REVIEW: What this Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War
By Chandra Manning
Knopf, 2007
I have not had the chance to write about Chandra Manning’s much hailed book “What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery and the Civil War” as I have been involved in other things. I meant to write about it during Christmas break, but so much for that.
There are two important assumptions that Manning makes in her book. First, the soldiers who fought in the war knew, or at least understood, that the war was being fought over liberty (albeit from different perspectives); and Second, that they knew from the outset of hostilities that liberty (and in essence slavery) was at the core of conflict.
Manning makes a very strong argument and her thesis is well supported by letters, diaries, and regiment newspapers which renders her research top notch.
But her arguments are not bulletproof, which is not unusual for most social historical Civil War books dealing with personal opinions of those of the past. We’re dealing with qualifying something as opposed to most social history that is quantifying it. Trying to surmise what a soldier was “thinking” or “feeling” is never easy and can often leave the historian on a slippery slope.
Yet with this in mind, Manning’s book is easily one of the most important social historical works on Civil War soldiers in some time. Her topic is nothing new, but the approach and structure of her argument is unique and effective. For as she states, “[her book] is about what ordinary soldiers thought about the relationship between slavery and the Civil War.” [p.4] Nothing more, nothing less.
It was on page 7 when I fell in love with Manning’s book after reading the following comment on some problems with other historians work that has resulted in incorrect assumptions and views of the past: “The problem… is that they impose modern views backward rather than trying to come to grips with nineteenth-century Americans on their own terms.” Amen.
I’ve grown tired of shrieking teachers and historians who can’t get past the very idea that people in the mid-nineteenth century were blatant racists. Instead of denouncing them, let’s try to understand what was going on and why?
Manning’s book is unique as it deals exclusively with what Union and Confederate soldiers wrote about slavery and its relationship with the Civil War. Her research is impressive as Manning has unearthed over 100 regimental newspapers that had thus far been largely ignored by historians.
Her arguments that as Union soldiers descended into the South, witnessed slavery first hand and the society that supported it, they eventually became fairly staunch abolition supporters. This I clearly saw, for the most part, when researching my book on the 11th Wisconsin Regiment.
Manning’s book will, depending on your current view, seriously challenge or upend your beliefs in what the average soldier was fighting for. Was it state’s rights? To protect the constitution? To maintain the sovereignty of the Union? Rarely did such lofty ideals enter into the thinking of the average soldier.
Instead, their thoughts centered around more down to earth and humble concepts such as: country, liberty, family, and freedom.
Though I was impressed by the depth of Manning’s argument, I still could not get passed a quote (one of many such quotes) from my research of my book. Samuel Kirkpatrick of the 11th Wisconsin wrote home to his parents on August 26, 1862, bemoaning the lack of enthusiasm of some of his hometown boys who had not joined up. “God damn a man that won’t fight for his bleeding country. Some of them has quite a excuse by saying that they will not fight to free Negroes. That is all right. If I thought that that was what we was fighting for I would lay down my old musket today. I don’t think it is so.”
The thinking and thought processes of 19th Century Civil War soldiers cannot, of course, be classified into one all encompassing category. Manning’s thesis is powerfully delivered and deserves the praise it has received.
I’ve walked by the book at Borders several times and now you have convinced me to pick it up. you make very valid points regarding viewing the past through modern eyes and the effects of shrieking historians and teachers.
I often think that one day historians will be looking to blogs to get an idea of what people were thinking during our times and though bloggers are pretty clear with their ideas I believe our postings will be argued over as much as letters and journals written during the Civil War.
Excellent review. I too have been considering this book, and I think I will indeed give it a go.
I love this quote from you, by the way:
“I’ve grown tired of shrieking teachers and historians who can’t get past the very idea that people in the mid-nineteenth century were blatant racists. Instead of denouncing them, let’s try to understand what was going on and why?”
Anachronism is the great sin of modern historiography.
“I’ve grown tired of shrieking teachers and historians who can’t get past the very idea that people in the mid-nineteenth century were blatant racists. Instead of denouncing them, let’s try to understand what was going on and why?”
Amen!
I love how these shriekers seem to assume that had they lived in those times they would have obviously transcended the thinking of the times and been a beacon of progress and tolerance.
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