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1 results

  • 8 - Citizen Soldiers

  • from Part II - Social Experience
  • Edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Louisiana State University
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the American Civil War
    Published online:
    11 October 2019
    Print publication:
    31 October 2019, pp 151-172

  • Summary

    In 1892, Union veteran John Palmer addressed a gathering of thousands of fellow veterans. He was the commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), America’s largest Civil War veterans’ organization. “We were citizens before we became soldiers and volunteered at the call of an imperiled Nation, that we might fulfill the highest duties of citizenship,” Palmer explained, “and the lessons we learned amidst the storm of battle have made us more mindful of our duties as citizens.” Palmer’s address captured Americans’ long cultural attachment to the concept of citizens’ obligations to the nation when it was threatened. This tradition dated back to colonial militias and the republican principles of the American Revolution that emphasized service to the community before service to oneself. Wedded to this concept was Americans’ preference for citizen soldiers, rather than professionals due to the nation’s deeply rooted prejudices against standing armies and the historic threat they posed to republics.