This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War

The author argues that killing is more difficult than dying. In the Civil War, it was often brother against brother or friend against friend. Theoretically, it was more difficult to kill someone the solider is familiar with than a faceless, nameless enemy. Supporting this thesis is the idea that the Sixth of the Ten Commandments that Moses delivered from the heights of Mount Sinai forbade people from killing one another. Yet the political needs trumped the religious teachings, as leaders of political, military, and even religious stripes found justification for killing soldiers on the opposing side in a “just cause,” one that God would surely embrace. The same Old Testament that contains those Ten Commandments has more than one episode that reflects this narrative. For example, the God of the Israelites is on their side and will lead them to victory—if not in person than in spirit—and in some cases by influencing events in the lives of the Israelites’ opponents.

Policymakers in both the North and South found parts of their religious teachings that justified whatever narrative they advanced. Southerners beholden to slavery trotted out a White supremacist misinterpretation of the Curse of Ham to advance the idea that Black Americans were “different, inferior” and pledged their lives in support of their cause.