The Civil War: In any war, soldiers form a band of brothers

From Carroll County Times:  The Civil War: In any war, soldiers form a band of brothers

In the American military – and, truly, in the military of all nations – unit cohesion and unit loyalty and even unit devotion are attributes that provide strength and fighting spirit. In his small and poignant book, “For Cause & Comrades,” author and retired Princeton Professor James McPherson offers yet another reason why he has inherited the Civil War book mantle from Bruce Catton of an earlier generation. This generation watched the brilliant television series “Band of Brothers” which tells how Easy Company, a single unit of the 101st Airborne Division in World War II understood that the horrors and blood and deaths they endured were parts of their war. They were able to endure them because of unit cohesion, because they were truly a “band of brothers.” This is a concept that sustains all combat units of all armies in all wars. It has certainly been used to weld together such disparate assemblies as sports teams in general, colleges and universities, individual companies against their competitors, even states and cities.

The term is by no means new. “Band of brothers” seems to have been used first by Shakespeare in Henry V: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother.”

Certainly it sustained the men who fought our Civil War.

McPherson starts the chapter about growing into their role as a soldier this way: “Civil War soldiers wrote much about courage, bravery, valor ... .The quality they described was the mark of honor. But [Civil War] soldiers wrote more about cowardice – the mark of dishonor. Many soldiers lacked confidence in their courage. But most of them wanted to avoid the shame of being known as a coward -- and that is what gave them courage. Civil War soldiers went forward with their comrades into a hail of bullets because they were more afraid of showing ‘the white feather’ than they were of death.”

It has been the same in all wars and with all armies. World War I has passed down to us the famous demand by a Marine sergeant to some Marines reluctant to advance into enemy fire, “C’mon, you sons of bitches -- do you want to live forever?”

World War II is replete with examples of men and women who stayed with their units when they knew that hope of victory for their battle was gone. Call it devotion to duty, call it honor, call it love, call it cohesion, call it responsibility – call it any or all of the above: it is the sense that the individual wearing the uniform is an individual who cannot leave his friends in his unit in this hopeless situation – and who is often too tired to think of an explanation: in this sense, it can even be considered a fall-back position. To this day, our service people face this situation.

In addition, the men and women who are our police and firemen are certainly in this position. They respond and put their lives on the line every time they start a shift. And, sadly, some of them are killed every day, just doing their duty. Those who fought in the Civil War keenly felt this obligation. It is not that they were not afraid. One veteran explained to a new recruit: “We are as much afraid as you … only we are more afraid to show it.”

A show of bravado – every combat soldier or sailor or Marine or airman uses a brave front and McPherson explains how it permeated all Civil War units. A New Hampshire officer bragged that he had few “skulkers” in his company. He further observed that a soldier who shows any hesitancy in combat is brought up short by his comrades: the fear of the wrath and scorn of his comrades is greater than his personal fear of combat. On a personal level, an Ohio soldier explained, “ I have got my full share of pride and could die before I could disgrace the name I bear. It is better to die the death of a brave soldier than to live a cowards life.”

In fact, many an ill soldier reported for duty rather than be considered wanting in courage. In the Battle of Cedar Mountain (August 9, 1862) McPherson tells of four friends of an officer who refused to stay out of the battle even though they were quite ill. The officer reported in a letter to his mother, “It was splendid to see those sick fellows walk straight up into the shower of bullets as if it were so much rain.” This “splendid” exhibition cost three of the four sick fellows their lives.

One of the characteristics of Civil War service was that in almost any unit, the soldiers knew each other because they were volunteers from the same town or general area. Their officers were often town leaders, who had organized the unit for service. And in this situation, cowardice at the front meant that the story would soon be back among your own family and friends. There was even a name for those who avoided combat – they were called ”skedadlers” and if the report got back home, the whole family bore the shame. Especially on children, the social stigma attached to the phrase, “Your father is a coward” was more than many a soldier was willing to bear. A Georgia private wrote his wife, “I had rather dye on the battlefield than disgrace myself & the hole family.”