What They Fought Fo

The North and South Divide Throughout my years of history lessons, I was under the understanding that the civil war was simply a war over slavery. Over time I have come to realize there is much more behind the North and South’s reasons for fighting than just the concept of slavery. Everything that ties in with slavery played a massive role in the Civil was, such as; equality, individual rights and liberties, and the basic set up of American government. However, slavery was playing a portion of the role in the war. Other than the underlying hatred of the North towards the South, and the South towards the North, there were many other factors fueling that fire. The civil war was more than a series of battles between the Confederacy and the Union. While Union soldiers from the North were focused on fighting for the underlying principles that the founding fathers had established our nation upon, the Confederate soldiers from the South focused on their strong sense of nationalism and copious amounts of pride towards self-government and their personal property. In the North, soldiers expressed their sentiments about the war through their anger towards the South’s ideology and mindset. Many men viewed what the South was fighting for as something that defied the basic principles of their nation. One soldier, Franklin Rosenbery, stated that he was fighting so that “peace, freedom and liberty” would “again prevail in our land.” (Rosenbery, December 25). Union soldiers wanted to maintain liberties in the way that it they originally framed out in the constitution. In a way that truly gave equal rights to all. They saw the Southern mindset to defy this idea, and to go against their beliefs. Northerners kept their strong ties with the beliefs of the founding fathers and they wanted to the nation to remain under their original governing practices. The way the North saw it, the South was venturing away from the original plan of government. As another soldier wrote to his

Cited: McPherson, James M. What They Fought For: 1861-1865. Baton Rouge [u.a.: Louisiana State Univ., 1997. Print. Rosenberry, Franklin. "John Rosenbery." Letter to John Abraham Rosenbery. 25 Dec. 1863. The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 13. "The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War." The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. Wise, Henry A. "Hon. A. H. H. Stuart." Letter to Alexander H. H. Stuart. 8 Feb. 1869. The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.