The motif of paranoia
Paranoia can be understood as a kind of specific fear about the future, like when a person suspects something by premonition. This novel takes historical facts and reintroduces the real emotions of the leadership and armies back into those facts, introducing through a motif of paranoia what the real circumstances might have felt like. In order to be successful in warfare, the novel suggests that leadership had to be perfectly willing to endure paranoia without buckling under the intense pain of it.
Intelligence and spycraft
Another important symbolic motif is the paranoia about spycraft, because there are undercover agents who are able to infiltrate the other army, and they scope the countryside for evidence of movement. The symbolic meaning of the spies is that they represent the desire for secret knowledge. Also, the motif of intelligence or "intel" is important in understanding the real value of trustworthy insight. It is very often the difference between life and death, success or defeat.
Offensiveness and defensiveness
The strategic merit of offense and defense is explored through symbol because either army must trust their intuition. These are an extension of the fear mechanism of fight or flight. The novel shows that in essence, the decision to be incisive is essentially the "fight" mechanism, and the defensive, reactive path is similar to the "flight" method, because it seeks to strategically withdraw. Victory is attained when the army uses both in a rhythm that perplexes the opponent.
The symbolic art of war
To make art out of war is exactly the intention of this novel, because warfare has high stakes, and the leadership takes on godlike status, because their decisions are literally influencing the outcome of war, so that thousands of lives hinge on their every movement. In battle, they seek to understand the war in totality, while also investigating the individual circumstances of each moment. This is not unlike a novelist attempting to shape a novel through specific instances, so the warfare itself is a demonstration of human art, and thus symbolizes it.
The symbolic battle of Gettysburg
When the dust settles, there are unfathomable losses, but the battle of Gettysburg serves as a strong symbol because of the real damage of it. The battle symbolizes the longterm future (the end of war) because such battles will quickly diminish enemy forces. Such losses come at serious costs, and the battle will permanently scar both armies. It is a symbol that the war is unsustainable and therefore, likely to end. The Confederate retreat symbolizes the likely outcome of the war, that the Union will win.
