| This dissertation compares what ordinary Union and Confederate soldiers believed to be the causes and stakes of the Civil War, and traces how their perceptions changed over time. Based on soldiers' letters and diaries, as well as over 100 regimental newspapers never systematically used in any previous work, it is the first comparative, chronologically organized study of Civil War soldiers. Each chapter compares Union and Confederate soldiers' thoughts at a particular time on patriotism, the American Revolution, politics, society, religion, slavery, and race.;Black Americans immediately grasped that war against secession must also be a war against slavery, and interpreted the war as a struggle for black freedom and inclusion within the promises of the American Revolution. White Union troops viewed preservation of the Union as necessary to prove the viability of republicanism and the legacy of the American Revolution. Convinced that the South seceded to protect slavery, white Union soldiers identified slavery as the cause of the war, and in 1861, ahead of military and political leaders or the Emancipation Proclamation, began to insist on the destruction of slavery as the only way to end the war and prevent its recurrence. White Union troops strove to separate the issues of slavery and race; few espoused racial equality, although some changed their views.;Confederates went to war to protect slavery as a necessary pillar of republican government inherited from the Revolution. Even more important, white Southerners relied on slavery to organize racial relations, and believed that abolition would not remove slavery, but would reverse its racial roles, freeing blacks and degrading whites. Despite dissatisfaction with the Confederacy, white Southerners continued to regard it as preferable to the Union, which Confederates assumed would impose abolition and eliminate white racial privilege. War placed greater strains on the Confederacy, finally causing the Confederate government to consider the enlistment of black soldiers. Black enlistment, Confederate troops believed, implied racial equality and erased any reason to fight for the Confederacy, especially when soldiers' suffering families needed them at home. |
