Civil war essay.

The Civil War was a modern war that was fought between the United States and the states that had seceded from the United States. It was a war that was fought to keep the country unified. The main issue of the war was abolition of slavery. The southern states had conformed to the idea that slavery was a way of life for them. After the election of Abraham Lincoln all but four slave states seceded to form the confederate states of America. 

The civil war is considered to be the first ever modern war. This is in large part due to the fact that major advances to weaponry, transportation, and communication were developed and used to the both sides advantages. The invention of rifling was a huge advance in weaponry. The inside of a barrel on a musket was grooved to get the bullet to spin to cut through wind resistance and travel farther while still retaining power. The invention of the telegram allowed the two armies to convey information from the battlefield to a command center nearly instantly. This allowed for greater planning and better battle tactics. The navies also developed ships made of metal to prevent fires and to better stand the impacts from cannons and other artillery. These ships dominated in naval warfare. 

The cause of high American casualties and fatalies can be attributed to the fact that they were fighting eachother. However another major factor was the horrid medical training. The minie ball was a new kind of bullet that had grooving to rotate the bullet and it had a point. The design of the bullet wasn't to penetrate but to maim the enemy. The bullets would completely destroy a soldiers limb when hit. The medics would just amputate a limb when shot. The doctors who would perform these amputations and provided other medical attention were usually severely untrained. The spread of disease and infection was also rampant across the army camps. There was no standard for cleanliness. 95 percent of soldiers in the camps suffered from diarrhea along with other diseases. 

The civil war was the deadliest war in American history. It was also the first and only modern war so far that has been fought on American soil. The high casaulty rate can be attributed to it being a war within the United States. The war was also the first to use extremely advanced technology such as rifling, torpedoes, metal ships, telegrams, photography, and even hot air balloons for reconnaissance.