All 5 Uses

sustain
in
What They Fought For - 1861-1865
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This is the first test of a modern free government in the act of sustaining itself against internal enemys …. if it fail then the hopes of milions fall and the designs and wishes of all tyrants will succeed the old cry will be sent forth from the aristocrats of europe that such is the common lot of all republics….
p. 32.2

sustaining = providing support or necessities
It may explain the dogged determination that sustained Union soldiers through four long years of fighting in enemy territory against a foe sustained by the more concrete motive of defending that territory.
p. 36.4

sustained = provided support or necessities
It may explain the dogged determination that sustained Union soldiers through four long years of fighting in enemy territory against a foe sustained by the more concrete motive of defending that territory.
p. 36.4
How could men sustain a high level of idealistic commitment through the grim experiences of disease, death, exhaustion, and frustration as the war ground on year after year?
p. 42.1 *

sustain = support
Billy Yank needed an even stronger sense of ideological purpose to sustain him, especially during the summer of 1864, when war-weariness spread like a fog over the northern home front.†
p. 42.9

Definitions:

(1) (sustain as in: sustained by her faith)
provide support or necessities
(2) (sustain as in: sustained through the ages)
to continue through time
(3) (sustain as in: sustained wounds)
to suffer (as of injury, damage, or loss)
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Less commonly, sustained can be voiced by a judge in a court of law to indicate that an objection is upheld.