The
day after the firing on FortSumter, the
United States Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, directed that all United States Military Academy (West Point) cadets must take a "new oath of allegiance." Previously, each cadet had taken an "oath of allegiance to his respective State." Now, they were required to "swear feilty**
to the United States paramount to any other state, county or political entity." While the cadets were in full
uniform, the new oath was administered in the chapel in the presence of the Academy staff.
**feilty
is an old English word that is not in all dictionaries but is best equated to the modern word ‘fidelity’.
Robert E. Lee had rejected the offer to command the Union forces on the grounds that he could
not draw his sword against his beloved home state of Virginia.Lee stated that his "loyalty to Virginia ought to take
precedence over that which is due the Federal Government." He further proclaimed that he had no greater duty than to his native state of Virginia. Lee was a 4th generation Virginian,
son of Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee (one of George Washington's favorite lieutenants), and Lee's wife,
Mary Anne Custis, was the great granddaughter of Martha Washington.
Today, most
people view and identify themselves
as Americans. During the 1800s, however, many identified and viewed themselves as North
Carolinians, Virginians, Texans, Tennesseans, etc. Through the ages, we, as a people, have evolved
and placed a greater emphasis on national identity.
Recommended Reading:The South Was Right!(Hardcover). Description:
Kin Hubbard said "'Tain't what a man don't know that hurts him; it's what he does know that just ain't so." Much of what people
"know" about the causes, conduct, and consequences of the Civil War "just ain't so." The Kennedy brothers make a strong case
that the real reasons and results of the War Between the States have been buried under the myth of Father Abraham and his
blue-clad saints marching south to save the Union and free the slaves. Continued below...
Sure, the tone is polemical. But the "enlightened" elements of American opinion have been engaging in a polemic
against the South and its people for decades… This book adopts the "following the money approach" to analyzing who profited
most from slavery – a convincing argument that reflects that much of the wealth went to the North. It also points out
that slavery was not new to Africa, and was practiced by Africans against Africans without
foreign intervention. A strong case is made that the North and Lincoln held strong racist views. Lincoln proposed shipping,
or transporting, blacks back to Africa… The
blacks residing in the Northern states were in a precarious predicament (e.g. draft riots and lynchings in NY City). The authors,
however, do not make any argument supporting slavery - their consistent line is the practice is vile. The fact that many blacks
served, assisted and provided material support to Union and Confederate Armies is beyond
refute. Native Americans also served with distinction on both sides during the Civil War. “A controversial
and thought-provoking book that challenges the status-quo of present teachings…”
Related Reading:
15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Definition and Purpose
Recommended
Reading:Ordeal
By Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (816 pages). Description: Pulitzer
Prize winning author, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era and For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, describes the causes and origins of the Civil War; motivations and experiences of common soldiers and the role
of women; social, economic, political and ideological conflicts; as well as a comprehensive study of the Reconstruction Era
and its consequences. Continued below...
McPherson also includes many visual aids such as detailed maps and comprehensive charts. Will make
a great addition to the pro-Northern library, but will be a disappointment for the pro-Southern buff. The work is painstakingly
biased with Lincoln portrayed as the next best thing since the bread was sliced. According to McPherson, Lincoln could do
no wrong, but the South was only filled with slave loving folks with the entire Civil War was based solely on Southern
love for slavery. This is not balanced, but biased.
Recommended Reading: Battle Cry of Freedom:
The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United
States) (Hardcover) (904 pages). Description: Published in 1988 to universal acclaim, this single-volume treatment of the Civil War quickly became
recognized as the new standard in its field. James M. McPherson, who won the Pulitzer
Prize for this book, impressively combines a brisk writing style with an admirable thoroughness. Continued below...
James McPherson's
fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak
of one war in Mexico
to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama
and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War including the Dred Scott
decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. It flows into a masterful chronicle of the
war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering by each side, the politics, and the personalities. Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as Manifest Destiny,
Popular Sovereignty, Sectionalism, the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the
causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory. The book's title
refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict. The South seceded in the name
of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood
fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty.
Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war, slavery, and adopt a policy of emancipation as
a second war aim. This "new birth of freedom," as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest
legacy of America's bloodiest conflict.
This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing "second American Revolution" we call the Civil War, a war
that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty. . Perhaps more than
any other book, this one belongs on the bookshelf of every Civil War buff.
Recommended Reading:Confederates
in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War.Description:
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz returned from years of traipsing
through war zones as a foreign correspondent only to find that his childhood obsession with the Civil War had caught up with
him. Near his house in Virginia, he happened to encounter
people who reenact the Civil War--men who dress up in period costumes and live as Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. Intrigued,
he wound up having some odd adventures with the "hardcores," the fellows who try to immerse themselves in the war, hoping
to get what they lovingly term a "period rush." Horwitz spent two years reporting on why Americans are still so obsessed with
the war, and the ways in which it resonates today. Continued below...
In the course of his work, he made a sobering side trip to cover a "murder that was provoked by the display
of the Confederate flag," and he spoke to a number of people seeking to honor their ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.
Horwitz has a flair for odd details that spark insights, and Confederates in the Attic is a thoughtful and entertaining
book that does much to explain America's continuing obsession with the Civil War.
Recommended
Reading:The Real Lincoln: A New Look at
Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War.Description: It hardly seems
possible that there is more to say about someone who has been subjected to such minute scrutiny in thousands of books and
articles. Yet, Thomas J. DiLorenzo’s The Real Lincoln manages to raise
fresh and morally probing questions, challenging the image of the martyred 16th president that has been fashioned carefully
in marble and bronze, sentimentalism and myth. Continued below...
In doing so,
DiLorenzo does not follow the lead of M. E. Bradford or other Southern agrarians. He writes primarily not as a defender of
the Old South and its institutions, culture, and traditions, but as a libertarian enemy of the Leviathan state. DiLorenzo holds Lincoln and his war responsible for the triumph of "big government" and the birth of the
ubiquitous, suffocating modern U.S. state.
He seeks to replace the nation’s memory of Lincoln as the “Great Emancipator”
with the record of Lincoln as the “Great Centralizer.”
Recommended Reading: Secession, Causes, and Origins of the American Civil War
This page and its pages discuss the following subjects: Causes
of the Civil War, What caused the Civil War, What caused the American Civil War, List of Civil War Causes and Origins, Causes of
Secession of Southern States, States' Rights. The South, the US Constitution, and US Supreme Court Debate.
, describes the causes and origins of the Civil War; motivations and experiences of common soldiers and the role
of women; social, economic, political and ideological conflicts; as well as a comprehensive study of the Reconstruction Era
and its consequences. Continued below...