Questions of why the Confederate soldiers fought for a government that supported slavery and why the Union soldiers fought in spite of not necessarily believing in racial equality are thoroughly explored in What This Cruel War Was Over by Chandra Manning. In her book, Manning places the focus of Civil War ideology on the written records of soldiers both from the Union and from the Confederacy. Manning attempts to answer the question of whether these soldiers were fighting for something other than the orders of commanders, and if so, what exactly that was. The book operates in a vacuum of sorts in this sense, utilizing soldier-produced documents almost exclusively for the bulk of the text, and although it provides thought-provoking answers, I am not sure that it sells me on its argument. While Manning discusses a gradual acceptance of blacks by Union soldiers, she largely ignores changes in Confederate soldiers showing doubts about slavery. These doubts, though part of a very small minority, show that Confederate soldiers fought for the protection of their homes and families rather than simply to uphold their “masculine identity” or the establishment of slavery (65). The problems that brought these men into the Civil War may not have been at the forefront of the Confederate soldiers’ minds by the end of it.
Manning characterizes the Union soldiers as being ignorant of the horrors of slavery yet not necessarily interested in equality for the races. Over time she claims that “wartime experiences convinced them that slavery must be destroyed in order to win the war” (14). While the discussion of their racism does create a nuanced conception of how Union soldiers were not guilt-free, pure saviors of America, Manning still paints a surprisingly rigid duality of each side that fought in the Civil War. By the end of the war, as she describes it, the Union soldiers “found reasons to discard old views,” contemplating ideas of “racial equality” that they never had before, and the Confederate soldiers remained as unchanged, “otherwise good and ordinary men” that embraced slavery without doubt in order to protect their families and society (221). Although she gives examples of Confederate soldiers who “began very cautiously to regard the institution of slavery more critically,” Manning concludes that “neither of them could imagine a South without slavery” because they felt uncomfortable sharing these radical thoughts outside of their diaries (171).
Within the framework of her argument, the Union soldiers originally fought for Revolutionary ideals and, after arriving in the South, became invested in the movement for slavery. Confederate soldiers, on the other hand, remained focused on protecting their old way of life in any way possible, even if that meant upholding the institution of slavery. This dichotomy shows little give for a grey area between Confederacy and Union, yet perhaps this strict categorization is necessary in order to arrive at the most complete answer for why the Civil War was fought.