The influence of socio-economic background on Union soldiers during the American Civil War
1 "The Influence ofSocio-Economic Background on Union Soldiers during the American Civil War" . 2 Bibliography . 43 Appendix 1: "Port Clinton White Males ofFighting Age and Port Clinton Civil War Enlistees Compared" 48 Appendix 2: "Breakdown in Age ofLinked Soldiers in the 48" 50 Appendix 3: "Foreign Born Soldiers in the 48 Pennsylvania" 51 Appendix 4: "Breakdown in Total Wealth ofLinked Soldiers in the 48 PA". 53 Appendix 5: "Prewar Occupations of Soldiers in the 48 Pennsylvania Compared with all Union Soldiers" . 56 Appendix 6: "Breakdown in Household and Marital Status" 57 Vita 58
Desertion As Localism: Army Unit Solidarity and Group Norms in the U.S. Civil War
Drawing from the experiences of 3,126 enlisted men from North Carolina who fought for the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War, this article focuses on the determinants of desertion. I argue that men deserted because their identity as Southerners was eroded by an emergent localism, sustained and organized within the Confederate army. Desertion rates were highest in companies that evidenced a high degree of local homogeneity - company solidarity thus bred rather than reduced desertion rates. There is no supportfor any of the historical models of desertion that search for individual-level determinants, such as social class, occupation, status, family structure, age, or time of enlistment. Finally, contextual variables seem to be weak proxiesfor the central variable accounting for desertion - the emergence of a localist identity.
Why the South Lost the Civil War
In this book first published in 1986, four historians consider the popularly held explanations for Southern defeat - state-rights disputes, inadequate military supply and strategy, and the Union blockade - undergirding their discussion with a chronological account of the war's progress. In the end, the authors find that the South lacked the will to win, that weak Confederate nationalism and the strength of a peculiar brand of evangelical Protestantism sapped the South's ability to continue a war that was not yet lost on the field.