This is a small monograph of three chapters and an introduction that seeks to answer the question: What did the soldiers of the American Civil War fight for? This isn’t to answer the question about broader political causes, nor is it designed to obfuscate the causes of the Civil War. Instead, using the letters, journals, and other personal documents of Civil War soldiers of both sides, James McPherson simply wants to better understand the personal motivations of the soldiers. He wants to debunk the idea […]