Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823279753
- eISBN:
- 9780823281503
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823279753.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai explores perceptions of national loyalty held by college-educated northern men during the war. His work draws on the writings of a group of New England graduates, whom he ...
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Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai explores perceptions of national loyalty held by college-educated northern men during the war. His work draws on the writings of a group of New England graduates, whom he labels the New Brahmins. He highlights how their sense of moral duty as educated elites, along with their commitment to the Union, compelled them to enlist into the army. Focusing on McClellan’s leadership, the controversy of emancipation, and the election of 1864, Wongsrichanalai shows how these men viewed military and political issues through nonpartisan lenses. Holding military success and union victory as the priority, these soldiers were quite critical of partisan devotionand unquestioned support of the government. According to the author, the New Brahmins reflect an understudied northern honor or nationalism, in which elite young officers pursued the greater good of society without fear of individual consequences.Less
Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai explores perceptions of national loyalty held by college-educated northern men during the war. His work draws on the writings of a group of New England graduates, whom he labels the New Brahmins. He highlights how their sense of moral duty as educated elites, along with their commitment to the Union, compelled them to enlist into the army. Focusing on McClellan’s leadership, the controversy of emancipation, and the election of 1864, Wongsrichanalai shows how these men viewed military and political issues through nonpartisan lenses. Holding military success and union victory as the priority, these soldiers were quite critical of partisan devotionand unquestioned support of the government. According to the author, the New Brahmins reflect an understudied northern honor or nationalism, in which elite young officers pursued the greater good of society without fear of individual consequences.
Julie A. Mujic
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823279753
- eISBN:
- 9780823281503
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823279753.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
In this essay, Julie A. Mujicuses the private letters of two young lovers to examine the interplay between national and personal loyalties during the war. Married in 1865, the courting couple Gideon ...
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In this essay, Julie A. Mujicuses the private letters of two young lovers to examine the interplay between national and personal loyalties during the war. Married in 1865, the courting couple Gideon Winan Allen and Annie Cox spent much of the war separated from each other while Allen pursued a law degree. Remarkably, their correspondence frequently touched on issues of the war’s politics and offers a window onto the intersection of personal and political spheres. Though seemingly incompatible,Cox and Allenmade great efforts to preserve their relationship despite their disagreements. Allen was an ardent Peace Democrat, outspoken on campus for his Copperhead activism, while Cox was a devout Republican of abolitionist outlook, frequently critical of his words and behaviour. Amid the romantic exchanges, we find sometimes intense arguments over weighty issues, including the legitimacy of the war, the justice of the draft, and the necessity of emancipation. Mujic argues that their diametrically opposed political views ultimately stressed but did not break their bonds of affection and that personal loyalties ultimately outweighed opposing political ideologies.Less
In this essay, Julie A. Mujicuses the private letters of two young lovers to examine the interplay between national and personal loyalties during the war. Married in 1865, the courting couple Gideon Winan Allen and Annie Cox spent much of the war separated from each other while Allen pursued a law degree. Remarkably, their correspondence frequently touched on issues of the war’s politics and offers a window onto the intersection of personal and political spheres. Though seemingly incompatible,Cox and Allenmade great efforts to preserve their relationship despite their disagreements. Allen was an ardent Peace Democrat, outspoken on campus for his Copperhead activism, while Cox was a devout Republican of abolitionist outlook, frequently critical of his words and behaviour. Amid the romantic exchanges, we find sometimes intense arguments over weighty issues, including the legitimacy of the war, the justice of the draft, and the necessity of emancipation. Mujic argues that their diametrically opposed political views ultimately stressed but did not break their bonds of affection and that personal loyalties ultimately outweighed opposing political ideologies.
