#JAMES MCPHERSON BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM FREE#

In the Confederate army, he explained, enlisted men in the cavalry and artillery owned their own horses could they keep them? Yes, said Grant privates as well as officers who claimed to own horses could them take home 'to put in a crop to carry themselves and their families through the next winter.' 'This will have the best possible effect upon the men,' said Lee, and 'will do much toward conciliating our people.' After signing the papers, Grant introduced Lee to his staff. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, which ended the American Civil War: McPherson described the surrender of General Robert E. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. It may actually be the best ever published.' Editions

Writing for The New York Times, Brogan described it as '.the best one-volume treatment of its subject I have ever come across. It spent 16 weeks on The New York Times hardcover bestseller list with an additional 12 weeks on the paperback list. The book was an immediate commercial and critical success, an unexpected achievement for a 900-page narrative. For Northerners, their fight was to sustain the government established by the Constitution with its guaranties of rights and liberties.' Reception

For Southerners, the Revolution was a war of secession from the tyranny of the British Empire, just as their war was a war of secession from Yankee tyranny.

#JAMES MCPHERSON BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM FREE#

In an interview, McPherson claimed: 'Both sides in the Civil War professed to be fighting for the same 'freedoms' established by the American Revolution and the Constitution their forefathers fought for in the Revolution-individual freedom, democracy, a republican form of government, majority rule, free elections, etc. McPherson sees to it that it steals up on his readers in the same way.' Ī central concern of this work is the multiple interpretations of freedom. Slowly, slowly the remote possibility became horrible actuality and Mr. So it must have seemed to most Americans at the time. Historian Hugh Brogan, reviewing the book, commends McPherson for initially describing 'the republic at midcentury' as 'a divided society, certainly, and a violent one, but not one in which so appalling a phenomenon as civil war is likely. Thus, it examined the Civil War era, not just the war, as it combined the social, military and political events of the period within a single narrative framework. This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing 'second American Revolution' we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.Battle Cry of Freedom covers two decades, the period from the outbreak of the Mexican–American War to the Civil War's ending at Appomattox. This 'new birth of freedom,' as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America's bloodiest conflict. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war-slavery-and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict: the South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War-the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry-and then moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself-the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics, and the personalities. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones,Battle Cry of Freedomwill unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War.

James mcpherson battle cry of freedom