Illustrated, photographs, notes, appendices, bibliography, index, 336 pp., 2010, University of North Carolina Press, www.uncpress.unc.edu, $35.

The historiography of the Civil War is filled with imagery of young Southern men hollering, laughing and waving their hats as they raced off to enlist in the fledgling Confederate army following the events at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. The early scene inside the Wilkes mansion in Gone with the Wind, following the announcement that war had commenced, illustrated this most effectively.

Those who enlisted, like their older leaders, fervently believed that the war would be a short one, and none of them wanted to miss out on the “glory” that being involved in such a once-in-a-lifetime event would bring.

The rewards might be helping to create an independent Southern Confederacy, gaining newfound fame and prestige with family and friends, or, perhaps even more importantly, achieving an enhanced standing with the fairer sex.

But what of those men who did not drop everything and rush headlong to the nearest enlistment office? In his absorbing and thought-provoking new work, Professor Kenneth Noe attempts to describe and analyze the myriad reasons why many Southern men were “Reluctant Rebels” when it came to volunteering for service in the Confederate army.

Rather than delving straight into his analysis, the author sets the stage by first offering an important introduction titled “What They Did Not Fight For,” which discusses the history of previous analyses and the resultant theses on Confederate soldiers’ motivations.

This is followed by an explanation of the methodology he used to analyze the letters written by 300-plus soldiers who made up his sample, most of whom were privates or non-commissioned officers. Noe stresses that he especially avoided the letters of officers who entered the army with a commission higher than captain for fear that the voices of such a vocal and influential minority could skew his sample.

The bulk of the work consists of three sections comprised of nine chapters, with each chapter presenting a specific topic or motive for enlisting in the army. Section one discusses “Duty, Honor, and Country” and “Slavery” while section two analyzes “Women,” “Hatred” and “Pay.” The author rounds out the work with “Religion,” “Comrades,” “Weariness” and “Battle.”

Eschewing all men who enlisted prior to January 1862, the author illustrates that nationalism, “the cause,” and political ideology were not important reasons for later enlistees as compared to those who volunteered in 1861.

These later men supported slavery as much as any white Southerner; however, the desire to protect family and neighborhood was their primary motivation. Always with an eye toward home, these later enlistees hated the war above all and hoped for its imminent end.

Another important observation drawn from Noe’s statistical analysis is that later enlistees were generally older than those in the first wave. Ultimately, their older ages resulted in physical inability to fight and march as long as the young men of 1861, thereby making them less effective, though no less committed, soldiers. A need to show their loyalty and courage while fighting for their families prompted these older men to fight on.

The book’s production values certainly live up to the exacting standards of the University of North Carolina Press. Mirroring such high quality, the author states that he utilized no primary sources written after the summer of 1865, when the veterans’ wishful thinking might have begun to influence their memory.

Such impressive scholarly analysis and writing, coupled with quality design and materials, make this a captivating volume that all students of the Civil War in general and the Confederacy in particular will want to read.

Reviewer: Paul Taylor 

Paul Taylor is the author of five books on the Civil War, the most recent being Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer (Kent State University Press, 2009). His Web site is www.paulrtaylor.com.