Reddit reviews Don't Know Much About® the Civil War: Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned (Don't Know Much About Series)

The authoritative documentary on the Civil War is definitely Ken Burns' "The Civil War". Extremely in depth, but some people aren't crazy about Ken Burns' style - mostly narration over historic images interspersed with interviews. It's also long - 9 episodes for a total of just under 12 hours. I'm sure you could find it online.

If you want more of a big picture view of the war, I'd recommend this book by Kenneth C. Davis). I read it on my own after high school and felt like I developed a better understanding of the war from just this book than I did from all of my high school history courses.

The hard part for majority of people is that Historically events and the motives of individual's actions in those events are never "Black&White". Take the Civil War since that is the crux of this issue. In the book What They Fought For, 1861–1865 by James McPherson reported on his reading of hundreds of letters and diaries written by soldiers on both sides of the war on the question of what they believed they were fighting for. Not all Northerns cared for blacks in fact many were super racist they just didn't like slavery and in every major battle there were slave owning union soldiers fighting for the north, and non slave owning southern soldiers fighting for the south. On the other hand 80% of the Southern soldiers didn't own slaves and many felt that if slavery was to be ended it should like everyone born after 1/1/1861 are set free but given and education before hand.

“I was fighting for my home, and he had no business being there”
-Virginia confederate Solider Frank Potts

“We are fighting for the Union . . . a high and noble sentiment, but after all a sentiment. They are fighting for independence, and are animated by passion and hatred against invaders” - A Illinois officer.

“Believe me no solider on either side gave a **** about slaves, they were fighting for other reasons entirely in their minds. Southerns thought they were fighting the second American revolution norther's thought they were fighting to hold the union together [With a few abolitionist and fire eaters on both sides].”

• Shelby Foote
  
  Robert E. Lee is the biggest and the greatest paradox. He was against Virginia leaving the Union but felt his loyalty and duty, like many, was to his home state above the country: “If Virginia stands by the old Union,” Lee told a friend, “so will I. But if she secedes (though I do not believe in secession as a constitutional right, nor that there is sufficient cause for revolution), then I will follow my native State with my sword, and, if need be, with my life.” While Lee never publicly came out on one side or the other of Slavery. In a letter to his Wife in 1856 he said “In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral & political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white than to the black race, & while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, socially & physically. The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known & ordered by a wise Merciful Providence.” But Lee's wife and daughters taught the slaves to read and write which was against Virginia law and Lee officially freed his inherited slaves, he had no other slaves, on December 29, 1862 five years after his father-in-law Georgie Washington Custis' death as stated in his will. And yes Georgie Washington Custis is a descendant of President Georgie Washington.
  
  Besides once universal conscription was instituted by the Confederacy in 1862, it didn't matter what they fought for, whether they wanted to fight, or even if they supported the Confederacy they fought or become deserters and risk execution. The Union started conscription in 1863. One could argue those who were conscripted didn't care about slavery since if they did they would've volunteered earlier. Many were concerned more about their farms and family. One Confederate officer at the time noted, "The deserters belong almost entirely to the poorest class of non slave-holders whose labor is indispensable to the daily support of their families" and that "When the father, husband or son is forced into the service, the suffering at home with them is inevitable. It is not in the nature of these men to remain quiet in the ranks under such circumstances." Which was used by both sides trying to get them on their side the Union offered pardons and the Confederacy offered jobs or land in some cases.
  
  Now those caught deserted in the Union 147 were executed for desertion out of 200,000 deserters. In the Confederacy 229 were executed out of the 100,000 deserters. But since you can't kill off all the 300,000 men that deserted from both sides many were branded with a "D" on their hip. Many were just purely tortured:
  
  "One punishment much affected in the light artillery was called 'tying on the spare wheel.' Springing upward and rearward from the center rail of every cassion was a fifth axel and on it was a spare wheel. A soldier who had been insubordinate was taken to the spare wheel and made to step upon it. His legs were drawn apart until they spanned three spokes. His arms were stretched until there were three or four spokes between his hands. Then the feet and hands were firmly bound to the felloes of the wheel. If the soldier was to be punished moderately then he was left, bound in an upright position on the wheel for five or six hours. If the punishment was to be severe, the ponderous wheel was given a quarter turn after the soldier had been lashed to it, which changed the position of the man from upright to horizontal. Then the prisoner had to exert all his strength to keep his weight from pulling heavily and cuttingly on the cords that bound his upper arm and leg to the wheel." -- Frank Wilkeson, Army of the Potomac in the Union Army.
  
  In the end it is just easier for people paint with broad strokes the "good people"/The Union as saints and "bad guys"/The Confederacy as sinners. It is the same with all of those leaders/people we have had in History. In reality the Slavery had many shades of blue and grey and should be treated as such. There was good and bad in both the Union and the Confederacy.
  
  Sources and other reading material:
  
  http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a25915/punishment-and-torture-in-the-civil-war-111413/
  
  https://web.archive.org/web/20170422015315/http://www.americanheritage.com/content/south%E2%80%99s-inner-civil-war-0
  
  http://uncw.edu/csurf/explorations/documents/volume%209%202014/franch.pdf
  
  https://www.nps.gov/arho/learn/historyculture/slavery.htm
  
  https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/David%20Carr_0.pdf
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-Much-About-Civil/dp/0380719088/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493924562&sr=8-1&keywords=Don%27t+Know+much+about+the+Civil+War
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Cry-Freedom-Civil-War/dp/019516895X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493924743&sr=1-1&keywords=Battle+Cry+of+Freedom
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Volumes-1-3-Box/dp/0394749138/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493924920&sr=1-1&keywords=Shelby+Foote
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

I would suggest reading "Don't Know Much About the Civil War". http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-Much-About-Civil/dp/0380719088

"the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States,"

Prior to this proclamation Lincoln had issued orders to his Generals countermanding their orders to free slaves in area's they had taken. Lincoln did his level best to keep the war about preservation of the union, and only changed tactics because of necessity.


The Emancipation Proclamation specifically targeted Slaves in Rebelling areas. It was an economic and political attack. It attacked the South's primary work force, and undermined foreign support. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation#Political_impact

Don't Know Much About the Civil War: Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned - Kenneth C. Davis