What They Fought For 1861-1865 (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History, Louisia)

Voices from 150 years ago tell us why they fought in this short, sad booklet. Not a lot of surprises here. The northern boys fought to preserve the union, at least at first. The rebs fought for their freedom - saw their sacrifice as the second American Revolution against a tyrannical government that trampled their rights.Yankee boys saw the southerners as traitors and seditionists; and a few, very few, fought to free the slaves. Rebs saw the Yankees as invaders and they fought them to keep them from destroying their homes, farms, and states. Very few saw the fight as a way to preserve their "peculiar" institution.Lincoln ordered an army and an invasion of the seceding states to put down a rebellion. The northern soldiers echoed his stance. The rebs saw him as the embodiment of tyranny and injustice - ordering a war against people who's only crime was to want their independence from Lincoln's government and his ilk.There's a growing sense in the northern armies that emancipation was also a goal of their fight. Thousands of slaves flocked to their ranks for safety and freedom; many of whom fought courageously for the north and provided needed labor and support for the armies.It's informative and eerie reading their own thoughts so many years later. McPherson's scholarship sheds much light on our national nightmare...

This is a good freaking book. I hate books but this is the first book I actually enjoyed reading.

An easy read, but I thought it was an expensive book for the size and content.

McPherson is a wonderful scholar on the Civil War. This book will fit in your back pocket, and is worth reading. Go for it.

I needed this book for my history class and I needed it by the end of the month, so I came here on amazon.com and ordered it, hoping it would come fast. Ten days later, I recieved a no longer in print book in mint-condition. Wow! I am whole-heartedly recommending this distributor to you (as if it will influence your mind any further).

Being able to read direct quotes from people who fought in the American Revolutionary War was a great insight. To see what they believed and how much they were willing to sacrifice.

This is such a disappointment, but typical of the northern liberal slanted version of supposed truth when it comes to the real reason of the war and what the soldiers really fought for. It surely wasn't slavery.In the typical liberal 'Princeton' bogus fashion, this deceived author not once mentions (or chooses even ONE soldier letter btw) the real reason of the civil war, which was States Rights. Not once mentioned that the real reason was because the North held the majority in congressional voting and were imposing huge export tariffs on the South cotton exports, whom btw were getting triple the price from French and British buyers than what they were getting from the North.And not once did he mention that the South was well within their Constitutional right to secede. They were not TRAITORS like this slanted liberal author writes in his well-chosen slanted soldier letters...One of the most disgusting books of slanted liberal deception that I have read to date, I will now go burn it.

enjoyed book. very educational. helped me with reasearch for project. I love history and the civil war, iam form the deep south.

It is not a bad book, but it is utterly pointless with 'For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War' being out there. It is no more than an introduction to that book. I cannot recommend this book at all. Just buy 'For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War'.