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. 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. Continued below...
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…”
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. Professor McPherson also includes many visual aids such as detailed maps and comprehensive charts. “A
must have for the Civil War buff!”
Related Reading:
15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Definition and Purpose
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. 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. Continued below...
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. 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. Continued below...
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.
Try our "Search Engine," this website contains several hundred pages.
This website is best viewed with Microsoft
Internet Explorer.
, 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. Professor McPherson also includes many visual aids such as detailed maps and comprehensive charts. “A
must have for the Civil War buff!”