Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T11:17:26.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The American civil war: engaging the passions of a people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Ira D. Gruber
Affiliation:
Rice University

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Review Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 A cursory inspection of the principal battlefields of the War for American Independence and of the Civil War will show that the American people have done far more to commemorate the Civil War than the War for Independence. There are literally hundreds of monuments at Gettysburg and Vicksburg and no more than a handful at Brandywine, Saratoga and Yorktown.

2 Nearly 1.6% of the population of the United States was killed or died in service during the Civil War. By comparison, 0.9% of the population perished in the War for Independence; 0.28% in World War II; 0.12% in World War I; and 0.06% in the Mexican War. Peckham, Howard H., ed., The toll of Independence engagements & battle casualties of the American revolution (Chicago, 1974), pp. 132–3Google Scholar.

3 Conway, Stephen, ‘To subdue America: British army officers and the conduct of the revolutionary war’, William and Mary Quarterly, third ser., XLIII (07 1986), 381407CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Conway makes clear that British officers understood that the War for American Independence was ‘a contest for the political allegiance of the people’ (p. 381). Although British officers did not agree how best to gain that allegiance – whether by moderate or harsh measures – only a small portion of the officers favoured harsh measures because they hated the colonists. The British were not always successful in curbing passion, but they seem to have set a moderate tone that drew forth a similarly moderate response from the colonists. Flexner, James Thomas, George Washington in the American revolution (1775–1783) (Boston, 1968)Google Scholar.

4 McWhiney, Grady and Jamieson, Perry D., Attack and die: Civil War military tactics and the Southern heritage (University, Ala., 1982)Google Scholar.

5 Grimsley, Mark, ‘Hard war: changes in federal policy toward Southern civilians and property, 1861–1865’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1992)Google Scholar.