Welcome

Events on the Civil War battlefield were in a constant dialogue with the currents of public opinion and political policy. In the North, front-line soldiers, loved ones on the home front, armchair generals, and politicians all contributed to a steady widening of war goals and a fiercer destructiveness in military tactics. The destruction of slavery became as important a war aim as the restoration of the Union, and the destruction of the Southern economy became a tactical objective for invading armies.

Southerners, too, became steadily more fierce in resisting the presence of Yankees on their land and in staving off the threat that emancipation posed to cherished ways of life. The rank and file of both sides, as their letters show, believed they were fighting for their highest political ideals.

Follow the evolution of this dialogue through the course of the war through the stories below..

Introduction
"The Lure of Blackberries"
"The Will to Win"
"A Most Diverse Army"
"A Mile of Icy Ground"
"War So Terrible"