For Cause and Comrades
Why Men Fought in the Civil War

What is the full measure of devotion and in how many ways can it be defined? Those questions and more are answered in this book. In reading the usual Civil War books, which are about tactics and winners and losers, this book goes deep to explore the many reasons why men and women gave their lives for......more

Duty, Honor, And Devotion Although Professor James McPherson wrote this study of the motivation of the Civil War soldier, it is not a great exaggeration to say that in this book the soldiers speak for themselves. Professor McPherson has read and analyzed a prodigious amount of source material written......more

James McPherson is a fine historian. Many of his works on the Civil War are impressive. This ranks among his more interesting works—and makes a contribution in its own right. The book is an effort to find the answer to a fundamental question (Page 5): “What enabled [Civil War soldiers:] to overcome t......more

What motivates men to fight in a war? This is a question that has engaged writers for millennia, in no small part because of the dangers involved in warfare. We as humans have an instinct for self-preservation that is at odds with going into a situation in which a large group of people are attemptin......more

By studying tens of thousands of representative letters and diaries written by combatants in the American Civil War author McPherson has attempted to understand what motivated Unionists and Confederates to go to war, to stay at war and to participate in battle. What, in other words, did they think t......more