Chapter one introduces the reader to the origin of the book. McPherson took several students to Gettysburg which is the most memorable battlefield. Confederate soldiers had come under artillery and then rifle fire almost every step of the way. The author also talks about his cousin, who enlisted in the 122th New York, at age 37. (pg. 22-32)
For Cause and Comrades talk about one of the most brutal Civil War in the U.S. history. Through every war, soldiers leave their home to crawl through mud and blood on the battlefield. Soldier must reach their souls to do appalling things. These soldiers did some crazy action no one would do. They charged themselves into the battle like a suicidal maniac. The horror on soldiers’ face focus on mind and make political debate less abstract. McPherson talk about how men enlisted into the army, and serve in different military branches.…show more content… The evidence for these positions that he found, McPherson is convinced by sheer weight of evidence that most of the Civil War soldiers motivated by patriotic or ideological ideals. Majority of Union soldiers earnestly fought for the Union cause, deprecating the sins of treason and rebellion and fearing the consequences if they allowed the “Slave Power” to destroy the government bequeathed to them by the Founders. Few enlisted primarily to defeat slavery, though in a separate chapter McPherson discusses how the Union soldiers came to espouse emancipation, especially as an effective war measure and punishment for secession. Confederates similarly invoked the American Revolution, seeing themselves as fighting for independence and against subjugation. In addition to fighting for hearth and home, “most volunteers from the South believed they were fighting for liberty as well as slavery”, many also feared the effects of “Black Republicanism” loosed on their Herrenvolk democracy (pg.
