kevikens
2nd Lieutenant
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
- Location
- New Jersey
I just re-reading an old favorite on the American Revolution, the War of the Revolution by Christopher Ward, an older publication but a most readable one in the Kenneth Roberts vein. I was struck by and reflected on the motivation of the men who had to bear up under hardships that are literally incredulous and make me doubt whether I could have borne up under them.
That, of course, got me to thinking about the soldiers of the Civil War and what motivated them to fight in that war. Now I am not talking about the motivation of the politicians or just the high and mighty, whose motives, I suspect, were not those of the average soldier. State governors and legislators, members of both the US and CS Congress, not to say Lincoln and Davis, have had their reasons for fighting examined and parsed and published. And I don't mean the reasons most often adduced, preservation of slavery ( or the destruction of slavery), or preservation of the Union or the establishment of a separate Confederacy. I guess most soldiers would give lip service to those goals but when your position seems hopeless, when you are starving and freezing and shaking (or starving and sweating and thirsting), when you are alone on a picket line at three AM and looking out on the thousands of campfires of an enemy who plans on killing you at daybreak, what prompts you to stick it out, stay at your post, hold you ground, and yes stare death in the face of a 12 lb Napoleon about to belch out a load of canister into your face? At such times what does state's rights or the indissolubility of the Union mean to a soldier?
I guess what I am asking is, because I have difficulty imaging myself doing these things, why did they do this. I know some will argue that if they did not do their duty they would be shot by their own side but desertion, or at least shirking, were available to the feint of heart but even the conscripted showed the kind of resolve and courage that amaze, even baffle me. So what was it that prompted these men to put up with deprivation and hardship and lingering illness and sudden death on an almost daily basis? It's got to be something more visceral than the platitudes, speeches and flag waving. Whatever it was, I wish that I could have such devotion to a cause.
That, of course, got me to thinking about the soldiers of the Civil War and what motivated them to fight in that war. Now I am not talking about the motivation of the politicians or just the high and mighty, whose motives, I suspect, were not those of the average soldier. State governors and legislators, members of both the US and CS Congress, not to say Lincoln and Davis, have had their reasons for fighting examined and parsed and published. And I don't mean the reasons most often adduced, preservation of slavery ( or the destruction of slavery), or preservation of the Union or the establishment of a separate Confederacy. I guess most soldiers would give lip service to those goals but when your position seems hopeless, when you are starving and freezing and shaking (or starving and sweating and thirsting), when you are alone on a picket line at three AM and looking out on the thousands of campfires of an enemy who plans on killing you at daybreak, what prompts you to stick it out, stay at your post, hold you ground, and yes stare death in the face of a 12 lb Napoleon about to belch out a load of canister into your face? At such times what does state's rights or the indissolubility of the Union mean to a soldier?
I guess what I am asking is, because I have difficulty imaging myself doing these things, why did they do this. I know some will argue that if they did not do their duty they would be shot by their own side but desertion, or at least shirking, were available to the feint of heart but even the conscripted showed the kind of resolve and courage that amaze, even baffle me. So what was it that prompted these men to put up with deprivation and hardship and lingering illness and sudden death on an almost daily basis? It's got to be something more visceral than the platitudes, speeches and flag waving. Whatever it was, I wish that I could have such devotion to a cause.