"What was the North fighting for?" Topic
6 Posts
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Tango01 | 03 Jan 2020 10:21 p.m. PST |
""Of all the ongoing debates over the Civil War," University of Virginia history professor Elizabeth Varon writes in her thought-provoking new book Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War, "perhaps none has proven so difficult to resolve as the issue of Northern war aims. What was the North fighting for?" Did Northern citizens and lawmakers primarily want to save the Union from being ripped in two? Were they responding to the growing strength of the abolitionist movement? The ordinary rank-and-file soldiers fought for the age-old reasons: pay and the draft. But what about their leaders? For the South, the question was thorny but easy: They fought to preserve the institution of slavery, yes, but also for the nebulous concept of "states' rights" – the Southern states believed they had every right to secede from the Union any time they chose (just as, to use more recent examples, Texas and particularly California believe the same thing today) and bridled at the idea of being brought back into the fold by brute force…" Main page link Amicalement Armand
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doc mcb | 04 Jan 2020 7:39 a.m. PST |
The north would never have gone to war to eliminate slavery where it already existed. They did want to limit its spread into the west. The war was to preserve the union. Midway through -- having already incurred the butcher's bill -- Lincoln wisely added the elimination of slavery as a goal -- two good things for the same bloody price. |
doc mcb | 04 Jan 2020 7:41 a.m. PST |
When the Union officers asked the captured Confederate private -- obviously a poor man -- why he was fighting -- "you don't own any slaves" -- the rebel answered, "Because you are HERE." |
EJNashIII | 04 Jan 2020 8:45 a.m. PST |
Just like any other political question in the world. There is no easy answer. Many people fought the war for many reasons. Even multiple reasons. Union, disunion, boredom, adventure, defending slavery, abolishing slavery, state's rights, defending a home, theft, revenge, faith, etc. Here is an example. On Sept 10, 1861 the 48th New York infantry Regiment mustered in Brooklyn New York. Corporal Joseph C. Hibson would go to earn a medal of honor at Battery Wagner on the seaward flank of the better known 54th Mass. What many people didn't know was that a Reverend James Perry recruited the regiment in a fiery church sermon for a holy war against the "demonic unbelievers and mongers" of the south. The unit was nicknamed Perry's Saints and they were on a crusade to batter down the gates of Hell itself. Their fanaticism shortly gave them a reputation as a crack unit that would never break. |
donlowry | 04 Jan 2020 9:43 a.m. PST |
The ordinary rank-and-file soldiers fought for the age-old reasons: pay and the draft. I don't agree with this statement. The Union side did not have a draft until late '63. The volunteers before that were often motivated by patriotism. Somehow people keep forgetting that the Confederates started the war by firing on Fort Sumter. Sure there were reasons for that, but Jeff Davis and company bear the ultimate responsibility for turning a political crisis into a shooting war. Fire on the American flag, Americans tend to get testy about it. |
Tango01 | 04 Jan 2020 11:44 a.m. PST |
Thanks!. Amicalement Armand |
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