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American Civil War

The cost and significance of the Civil War

The triumph of the North, above and beyond its superior naval forces, numbers, and industrial and financial resources, was due in part to the statesmanship of Lincoln, who by 1864 had become a masterful war leader, to the pervading valour of Federal soldiers, and to the increasing skill of their officers. The victory can also be attributed in part to failures of Confederate transportation, matériel, and political leadership. Only praise can be extended to the continuing bravery of Confederate soldiers and to the strategic and tactical dexterity of such generals as Lee, Jackson, and Joseph E. Johnston.

Photograph:The battlefield of Gettysburg, photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan, July 1863.
The battlefield of Gettysburg, photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan, July 1863.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8184-7964-A DLC)
Photograph:African Americans collecting bones of soldiers, Cold Harbor, Virginia, photograph by John Reekie, …
African Americans collecting bones of soldiers, Cold Harbor, Virginia, photograph by John Reekie, …
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-B8171-7926 DLC)

While there were some desertions on both sides, the personal valour and the enormous casualties—both in absolute numbers and in percentage of numbers engaged—have not yet ceased to astound scholars and military historians. Based on the three-year standard of enlistment, about 1,556,000 soldiers served in the Federal armies, which suffered a total of 634,703 casualties (359,528 dead and 275,175 wounded). There were probably about 800,000 men serving in the Confederate forces, which sustained approximately 483,000 casualties (about 258,000 dead and perhaps 225,000 wounded).

Photograph:Bridge on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, rebuilt by Union engineers. Railroads became …
Bridge on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, rebuilt by Union engineers. Railroads became …
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (B8184-B185)

The American Civil War has been called by some the last of the old-fashioned wars; others have termed it the first of the modern wars of history. Actually it was a transitional war, and it had a profound impact, technologically, on the development of modern weapons and techniques. There were many innovations. It was the first war in history in which ironclad warships clashed; the first in which the telegraph and railroad played significant roles (see photograph); the first to use, extensively, rifled ordnance and shell guns and to introduce a machine gun; the first to have widespread newspaper coverage, voting by servicemen in national elections, and photographic recordings; the first to organize medical care of troops systematically; and the first to use land and water mines and to employ a submarine that could sink a warship. It was also the first war in which armies widely employed aerial reconnaissance (by means of balloons).

The Civil War has been written about as have few other wars in history. More than 60,000 books and articles give eloquent testimony to the accuracy of Walt Whitman's prediction that “a great literature will … arise out of the era of those four years.” The events of the war left a rich heritage for future generations, and that legacy was summed up by the martyred Lincoln as showing that the reunited sections of the United States constituted “the last best hope of earth.”


Warren W. Hassler, Jr.
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