When considering the amount of both correspondences and journals written during the Civil War and the vast quantities of personal accounts of the war published after the fact, I am struck by the high literacy numbers. This is particularly surprising among the common enlisted men. I would even be willing to bet that the percentage of literary men in the Union and Confederate military was the highest in history up to that point; something that I would also consider to be an example of both a modern military and a modern country.
Of even more interest to me personally, was trying to get a handle on the reasons individuals chose to fight for either side. Though it has often been painted in strict black and white, the reality is one of a hundred+ shades of grey. Though there were many Southern soldiers who fought to preserve the institution of slavery, there were many more who found a cause in the protection of their home state from the Northern invaders. And in the North, just as there were many abolitionists among the Union soldiers, there were just as many who were fighting strictly to preserve the Union and who didn't give a damn about the "darkies". I found the examples of letters with "Perman & Taylor" to cover a range of reasonings and attitudes towards the War, their opponents and even towards their supposed compatriots (who oftentimes didn't share the same opinions).
When reading "John Cochran's Letter" I was appalled (but not really surprised) that he would be so willing , nay, really so EAGER to see the blood of "contending brothers" drench the land than live under Republican rule. He would be willing to sacrifice his "family" in order to preserve his "property". Things can always be replaced, but people (especially one's family) are irreplaceable. Now, Cochran may have been speaking metaphorically about "brothers", but still, his willingness to sacrifice living breathing people, in order to guarantee his right to own a certain type of property I find particularly repugnant. (p. 179)
In "Charles Brewster's Letter" the writer shows that he is just as willing as Cochran to defy the law (military law in this instance as opposed to civilian) in order to do what he feels to be right, which is very much anti-slavery. I find his cause to be more just, since he is defending people from enslavement and possible death for running away. He is defending "life", while Cochran is defending "property". (p. 180)
The "Charles Wills Letter" presents the reader with a Union soldier, who is conflicted about slavery and is unsure what to do with the contraband that made their way to the Union lines. Wills doesn't appear to care very much about the slaves, he even states the belief that they are "better off with their masters 50 times over than with us". Yet at the same time he doesn't feel right in sending them back, "I couldn't help to send a runaway nigger back. I'm blamed if I could." He also mentions that the military commanders had made promises to the local slave-owners assuring them that the blacks would be returned to their owners. But in the next sentence he seems to take joy in the "trick" that his leaders paid on those slave-owners, by NOT returning the runaways. Wills' concern is focused more on the day-to-day activities of being a soldier, such as the desire to survive the war and the need to begin saving some of his money in case he must face a future that includes a missing limb or two. (p. 181-2)
It is the "Charles Wills Letter" which I find to be a likely example of the beliefs held by most soldiers on both sides of the Civil War. Though I am sure that there were many "die-hard Abolitionists" and staunch "Slavery is Good proponents" on either side. I really feel that most soldiers held a myriad of beliefs and a wide variety of thoughts on the reasons for fighting and the causes of the war itself. It is thus a very good thing that so many people involved in the war, observing the war or even simply affected by it in some way, were able to record those thoughts, share them with others, and thereby insure that the Civil War will be remembered from a wide variety of viewpoints, guaranteeing that the conflict will be seen as a battle between shades of grey.
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