The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

Common soldiers 293

give no quarter, nor expect any. All too often,
they executed those they captured.
While Confederates in the Western
Theater exhibited that change in attitude

about the war, they did not have nearly as
many opportunities as the Federals to
implement it. Union soldiers campaigned
throughout the South and, eventually, they
came to the conclusion that by making

Southern whites suffer, they could contribute
mightily to the war effort. In part.
Northerners felt a sense of hostility over
secessionists' efforts to destroy a wonderful
union, but as veterans they also came

around to see the linkage between the home
front and the men in the field. Confederates
certainly exhibited tremendous loyalty to
their cause, fighting for years under adverse
conditions on meager rations and in skimpy

clothing. Yet the Yankees realized that many
Rebel opponents had a greater loyalty than
that cause - the one to their families. If
Federal troops could make life miserable for
loved ones at home, they would force

Confederate soldiers to choose between their
responsibility to their families and their
obligations to their government. As Union
armies penetrated deeper into the
Confederacy, consuming food, confiscating

slaves and other property, and terrifying the

Southern people, more and more Rebels left

the ranks to care for their loved ones.

By the last year and a half of the war,

these Union and Confederate troops had

mastered the art and science of soldiering.

Those who remained in ranks had toughened

their bodies by fighting off diseases. They

had learned to deal with harsh elements, to

march great distances and to live amid

plenty or on little subsistence. In short, these

citizens had learned to think, to act, to feel,

and to fight like veteran soldiers.

Black soldiers

Early in the war, abolitionists and

African-Americans urged the Lincoln

administration to accept blacks for

uniformed service. The President declined.

He had more white volunteers than he was

authorized by Congress to accept, and the

Union was walking a tightrope with the

Border States. Black enlistment might have

driven them to the Confederacy.

Blacks, however, began to take matters

into their own hands. By the end of April

1861, several slaves whom Rebels had

employed in constructing defense works

slipped away and sought sanctuary at Fort

Monroe, Virginia. When a Confederate

officer came to retrieve the runaways,

Brigadier-General Benjamin Butler, a prewar

lawyer and politician, refused. Federal law

did not apply to Rebels, Butler explained.

Furthermore, slaves had aided the

Confederate army and were subject to

confiscation as contraband of war. Butler

then employed the runaways to build a

bakery for Federal troops. In one decisive

moment, Butler had freed slaves and hired

them to work for the Union army. Four

The overwhelming majority of black soldiers, perhaps

150.000 of the nearly 180,000, came from slavery. Often

they fled from the fields as Union armies passed nearby,

or they undertook a risky trek to locate Federal lines.

Here two photographs expose the uplifting nature of

military service. In one, we see a boy in his slave clothes:

in the other, he has transformed into a drummer boy for

the US army. (Left, Library of Congress: Right, US Army)