The struggles of being a soldier, all the hard work and pain they had to go through on a daily basis, the traumatizing events and effects of the war on these poor humans, and all of the deaths and tragic issues faced with war. James M. McCaffrey evaluates all these events and what the soldiers really go through as they fought for power for their country. The Mexican-American war was a fight over land to see who would gain Texas and the Mexican felt that America has too much land would make them feel superior and want to gain more and more power. In the novel, Army of manifest destiny by James M. McCaffrey, he begins his book by going into debt about his research on the Mexican-American war and the effects it had on the people, socially, physically, politically, and economically. In the authors preface, he states his reason for why he writes his book and the purpose associated with it. James M. McCaffrey writes his thesis which is, The purpose of the present work, then, is to look at the war from the viewpoint of the common soldiers experiences. What prompted them to enlist in the first place? What did they think of the Mexican people with whom th
ey came in contact? How did they feel toward the officers? Were they adequately supported with food, clothing, shelter, and medical care by their government? How did they spend their spare time? If they broke any rules, how were they punished? What did the regular soldiers think of these temporary volunteers, and vice versa? And finally, having answered these questions, how did the American soldiers in the Mexican war measure up to their counterpartΒs earlier and later conflicts?(McCaffrey # xii) James was trying to emphasize the importance of all the soldiers and the obstacles faced in their way in order to finally gain peace between the countries. He uses very detailed information and makes the reader feel as if he is in the story and is a part of the journey in this war as a soldier. His focus is to show us the reality of how soldiers lived and what went through their heads as war happened and to make us think of what we would do in their place as soldiers living in a war and the environments that they had no control over, things that would end up killing them with no hesitation as they went forward with war such as diseases being an example.