Title: The Civil War and Ideas of Freedom | Ultius
Headings: The Civil War and Ideas of Freedom
The Civil War and Ideas of Freedom
The Civil War and path to freedom
Death toll of the Civil War
Freedom as an idea during the Civil War
Looking back at post-Civil War freedoms and success gained
Conclusion
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Content: Manning shows how these men's freedom was not an abstract or elusive idea; it directly correlated to the enslavement of African American people. Manning also, comments, however, “to say that soldiers placed slavery at the center of the war is to open rather than to solve a mystery” (3). In other words, the fact that so many of the Civil War soldiers in the Confederate Army, who fought and gave their lives for the cause, had no personal gain from upholding slavery since they themselves did not own slaves. This is a fact of history that continues to astound historians and students. As Manning’s book, What This Cruel War Was Over, goes on to prove is that there were deeply engrained traditions being held onto like in the case of General Robert E. Lee who did not want to see change come to his beloved state of Virginia. For Lee and the Confederacy, the Civil War marked a brutal time of growing pains for those Americans who were witness to the horrors of these battles that would eventually maintain and modernize America, as we still know it today. Looking back at post-Civil War freedoms and success gained
It is interesting to look at the Civil War and ideas of freedom retrospectively, not just from our current time in history looking back to the 1860s, but to read about the reactions of those from both sides, and from the emancipated slaves themselves, who lived through the Reconstruction period. It seems the war had seriously question any idealism held by those who felt that war equated to glory. William Tecumseh Sherman, another key leader for the Union cause and ultimate strategic victory, gathered several hundred freed slaves in the wake of the war that would only become the beginning of their struggle towards freedom.