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re: Why did Northern men volunteer to fight in the Union Army?
Posted on 6/24/17 at 4:50 pm to RollTide1987
Posted on 6/24/17 at 4:50 pm to RollTide1987
quote:
There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I hereafter want to be ranked with the latter.
I'm sure those same words were spoken by many a British soldier during the Revolutionary War.
2
Posted on 6/24/17 at 4:57 pm to weagle99
Because their factories would have been empty if they couldn't force the South to sell their raw materials to the North rather than France and England -- using their numbers advantage in Congress to impose export tariffs.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 4:58 pm to RollTide1987
quote:
I'll let Ulysses S. Grant's words from a letter to his father speak for themselves:
"I'll have another round"
Posted on 6/24/17 at 4:58 pm to weagle99
They knew that if the South was a separate nation they would have to pay an import tax for cotton clothes. All wars are about the fashion industry. See Zoolander.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:00 pm to weagle99
using the same logic, why would americans volunteer to fight in wwi, vietnam, korea?
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:04 pm to GreatLakesTiger24
quote:
why would americans volunteer to fight in wwi, vietnam, korea?
John Kerry fought in Vietnam so he could become President. It just didn't work out because of that Swift Boat book. Another Dem cheated out of his rightful office. Just like Al Gore and Hillary.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:05 pm to SCLibertarian
quote:
I'm sure those same words were spoken by many a British soldier during the Revolutionary War.
Difference is - Grant's side won. The British lost.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:07 pm to weagle99
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:15 pm to weagle99
Go and watch Ken Burns' "The Civil War".
One of the few good ones he made.
One of the few good ones he made.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:41 pm to weagle99
Because no one likes traitors and killing them is fun, go USA
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:46 pm to SCLibertarian
quote:
I'm sure those same words were spoken by many a British soldier during the Revolutionary War.
Sure there were. And they lost.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:49 pm to weagle99
Because farming is boring and tedious.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 5:55 pm to redandright
I could spend a long time on this post, but let me just begin with one caveat: One cannot truly view events from 150 years ago with a modern mindset.
1. War in the 19th Century was greatly romanticized. It was a coming of age rite that separated real men from cowards and shirkers. Both sides considered it their patriotic duty.
2. Many, and I do mean a huge number, of men on the Union side were fresh off of the boats. There were whole regiments of men that did not speak English. The Irish, fresh from the starving times in Ireland, were hustled straight off of ships and into recruitment lines. Many Southerners considered Yankees to be little more than a mercenary army.
3. Midwesterners needed the Mississippi River in order to move their goods to market. They had an economic need to fight for the Union.
4. Many took bounties (enlistment bonuses).
There are dozens of other reasons why either side chose to fight. Most were farmers and not politically motivated, but they felt they needed to support "their" people. The truth is, very, very few of them took up arms to end slavery, they wanted to save the Union. A narrative many modern historians hate to mention is the number of Northern men who despised the idea of dying for slaves after the Emancipation Proclamation, which was not issued until almost 3 years into the war.
1. War in the 19th Century was greatly romanticized. It was a coming of age rite that separated real men from cowards and shirkers. Both sides considered it their patriotic duty.
2. Many, and I do mean a huge number, of men on the Union side were fresh off of the boats. There were whole regiments of men that did not speak English. The Irish, fresh from the starving times in Ireland, were hustled straight off of ships and into recruitment lines. Many Southerners considered Yankees to be little more than a mercenary army.
3. Midwesterners needed the Mississippi River in order to move their goods to market. They had an economic need to fight for the Union.
4. Many took bounties (enlistment bonuses).
There are dozens of other reasons why either side chose to fight. Most were farmers and not politically motivated, but they felt they needed to support "their" people. The truth is, very, very few of them took up arms to end slavery, they wanted to save the Union. A narrative many modern historians hate to mention is the number of Northern men who despised the idea of dying for slaves after the Emancipation Proclamation, which was not issued until almost 3 years into the war.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 6:21 pm to weagle99
People enjoyed war back then. Men were expected to fight.
Posted on 6/24/17 at 6:34 pm to MMauler
quote:
Because their factories would have been empty if they couldn't force the South to sell their raw materials to the North
Not correct. Many industries of the North saw actual increases in production during the war.
The Union's industrial and economic capacity soared during the war as the North continued its rapid industrialization to suppress the rebellion. In the South, a smaller industrial base, fewer rail lines, and an agricultural economy based upon slave labor made mobilization of resources more difficult. As the war dragged on, the Union's advantages in factories, railroads, and manpower put the Confederacy at a great disadvantage.
Nearly every sector of the Union economy witnessed increased production. Mechanization of farming allowed a single farmer growing crops such as corn or wheat to plant, harvest, and process much more than was possible when hand and animal power were the only available tools. (By 1860, a threshing machine could thresh 12 times as much grain per hour as could six men.) This mechanization became even more important as many farmers left home to enlist in the Union military. Those remaining behind could continue to manage the farm through the use of labor-saving devices like reapers and horse-drawn planters.
Northern transportation industries boomed during the conflict as well--particularly railroads. The North's larger number of tracks and better ability to construct and move parts gave it a distinct advantage over the South. Union forces moving south or west to fight often rode to battle on trains traveling on freshly lain tracks. In fact, as Northern forces traveled further south to fight and occupy the Confederacy, the War Department created the United States Military Railroads, designed to build rails to carry troops and supplies as well as operating captured Southern rail lines and equipment. By war's end, it was the world's largest railroad system.
Other Northern industries--weapons manufacturing, leather goods, iron production, textiles--grew and improved as the war progressed.
By Benjamin T. Arrington, National Park Service
Posted on 6/24/17 at 6:34 pm to weagle99
quote:
There was a draft but my understanding is that drafted numbers were relatively low.
At the beginning of the rebellion, the Union took a number of 3 year men as volunteers. The secesh enlisted the bulk of its army for a year. Figures are hard to come by because the secesh forcibly reenlisted many who don't show as drafted. About 1/3 of the rebel army was drafted one way or the other. About 6% of the 2 million Union soldiers were drafted.
After a year a lot of the rebs had had enough soldiering. They were forcibly reenlisted or shamed into avoiding the draft the so-called CSA instituted in 1862.
Some large number of Union men, despite the maladroit management of affairs, especially relating to the Army of the Potomac reenlisted in the summer of 1864, despite the brutal campaign they knew that Grant would pursue.
They enlisted and reenlisted because they knew that there could be no appeal from the ballot to the bullet.
"Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that, among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost. And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonnet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while, I fear, there will be some white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they strove to hinder it.
Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful result."
Yours very truly
A. Lincoln
-8/26/63
This post was edited on 6/24/17 at 6:38 pm
Posted on 6/24/17 at 6:40 pm to weagle99
quote:
I don't know. I am trying to understand their motivation. Some theoretical socio-economic compact seems like a weak reason to risk one's life.
If California wanted to leave today how many people would volunteer to go kill them so they have to stay in the US?
I would.
But I would want to start my work in Beverly Hills
Posted on 6/24/17 at 6:41 pm to Loserman
I'm going to the Napa valley those sushesh bitches!
Posted on 6/24/17 at 6:48 pm to WhiskeyPapa
Maine Men
Take men one at a time
From the movie Gettysburg.
Take men one at a time
From the movie Gettysburg.
This post was edited on 6/24/17 at 6:54 pm
Posted on 6/24/17 at 6:49 pm to weagle99
Patriotism
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