The book “What This Cruel War” is Over by Chandra Manning does provide evidence to suggest that the soldiers participating in the American Civil War changed their thoughts about the reasons behind their willingness to contribute to their respective cause. The Union soldiers had the idea that they were fighting to preserve the Unites States in the beginning of the war, but then marked by different experiences in the South and on the battlefield; their views slightly shifted and instead were driven primarily by their desire to see the end of slavery and a change in their system of government.

At the commencement of the war, in 1861, Union soldiers believed they were fighting for the preservation of a system that provided “to the world [a] republican self-government based on the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence” (Manning 40). The soldiers felt that the existence of the Unites States provided the world with proof that men were capable of governing themselves. If the Union failed in retaining half of its states, it would indicate that principles behind the government failed. Furthermore, they believed in liberty “less as an individual than a universally applicable idea” (Manning 40.) In other words, slavery did not play the most significant role in their desire to preserve the Union they believed constituted the best manner to govern a country. Since their definition of liberty was not specifically associated with individual people, they did not feel that slavery was as an important issue at the beginning of the conflict.

However, as the rank and file of the Union army experienced the South and they saw the reality of slavery, they changed their views regarding the importance of slavery in maintaining the Union. Some soldiers formed the idea that slavery was “a dehumanizing and evil institution that corroded the moral virtue necessary for a population to govern itself” (49). As they integrated themselves into the army, soldiers formed the belief that ending the war and saving the union would require the abolition of slavery because they could no longer coexist (Manning 75).

Furthermore, as the years in service continued, they realized that the preservation of the Union, even if slavery was abolished, was not enough to make a lasting impact. They concluded that fighting for the ideals of liberty and abolition would do much more than save the Union (Manning 84). It would ultimately mean a reform to the system. In the years of 1862 and 1863, the soldiers came to realize that they were partly to blame for the Union’s defects caused by the perpetuation of slavery. The soldiers realized that the suffering and death the country had to endured would be useless unless they turned the principles of liberty and equality into a reality thorough their armed combat (Manning 84). In a sense, they were no longer fighting for the Union they lived under, but for a new, reformed version of their government where slavery was prohibited and where the principles the Constitution claimed were really followed.

The reform to the Union through emancipation was a major part in the latter reasoning for fighting in the Civil War for some Northerners, as were the moral and religious reasons behind the desire for liberty. As the war progressed, the combatants concluded that the institution was so terrible that it “destroyed the moral health of the nation and angered God” (Manning 119). The soldiers were willing to fight ten more years and see slavery disappear than acquire peace and continue with the institution (119). The Union soldiers continued to fight during the Civil war, but they their motivations and rationalizations changed as they experienced war and they experienced slavery along the way.