Scholars who have examined thousands of letters and diaries written by Union soldiers found them expressing similar motives; “fighting to maintain the best government on earth” was a common phrase. It was a “grate strugle for the Union, Constitution, and law,” wrote a New Jersey soldier. “Our glorious institutions are likely to be destroyed. . . . We will be held responsible before God if we don’t do our part in helping to transmit this boon of civil & religious liberty down to succeeding generations.” A midwestern recruit enlisted as “a duty I owe to my country and to my children to do what I
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