Cowards and Heroes: Group Loyalty in the American Civil War

What motivated men to risk death in the most horrific war in U.S. history when pay was low and irregular and military punishment strategies were weak? In such a situation creating group loyalty by promoting social capital is of paramount importance and in the Civil War was the cement of both armies. We find that individual and company socio-economic and demographic characteristics, ideology, and morale were important predictors of group loyalty in the Union Army. Company characteristics were more important than ideology or morale. Soldiers in companies that were more homogeneous in ethnicity, occupation, and age were less likely to shirk.

[1]  Matthew E. Kahn,et al.  Understanding the American Decline in Social Capital, 1952-1998 , 2003 .

[2]  Shira Wolosky,et al.  The Metaphysical Club , 2003 .

[3]  Jackson Lears,et al.  The Metaphysical Club , 2002 .

[4]  C. Meyers,et al.  A Higher Duty: Desertion among Georgia Troops during the Civil War , 2002 .

[5]  V. Hanson.  Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power , 2002 .

[6]  M. Pearlman.  The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny , 2001 .

[7]  M. Weitz.  A higher duty : desertion among Georgia troops during the Civil War , 2001 .

[8]  Erzo F. P. Luttmer.  Group Loyalty and the Taste for Redistribution , 2001, Journal of Political Economy.

[9]  William A. Brock,et al.  Discrete Choice with Social Interactions , 2001 .

[10]  Tianxi Cai,et al.  Semiparametric regression analysis for clustered failure time data , 2000 .

[11]  E. Glaeser,et al.  An Economic Approach to Social Capital , 2000 .

[12]  Jesper B. Sørensen.  The Longitudinal Effects of Group Tenure Composition on Turnover , 2000, American Sociological Review.

[13]  Andrea Ichino,et al.  Work Environment and Individual Background: Explaining Regional Shirking Differentials in a Large Italian Firm , 1999 .

[14]  J. Pfeffer,et al.  New Directions for Organization Theory: Problems and Prospects , 1999 .

[15]  A. Alesina,et al.  Participation in Heterogeneous Communities , 1999 .

[16]  E. Berman,et al.  Sect, Subsidy and Sacrifice: An Economist's View of Ultra-Orthodox Jews , 1998 .

[17]  R. Gibbons.  Incentives in Organizations , 1998 .

[18]  Earl J. Hess.  The Union soldier in battle enduring the ordeal of combat , 1998 .

[19]  Lawrence F. Katz,et al.  Human Capital and Social Capital: The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America, 19101940 , 1998, Journal of Interdisciplinary History.

[20]  Lawrence F. Katz,et al.  Human Capital and Social Capital: The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America, 1910 to 1940 , 1998 .

[21]  Stephen F. Knack,et al.  Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation , 1997 .

[22]  A. Alesina,et al.  Public Goods and Ethnic Divisions , 1997 .

[23]  Herman Hattaway.  The Civil War Armies: Creation, Mobilization, and Development , 1997 .

[24]  Andrei Shleifer,et al.  Trust in Large Organizations , 1996 .

[25]  J. Poterba.  Demographic Structure and the Political Economy of Public Education , 1996 .

[26]  C. Manski.  Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem , 1993 .

[27]  E. Lazear,et al.  Peer Pressure and Partnerships , 1992, Journal of Political Economy.

[28]  R. Fogel,et al.  Early Indicators of Later Work Levels, Disease, and Death , 1992 .

[29]  L. Iannaccone.  Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives , 1992, Journal of Political Economy.

[30]  P. Bearman,et al.  Desertion As Localism: Army Unit Solidarity and Group Norms in the U.S. Civil War , 1991 .

[31]  J. Coleman.  Foundations of Social Theory , 1990 .

[32]  M. Vinovskis.  Toward a Social History of the American Civil War: Have Social Historians Lost the Civil War? Some Preliminary Demographic Speculations , 1989 .

[33]  W. P. Barnett,et al.  Work group demography, social integration, and turnover. , 1989 .

[34]  R. Margo,et al.  Heights of Native-Born Whites During the Antebellum Period , 1983, The Journal of Economic History.

[35]  E. Lazear.  Why Is There Mandatory Retirement? , 1979, Journal of Political Economy.

[36]  Timothy Hallinan,et al.  NEW DIRECTIONS IN ORGANIZATION THEORY , 1968 .

[37]  S. Stouffer,et al.  The American soldier : combat and its aftermath , 1949 .

[38]  Edward,et al.  Measuring Trust , 2000 .

[39]  V. Hanson,et al.  The Soul of Battle: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, How Three Great Liberators Vanquished Tyranny , 1999 .

[40]  Ulrich Bröckling,et al.  Armeen und ihre Deserteure : vernachlässigte Kapitel einer Militärgeschichte der Neuzeit , 1998 .

[41]  James M. McPherson,et al.  For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War , 1997 .

[42]  Lee-Jen Wei,et al.  Cox-Type Regression Analysis for Large Numbers of Small Groups of Correlated Failure Time Observations , 1992 .

[43]  Donald K. Pickens.  Toward a Social History of the American Civil War: Exploratory Essays , 1992 .

[44]  Reid Mitchell.  Toward a Social History of the American Civil War: The Northern Soldier and His Community , 1990 .

[45]  Thomas R. Kemp,et al.  Toward a Social History of the American Civil War: Community and War: The Civil War Experience of Two New Hampshire Towns , 1990 .

[46]  M. Vinovskis.  Toward a Social History of the American Civil War: Have Social Historians Lost the Civil War? Some Preliminary Demographic Speculations , 1990 .

[47]  N. S. Cardell,et al.  Without consent or contract : the rise and fall of American slavery : evidence and methods , 1989 .

[48]  Gerald F. Linderman.  Embattled Courage: The Experience of Combat in the American Civil War , 1987 .

[49]  Bengt Holmstrom,et al.  Moral Hazard in Teams , 1982 .

[50]  P. Watson.  War on the Mind: The Military Uses and Abuses of Psychology , 1978 .

[51]  John Keegan,et al.  The Face of Battle , 1976 .

[52]  J. Dollard.  Fear In Battle , 1944 .