Alan:

Very well put. Perhaps I might be allowed to join you in your digression:

Given the context of the social structure of mid-nineteenth century North America, particularly in Alabama, such a discussion may not be out of place on this board.

Individuals' perceptions of the War dictated their responces and motivations. By this we may understand Southerners' dedication to independence which protracted the contest to four years. Also these men's subjection to the decisions and advise of leaders such as Lee and Forrest, rather than continue guerilla hostilities on their own, attests their adherance to an orthodox Judeo-Christian ethic.

The society out of which many of Alabama's leaders and soldiers came may be understood, I believe, by an examination of a "typical" plantation community. My own biases notwithstanding, Pleasant Ridge, in northern Greene County, has been studied as such (by Lawernce Owesly, for example), and my findings in several social structures of the area have been corroborated by authorities in the field (Dr. Dwayne Cox, AU Special Collections).

According to the Eighth U.S. Census, 1860, 357 persons, living in 68 households, resided in Pleasant Ridge Precinct on June 1,1860. This community supported at least two churches, a Missionary Baptist and "Old School" Presbyterian, located side by side at the central crossroads of the community. In 1860, nearly one-third of the residents attended the Presbyterian church alone. Two other churches, Methodist Episcopal and Baptist, were located less than a mile south of that border of the precinct, and were likely attended by residents of the southern areas of the precinct. Postbellum records substantiate that this was the case.

While examination of enlistment records is at this time incomplete, an estimated sixty men were in Confederate service from this population, including officers, NCO's, Privates, and two chaplains. Judging from the orthodox Christian denominations represented in this area, it is safe to assume that a fair proportion of those in service subscribed to the "just war" position you have set forth. Letters, diaries, and published sermons from throughout the South support this assumption. Indeed, Chamberlain's gesture at Appomatox instilled hope which was dashed in the years that followed.

Conversely, given the popularity of Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" north of the Mason-Dixon Line and the Ohio River, the "holy war" position expounded in those verses must have been held by a fair proportion of those opposing the Confederate effort for independence, at least those who sought some spiritual justification for invading the South. From the examples you have cited, those leaders prosecuting this crusade, however, considered their efforts to be somewhat less than holy. Furthermore, the administration of postbellum "reconstruction" was hardly in keeping with the magnaminity toward defeated enemies in the "just war" position, though both Lee and Forrest expressed hope and expectations that such would be the case.

While this duality of "just war"/"holy war" no doubt would be an oversimplification of motives and perspectives held by any individual or group on either side, it is useful in considering what was sacred: the soveignty of the people (of each state) or that of the national government (i.e., the Union)?