Introduction

The hopes and expectations of northerners and southerners rested on their armies and generals. Once Fort Sumter was fired upon, the great political and social questions behind the war would not be decided by the pen of a prominent politician but by the musket of the common soldier. Events on the battlefield defined the conflict, not just in a narrow military sense, but in myriad ways that had lasting consequences on the outcome and meaning of the war. Nothing escaped this all-consuming conflict. To understand the evolution of wartime politics, the development of new economies, the treacherous waters of diplomacy, the temperamental nature of civilian morale, and the collapse of slavery, we need to place these issues into a military context.

Conversely, it would be a mistake to examine battles or the decisions of various generals in isolation from their social and political contexts. Lee, Grant, and Sherman did not shape strategy in a vacuum. As they maneuvered their armies, they also monitored public opinion, always keeping in mind how military affairs affected larger political issues. Soldiers were also connected to the rest of society. Those in the ranks were political beings whose view of the war constantly responded to public opinion, especially as it was expressed in letters from home. A plea for assistance or a demand for vengeance registered powerfully on a soldier. Allegiance to the Confederacy or Union was inseparable from loyalty to the local community. Everyone at the time recognized that a powerful dynamic existed between home front and battlefield, one that shaped how Americans came to grips with the terrible bloodletting of their Civil War.

The destruction of slavery, the most revolutionary and lasting consequence of the Civil War, stemmed from the convergence of several forces. The shift in northern war goals from "Union" to "Union and Emancipation" began with the military situation. Slaves saw invading Union armies as liberators, despite Lincoln's insistence that Federal soldiers maintain a hands-off policy toward slavery. Almost immediately, Federal officers and soldiers realized that every escaped slave returned to his master gave the Confederacy another white southerner to shoulder a musket. The fearless example of the runaways profoundly affected many northern soldiers. Although most were intensely racist, they soon saw that a war for Union could not be won without the destruction of slavery. The military reality of facing a hostile Confederate populace, whose economy depended upon human servitude, forced northern soldiers to rethink their position on slavery, no matter how much they despised blacks or the abolitionists. In some rare instances, these men even overcame their degrading racial notions about black people. By gradually accepting emancipation as a war aim, the soldiers also prepared northern civilians to accept the prospect of blacks as fellow citizens.

The move toward emancipation was furthered by the success of Federal armies, especially the northern victory at Antietam on September 17, 1862, which made it politically possible for Lincoln to issue his preliminary emancipation. A good many northerners were outraged by Lincoln's proclamation, but opinion in the South was unified in their opposition to the act. A year of war had confirmed southern suspicion that Lincoln was an abolitionist in disguise, a man whose real designs included the overthrow of white liberty. Civilians encouraged their loved ones in the Confederate ranks to fight to the end, for they could never live under "black Republican rule." The fighting tenacity and valor of the typical southern soldier can be better understood in light of the threat apparently posed by Lincoln's proclamation. Men on both sides were fighting for political ideals.

Emancipationist goals moved in tandem with the transformation of Union military policy. In 1861, Lincoln had advocated conciliation-->conciliation, hoping that loyal southerners would coax their pro-Confederate brothers back into the Union. But the presence of Union armies on southern soil converted even the most reluctant Confederates into ardent Rebels, fiercely determined to fight until every Yankee left southern soil. Northern soldiers quickly overcame prewar expectations about southern hospitality. Met in the South by bitter hatred, Lincoln's soldiers knew by early 1862 that conciliation would not work. Federal troops started to take the war to southern civilians, burning crops, destroying barns, and confiscating property. The armchair generals followed the lead of the ordinary private. Union military planners began to lay out a harsher strategy. A more brutal kind of war emerged in the fall of 1862, reaching full maturity in Sherman's march to the sea two years later.

The North's policy not only exhausted the Confederacy's ability to wage war but also cut away at civilian morale. By the end of the war at Appomattox, any southern civilian could have testified personally to the enormous impact of armies and battles on life, limb, and property. The private letters of Civil War soldiers explain why the war was no longer a limited conflict. Men on both sides had a sophisticated understanding of the causes behind the war and what it would take to bring it to a close. They also had competing visions as to what constituted a good and moral society. Through their wartime letters, we can appreciate why northerners and southerners fought with such reckless bravery on the battlefield. Everything each side cherished seemed to hang in the balance.