalties, the soldier and the civilian was driven by his cause, whatever it happened to be.  Ideals were the root of the Civil War.

Comments

[Sandy]

Absolutely riveting! Excellent post, as usual, William!

[Willie Chapman]

Thanks!

[Sandy]

Wishing you and all you hold dear a Merry Christmas!

[mntineer]

Great blog! Keep up the fine work. :-)

[William]

Thanks!

[Sandy]

Wishing you and your family wonderful things in the New Year!

[Sandy]

I am hoping all is well with you and your family.

[William]

Yes, everything is very good. I have taken a break from blogging for the winter because of school and I'll probably start up again this spring.

Best wishes,
William

[Sandy]

Happy March! So glad all is well. I thought you might be taking a break. Enjoy!!