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Why Confederates Fought: Family and Nation in Civil War Virginia (Civil War America) | 
 enlarge | Author: Aaron Sheehan-dean
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $22.28
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 626296
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 312
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0807831581
Dewey Decimal Number: 975.503
EAN: 9780807831588
ASIN: 0807831581
Publication Date: November 26, 2007
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Product Description
In the first comprehensive study of the experience of Virginia soldiers and their families in the Civil War, Aaron Sheehan-Dean captures the inner world of the rank-and-file. He challenges earlier arguments that middle- and lower-class southerners gradually withdrew their support for the Confederacy because their class interests were not being met. Instead he argues that Virginia soldiers continued to be motivated by the profound emotional connection between military service and the protection of home and family, even as the war dragged on.
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| Customer Reviews:
Southern Perspective Made Clearer December 9, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
The root causes for Southern secession are generally accepted and were as simplistic as the general excitement that drew thousands to their respective state's call for volunteers. More difficult to understand are the many factor which sustained their willingness to fight so hard for so long.
Sheehan-Dean identifies motivations strong enough to outweigh powerful discouragements. As the war progressed, the initial zeal was dampened by camp boredoms, disease, conscription, shortages and strategic setbacks. However, tactical victories, confidence in military leadership, Northern depredations, sense of divine purpose and defense of family fortified the common man's willingness to resist by keeping the original ideals of the war alive.
The general Southern view of slavery as essential to the Southern economy is reiterated. But more importantly, slavery was the great Southern irony, viewed as a foundation of white liberty. From that perspective, the Confederate soldier's choice was simply victory or death.
The author presents reasonable arguments solidly backed by sound scholarship and documentation. This student of his own humble, Southern ancestry better understands his progenitors' heretofore seemingly irrational consistency and fanatic loyalty to that "rich man's war - poor man's fight."
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