Essay Database

What was it that motivated so many men to volunteer their service in the American Civil War, leaving their homes and loved ones for the hardships, suffering, devastation and bloodshed that so darkly stained the five long years of the war? The question has no single answer, but contemporary scholars tend to cite notions of duty, honor, love for one's country and war fever among the abstract forces prompting men from both northern and southern …

…they felt compelled to remain in the fight. This Duty was that drive felt by a man to protect the very men who were putting their lives on the line for him. The importance of Honor was another way of articulating the fear of cowardice that plagued soldiers trapped in a society that still subscribed to the Victorian notions of war's nobility. On the battlefield, courage was equated to honor while cowardice translated to dishonor.