Community matters: An empirical examination into the causes and consequences of factional allegiance during the American Civil War

The three essays in this study analyze the behavioral responses of individuals with similar socioeconomic characteristics, from the same area, during the American Civil War. The first essay explores why individuals chose to join either the Union Army or the Confederate Army. The second essay examines the strength of individuals' initial allegiances by focusing on the determinants of desertion. The final essay analyzes whether individuals suffered post-War discrimination because of their Wartime allegiances.;Each study utilizes a new sample of data drawing upon the Civil War military records and Population Census entries of Arkansas Union and Confederate soldiers. The sample consists of soldiers' linked military and 1860 and 1870 Census records merged with county level military, Census, and election variables.;When the results are viewed as one, a complex, dynamic, and community-based story of behavioral response during the Civil War emerges. The first two essays found associations between Union Army control within soldiers' home counties and their enlistment and desertion decisions. The first essay found that individuals were more likely to enlist when the Union Army increased its geographic control of individuals' home counties. The second essay found that desertion odds were higher among soldiers who enlisted when the Union Army controlled a large percentage of their home counties' geographic areas and that desertion odds decreased as the Union Army increased its geographic control of soldiers' home counties. These results indicate that military changes within many soldiers' communities influenced their decisions.;The results here along with theory and qualitative evidence support a community-based interdependency model of behavioral responses during the War and suggest that many soldiers' first loyalty was to their communities, not the army in which they enlisted. The third essay tested this conclusion. If communities' influenced responses during the War, and preferences of some communities changed during the War, post-War reintegration for individuals who enlisted in different armies according to their communities' preferences when they enlisted should have been somewhat uncomplicated.;Using post-War wealth as a Wartime allegiance-based discrimination measure, the analysis did not find an association between Wartime allegiances and post-War wealth.