Talk:Jasper Hale/@comment-5335202-20130224165058/@comment-66.99.9.205-20130314223905

A lot of Confederate soldiers joined the army as a way to make money to support their families. The South was an economic mess due to the war and people were trying to make money any way they could. During the drafts, rich men would often pay other men to go to war for them and soldiers were paid monthly wages. Plus, if they were high up in the ranks, they got paid a couple hundred dollars a month (which was considered to be a decent amount despite the high inflation in the South during this time).

Now, I haven't read the books in quite some time, but (if I remember correctly) we don't know much about Jasper's human life other than he joined the army using persuasion and quickly became a major. For all we know, he could have been trying to support his family. Also, even if Jasper didn't use his persuasion to join the army, he probably would have been drafted at some point unless he had enough money to pay someone else to go to war for him because by 1862 there were huge drafts throughout the South for males between the ages of 17-50 because the South severely lacked numbers compared to the North.

Now, I don't think what the Confederacy did was right, but you really ought to put things into perspective.