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The Soldiers' Cause: A Review of Why Men Fought in the War

© Michael J. Swogger

The question of what the soldiers in gray and blue fought for come up often in debates and discussions, including such discourse on this site. Were they fighting to preserve or abolish the institution of slavery? Was it for states' rights or union preservation? Or was the so much more than these two over-generalized causes that compelled so many to voluntarily enlist and re-enlist in the fight for their respective homelands? This piece examines this issue using the research compiled by James McPherson in his book For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War (1997). Therefore, view this article as a book review and analysis to provide you better insight to the issue of the soldiers' cause(s).

The foremost element to keep in mind when thinking about the causes for which the soldiers were fighting is that there were different brands of motivation. McPherson makes the distinction between initial motivation, sustaining motivation, and combat motivation. Initial motivation simply involves reasons why the soldiers first enlisted in their armies or militias. Sustaining motivation consists of the reasons why they continued to fight. Combat motivation concerns their reasons for engaging in the deadly battles they encountered. To make this distinction early is paramount in understanding the overall motives of the soldiers.

The first chapter in the book outlines quite nicely what is to come in greater detail in subsequent chapters. The author breaks down the list of reasons the initial impulses to enlist. First, what is called rage militaire swept through both North and South. The wave of immense patriotism triggered by secession and the attack on Fort Sumter stirred great excitement among the populous of both sides, thus breeding an intense desire among the male citizenry to enlist. Ohio's governor, in response to Lincoln's quota of thirteen regiments, stated that "without seriously repressing the ardor of the people, I can hardly stop short of twenty." The same was true in the Confederacy, where, according to one new recruit, "nothing else is talked of anywhere about War War."

The motives that came from the rage militaire stemmed much from patriotic ideals. The belief in the North that there were only two choices-union or anarchy-prevailed among the new recruits and such a belief was echoed by many who had written home to explain their motives. The legacy of the Founding Fathers was also invoked, saying that this nation founded by their wisdom and the blood of the revolutionaries must be preserved. In the South, many claimed they were fighting for liberty and invoked the Founding Fathers in a different way. As one Texas cavalryman put it, the Revolution brought "liberty and freedom in this western world, [and we are] now enlisted in 'The Holy Cause of Liberty and Independence' again."

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