39 pages • 1 hour read
James M. McphersonFor Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Anxious For The Fray”
Chapter 3 outlines how men react before, during, and after battle. Before battle, many of the Civil War soldiers feel anxious, as the title suggests, though they mean anxious as eager, instead of feeling anxiety. McPherson recounts letters in which soldiers from both sides proclaim their eagerness to “see the elephant” (30), or fight in battle: “We are all impatient to get into Virginia and have a brush with the rebels,” wrote a lieutenant in the 2nd Rhode Island (30). This eagerness is wrapped up in notions of proving their manliness. It also incorporates honor and duty. Those who do not fight feel dishonored, as exemplified by a letter from a South Carolina cavalry officer who missed out on the First battle of Manassas: “I am heartily tired of hearing men say what they did in the fight,” he wrote to his wife, “and I have no showing” (31).
Those who do fight, however, soon learn that their romantic notions of war are an illusion. After they have seen battle, few soldiers are eager to see it again: “Mary I went into the fight in good hart [sic] but I never want to get in another it was offal [sic] awful mary you cant form any idy [sic] how it was the bulets [sic] and cannon ball and shells flew thick as hail” (33).
With the romance of war dissolved in their minds, a veteran’s solemnity replaces eagerness. They are quick to reflect on the battle, and what they find in reflection, in many cases, is a lack of fear, which McPherson attributes to adrenaline. He quotes letters in which soldiers describe a curious detachment. Others feel battle rage brought on by an overdose of adrenaline, oftentimes after which they collapse, or become sick.
Not all soldiers feel that way, however. Others, after experiencing battle, find other places to be when the next battle arrives. Still others reflect on their fear. Some are loathe to admit to it. Others deal with it during battle by yelling, and some, in the rush of adrenaline, fight on despite being wounded. Lastly, some will be affected by what we would now call PTSD by their experience in battle.
Chapter 3 Analysis
Chapters 1 and 2 outline the reasons soldiers enlisted; Chapter 3 examines their earnestness in doing so. What McPherson finds is that war is nothing like these soldiers thought. They could not prepare for war, nor rid themselves of the romantic notions of manliness and duty and honor, and so they came to battle eager. McPherson writes that many feared the war would be over “before we have a chance to do anything,” as a recruit in the 2nd Michigan wrote (30).
This eagerness is soon erased in battle, replaced by a more learned understanding of what war is. “Once they had seen the elephant,” McPherson writes, “few Civil War soldiers were eager to see it again” (33). McPherson examines their reactions to battle in an attempt to understand what causes them to stay. Some soldiers find ways to shirk their responsibility, but others continue because of their sense of duty and honor, which, as McPherson recounts their letters of limbs blown off and men dead in fruitless charges, should have been used up. McPherson finds overwhelmingly that duty remains a cause for fighting: “One finds repeatedly in soldiers’ letters the sentiment that ‘I have no desire to get into another fight, but if duty calls I am ready to go’” (35).
Not all feel that way, of course, but what McPherson finds is that even after the harrowing experience of battle—the anxiety and adrenaline, the fear and fortitude it takes to continue fighting—most soldiers from both sides stay:“most of these men did nerve themselves for the succeeding conflict” (45).
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