Introduction
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR WAS THE DEFINING MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. MANY NATIONS, HAVING WON BY FORCE OF ARMS THEIR FREEDOM FROM A COLONIAL POWER, HAVE SUBSEQUENTLY BEEN SPLIT BY INTERNAL RIVALRIES, TORN APART IN INTERNECINE CONFLICT. YET NO OTHER NATION HAS CAUSED ITSELF MORE SUFFERING AND ULTIMATELY PRESERVED ITS UNITY; NONE HAS SIMILARLY BEEN STRENGTHENED BY ITS ORDEAL WHILE PERPETUATING MANY OF THE DIFFERENCES THAT PITCHED IT INTO CRISIS.
At the root of the conflict was a dispute over slavery- 23 Northern states opposed it, while the 11 in the South of the Union believed that forced labor was essential to their economic well-being and, in order to preserve it, they tried to form a breakaway nation known as the Confederate States of America. Yet it would be an oversimplification to suggest that one faction was enlightened and liberal, while the other was benighted and reactionary- at the time, few people on either side believed that the enslaved African Americans should have the same status as white people. The war may ultimately have contributed to the enhancement of the rights of man, regardless of race, color, creed, and ethnicity, but that was not what it was primarily about. The Civil War- also known as the "War Between Brothers"- was a conflict of firsts.
The Civil War was the first to make extensive use of trench warfare (a strategy subsequently developed to an infernal low point in World War I), the first in which ironclad warships, submarines, machine guns, and aerial reconnaissance were employed, the first whose course was influenced by railroads, and the first to be covered in detail by newspapers and recorded photographically. Never before had men been able to kill each other from a distance, without physical confrontation- for that reason, it is sometimes known as the first technological war.
The Civil War was the first to make extensive use of trench warfare (a strategy subsequently developed to an infernal low point in World War I), the first in which ironclad warships, submarines, machine guns, and aerial reconnaissance were employed, the first whose course was influenced by railroads, and the first to be covered in detail by newspapers and recorded photographically. Never before had men been able to kill each other from a distance, without physical confrontation- for that reason, it is sometimes known as the first technological war.
Citation: "The Historical Atlas of the Civil War" by John Macdonald