Loyalty and the Army: A Study of Why the Civil War Generals Robert Lee, JohnPemberton, Thomas Jackson, and Edwin Alexander Joined the Confederacy

摘要

This study investigates the concept of loyalty as applied in the U.S. Army. Inlight of the fact that the term has been dropped from the official definition of the Army Ethos in the 1994 version of FM 100-1, the study investigates the implications from a historical perspective. The American Civil War is used as the only appropriate conflict where issues of loyalty were widespread in the existing U.S. Army. The choices made by the individuals involved had severe consequences and were not merely academic in nature. The study defines loyalty and applies the definition to the analysis of why the subject officers chose to fight for the Confederacy against the object of their former allegiance--the U.S. Constitution. Each officer is summarized and subjective rationale is offered for the specific reasons underlying each of their decisions. The study concludes that an Army Ethos may be useful for providing a framework of discussion for matters of professional conduct. However, due to the numerous and diverse objects competing for one's loyalty, the Army Ethos has only marginal effect in influencing decisions of great importance.