You're Needed in the Trenches

To save these United States, some of us need to seriously consider getting deeply involved in politics.

In 1862, the Union was beset by several major defeats in the Civil War, despite larger armies, better supplies, and impressive infrastructure. In those early battles, Confederate generals simply out-generaled their northern counterparts.

The quality of commanders largely reflected a difference in culture between North and South. There was a strong military tradition in the South wherein a military life was one which was highly esteemed—there was no shortage of highly capable men seeking military careers. Not so in the North; society’s most capable men went into business, academia, and manufacturing, and not the military. Capable leaders in the North kept their jobs when hostilities broke out, leaving military leadership in the hands of less capable men. Or so they did until they were overwhelmed by repeated defeats on the battlefield.

In 1862, then, some leading citizens in the North began a movement to recruit society’s cream of the crop for military leadership. The movement was successful. Among the leaders of the movement was a Bowdoin College professor named Joshua Chamberlain who anchored the Union defense on the left at Gettysburg and whose extraordinary leadership was instrumental in trapping Lee’s army immediately leading to Appomattox. Chamberlain, however, was but one of many leading citizens who gave up prestigious positions and embraced the hardships of army life to save the union.

If we still think this union is worth saving, then our best citizens, or at least a good number of them, need to answer the call to life in the political trenches.