I suppose you eat your breakfast 400 yards away from 3000 Cubans who want to kill you.....Wow, you are clueless.
Look, they may have believed in your glorious version of the mythical magic of war, rather than the economic interests of the wealthy planter class, but more likely, they knew what a lousy deal they had and that ole Stonewall Jackson's Officers would have shot them if they didn't fight. General MacArthur had this to say about war,
"It has been said, in effect, that I was a warmonger. Nothing could be further from the truth. I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes" Originally Posted by Bert Jones
Maybe I am misunderstanding, but are you serious when you make the argument that the reason those confederate soldiers advanced across that field was because "Ole Stonewall Jackson's officers would have shot them if they didn't fight.?"
I guess my first response to that utterly absurd assertion would be, "Where do you come up with it?" And, I'll wait for you to educate all of us on that one. I've been reading about the civil war, and the battle at Gettysburg for 40 years. And, I have never once heard or read that any Confederate officer forced Confederate soldiers forward at gunpoint during Pickett's charge...Or, frankly, at any other time.
Regarding your assertions about the "Planter Class" and all that....I'm guessing you are part of the equivalent of that class here 150 years later. Which is fine, and well and good...but, it illustrates your inability to understand why somebody would pick up a rifle and walk into combat. You clearly wouldn't. But, sometimes, somebody has to. And, you're good with that...as long as it's not you or yours.