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Book SynopsisGeneral John A. Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, `You couldn''t get American soldiers today to make an attack like that.'' Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as war progresses -- not hold true in the Civil War?It is to this question -- why did they fight -- that James McPherson, America''s preeminient Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout the conflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious
Trade ReviewIn For Cause and Comrades the voices of the young men of the North and South sing out to us clearly, colorfully, compellingly, telling us what it was like for them -- the battles, the camps, the cold and hunger, the fear, the boredom, the despair, the triumph. This is an extraordinary book, full of fascinating details and moving self-portraits. * The Wall Street Journal *
