Carly DeLauder
History 145
Fall 2014
Short Essay #3
In his story, What They Fought For, McPherson concluded that the soldiers of the
Civil War fought because of their commitment to their country and an ideological commitment, The idea
before this was that the men who fought the war had little to no idea why they were going to fight and
only did so because they were asked to. Based on the letters from The Valley of the Shadow, I would like
to make the argument that the soldiers did want to fight because of their love of their country and
wanted to work hard to see what they believed in become accomplished. The few men’s letters that I
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