Brothers One And All: Esprit de Corps in a Civil War Regiment (review)

In Brothers One and All: Esprit de Corps in a Civil War Regiment, Mark H. Dunkelman uses the 154th New York Volunteer Infantry as a model in his pursuit to understand the manifestation, development, and persistence of regimental esprit de corps during the Civil War. Dunkelman defines esprit de corps as "the common spirit existing in the members of a group, a spirit that inspires enthusiasm, devotion, and strong regard for the honor of the group," and he maintains that "the strongest organizational esprit was found at the regimental level" (5). Dunkelman analyzes the historiography of the Civil War's common soldiers and points out that "historians in pioneering works have acknowledged the importance of regimental esprit de corps, but their analyses have been tentative and inconclusive" (11). It is his expressed goal to correct this problem.

While Dunkelman's focus throughout Brothers One and All is the 154th New York, a regiment composed of companies from Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, the implication remains that readers can apply his conclusions concerning the nature of esprit de corps to many other Civil War regiments. According to Dunkelman, the foundation for regimental esprit de corps was the soldiers' strong attachments to shared home communities. Since the members of a regiment normally came from the same geographic area, they often "possessed strong esprit de corps based on common geographic ties" (19). Moreover, the men of individual regiments usually shared ethnic and occupational backgrounds as well as familial relationships. Such strong similarities in background led soldiers to consider their regiment a surrogate family, and this relationship, when coupled with their constant contact with the home front through care-boxes, photographs, and letters, fostered an environment conducive to sustaining high levels of esprit de corps.

Aside from sharing common backgrounds and uniting around their communal identity, the men of Civil War regiments found other ways to bolster esprit de corps during the conflict. According to Dunkelman, the "greatest single factor in the development of esprit de corps among the soldiers of the 154th was their mutual struggle to endure a variety of physical and psychological hardships and to survive the lethal order of battle" (98). The intensity of combat reinforced relationships within a regiment, and "after each battle, the reduced ranks drew closer together, tightened by the bonds of esprit de corps" (94). The soldiers of a regiment also endured burdens of war aside from battle and often cared for one another when sick or wounded. Effective leadership is another essential ingredient in Dunkelman's assessment of esprit de corps, for a capable and respected officer corps was vital for sustaining unity within a regiment. Surprisingly, Dunkelman also credits shirkers and deserters with buttressing esprit de corps since they "removed an unknown number of undesirables from the regiment" and gave devoted soldiers yet another cause to rally around (93).

In discussing the threats to esprit de corps in Civil War regiments, Dunkelman turns rather unexpectedly to religion and morality. According to his research, the "practice of religion drew some men together, but distanced them from their skeptical comrades" (170). Also, he writes that conflicting "moral standards were a matter of contention among the men" (186). Thus, he concludes that disputes over religious conviction and moral responsibility represented impediments to esprit de corps.

Mark Dunkelman's Brothers One and All is a well-researched and engagingly written account of the 154th New York Volunteer Infantry and its experiences with esprit de corps, but his work speaks to a much larger audience than those interested in the history of a single New York regiment. It is study in microcosm, and both professional historians and amateur enthusiasts can project his findings onto other Civil War regiments. Relying on an abundant...