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For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War
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Chapter 10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “We Know That We Are Supported At Home”
Chapter 10 begins with the idea that soldiers’ morale is improved by letters from home and that soldiers who do not get letters from home often become depressed:
Could our friends witness the crowding round the post-man—the beaming look of expectation on the swarthy, weather-beaten faces—the cloud of disappointment upon the brows of those who receive nothing […] they would never again imagine that it matters little with soldiers whether or not they receive frequent letters (132).
Worse, the wrong type of letter from home often lowers morale. Wives complaining of loneliness and hardship causes soldiers consternation, and some soldiers succumb to pressure from home, or at least listen to it: officers asked by their wives to resign must confront their honor. Others contemplate desertion. To counteract such requests, some soldiers buoy the spirits of their wives by asking them to remember their patriotic sense of duty, family honor, and the soldier’s own sense of manhood:
In an effort to arrest this demoralizing process, the lieutenant colonel of the crack 6th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade gave a speech at home during a furlough in March 1863: ‘If you wish success, write encouraging letters to your soldiers […] Do not fill the ears of your soldiers with tales of troubles and privations at home, caused by their absence’ (134).
Other soldiers work out a rationale to explain their absence: by fighting for country, they are protecting family. Many Civil-War-era women understand this, and continue to support their husbands and fiancées. And though the idea exists in the army that a married man takes fewer risks because he wishes to see his family again, McPherson finds little proof.
McPherson also emphasizes studies of soldiers in wartime who feel a growing gulf between themselves and civilians. In the case of the Civil War, he says, this gulf is because civilians are not patriotic enough. Draft dodgers earn the soldiers’ ire, as do any who don’t offer appropriate support, such as newspapers that print a wish for peace. Northern soldiers also grow disgusted with the Copperheads, and their political gains cause consternation among soldiers. Some soldiers feel more kinship with enemy soldiers than with politicians who want to make peace; the soldiers think these men are betrayers. But with Lincoln’s reelection, Northern soldiers feel vindicated: they know the country supports them.
Chapter 10 Analysis
Two important aspects emerge when looking at how soldiers are supported, or not supported, in some cases, by both their families, and the politicians on their side. One is that soldiers face the dilemma war brings them, a dilemma caused by:
competing ideals of manhood and honor. In one direction lay their responsibilities as husbands, fathers, and breadwinners for dependents to whom they had made a sacred pledge to cherish and support. In the other direction lay their duty as able-bodied citizens to defend their country. To evade either obligation would dishonor their manhood (134).
The second important aspect, beside the dilemma soldiers face, is the dilemma their families face:
‘I experience such constant dread and anxiety that I feel all the time weary and depressed,’ wrote one Southern woman to her husband. ‘What do I care for patriotism?’ wrote another. My husband is my country. What is country to me if he is killed?’ (133).
McPherson includes several letters of the hardships wives face, complaining of missing husbands, little food, and anxiety and depression, which mirrors what soldiers feel in the field. The focus heretofore has been on soldiers, but this chapter gives insight into the wives of soldiers.
Both of these aspects show how much soldiers need support from home. McPherson including soldiers asking wives not to write such letters proves his point: they need the encouragement. They also care what the politicians say, and what is happening politically in the country. This is because the soldiers need to know they are right. They believe they are right, but in such a thing as war, they can never be sure. So they look to home and to the government that they fight for.
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By James M. Mcpherson
