What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War

By Chandra Manning
Illustrated, notes, bibliography, index, 350 pp., 2007. Alfred A. Knopf, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY, 10019, $26.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Richard M. McMurry
Richard M. McMurry's latest book (edited) is An Uncompromising Secessionist: The Civil War of George Knox Miller, 8th (Wade's) Confederate Cavalry.

Review:
In this very important book Chandra Manning examines the ideas of enlisted Civil War soldiers about race, slavery and the Civil War. The result is a revealing picture of what she calls the "road consensus within each army as to why a war needed to be fought" in the 1860s and how that consensus among white Union soldiers evolved as the war went on.

Confederates (even the great majority who did not own slaves) clearly fought to preserve slavery because the institution was the basis of their society, personal and family welfare and status, and a way of life.

Most white Yankees began the war fighting only to preserve the Union. As the conflict went on, however, most of them came to realize that slavery must be destroyed or it would again threaten the character and very existence of the republic.

Many then went on to the next step of favoring full citizenship and equality for black Americans. (The postwar retreat from this last ideal is beyond the scope of Manning's study.)

Black Union soldiers saw the war as the chance to win freedom for their people and to demonstrate that they were worthy of citizenship and equality.

The book is based on extensive research in the letters and diaries of some 1,100 soldiers (477 Confederates; 657 federals). Manning has also made good use of the camp newspapers published from time to time by various military units as well as of several newspapers intended for black readership. These last contain many letters from men serving in units of the United States Colored Troops.

Manning presents the material from all these sources in chronological order, thereby enhancing our understanding of how soldiers' views evolved - or did not evolve - as the war went on.

Unfortunately, the book is marred by an almost obscene collection of 929 footnotes (85 pages of them!), many of which insult the readers' intelligence by simply repeating material from the text, or other notes, or in many cases from other lines in the same footnote.

A dose of common sense and some judicious editing (both very rare in the academic/publishing cesspool) would have shortened the notes by 30 or 40 pages without impairing the scholarship one bit and at the same time greatly enhancing the book's appeal.

Useless pedantry aside, however, this is a splendid book that should be read carefully by all who have an interest in the Civil War in general and in the men who fought it in particular.

CWN readers who engage in "living history" will find it especially valuable in getting to know and understand the 19th-century Americans whom they portray. Highly recommended. Five Stars!