WHAT THEY FOUGHT FOR 1861-1865

The first chapter “ The holy cause of Liberty and Independence” is about the reason that the Confederate army fought. The reasons that the Confederates was fighting because they believed that the Union was trying to take away their independence. They wanted freedom to their property and way of life, they felt that the northerners was not trying to let them do this. A lot of the southerners consider it to be another revolutionary war. They believed that the Union was being a dictator just like Britian was doing to the colonies. So, they felt that they were fighting for their right to live in peace, or for liberty and independence from their ‘dictator’. A lot of people was against the Twenty Negro Law, which said that a slave owner with twenty or more slaves caused for one white man of the family to be drafted. (pg 15 WTFF) This became a big problem for some people. The civil war soldiers wrote a variety of things in their diaries ranging from the reason the was fighting to they want to return home. A lot of the soldiers in the Confederate army died from a variety of deaths, but mostly from wounds that just killed them. Some people even felt that they just had to fight the war. They had the attitude never give up never surrender.

The second chapter “ The Government on God’s Footstool” is about the reason the Union fought. The Northerners fought for their forefathers to uphold their legacy. The Union fought for the Patriots, or their forefathers during the American Revolution. I also believed that some people fought for the equal rights of all. This is portrayed in this letter by Irish American soldier. He states that this is as much his land as it is the next man. Also a sheriff who died at Gettysburg said that he wish that the United States was really the land of the free. The north fought to contain the Union, or to keep the Union the same. Since the south succeeded they said that they were against the backbone that the country was built on. The Union soldiers fought perserve the Union.

The final chapter, “ The War Will Never End Until We End Slavery” is about how Lincoln realize that slavery is the key to the end of the war. During this period the price of the average slave rose in the south. After the Emancipation Proclamation, this shown that the heart of the civil war was slavery. This was when the North became against slavery, contrasting the south belief in slavery. During the end of the war the Confederate Generals got despaired and started to let slaves fight in the war on the side of the Confederate army. This was kind of oximoron that the slaves were fighting against the people that were trying to release them from their troubles. The Unions been allowed blacks to fight in the civil war. The war ended by General Lee surrendering to the Union. This was the end to slavery, the old south way of life.