MoFed, I've often wondered myself how everybody knows what their ancestors were fighting for...should they not have the benefit of diaries and journals handed down through the years. I couldn't tell you why my grandpa fought in Haiti circa WW1. Maybe it was to keep American safe from a Haitian invasion force :-)? More than likely he was in the Marines and that's where they sent him...We both come from two regions....East TN and Missouri,where a lot of guerrilla and partisan warfare went on...oral history would be strong on wrongs done to family members on both sides, but how someone would know why his ancestor from Indiana was fighting someone from Georgia and vice a versa, without any written or oral testimony is beyond me. Perhaps it's a form of osmosis.

Cump.