Why was the Civil War is considered to be the worst war in American history?

Answer 1

The Civil War involved almost everyone living in the United States at the time. Every family had someone in uniform. The battlefields were right here in this country so they couldn't be ignored like a newpaper report about some far away event. The fighting went on all over the countryside.

The caualties were terrible. Very few men got through the war unhurt. Recently developed weapons left a lot of damage which doctors couldn't repair. Amputation was very common because arms or legs were so badly injured that they couldn't be fixed by the Drs. This was in a day before antibiotics or anesthesia. Having a limb amputated while awake was horrible. Many men died of infection since there weren't any antibiotics. The sanitation was awful. The men often drank polluted water and came down with stomach diseases, like dysentery, which they could never completely shake. They'd carry the germs with them in their bodies for the rest of their lives.

In the north, families suffered when the men in the family were away fighting. In those days, almost everybody lived on a farm. Women and children were left to do the farm work in some places. Because so many things, like cloth for uniforms, were needed by the army the prices of things went really high. This made things hard for soldiers families who didn't have much money.

In the south, it was even worse. The battles took place there and ordinary people could find a battle going on right out in their own yard. Ordinary people sometimes helped take care of the injured soldiers and bury the dead. The south didn't have a lot of factories like the north, so they were short of everything. People almost starved in some places.

After the war, there were still problems for years. The southerners were treated badly by the winners in some places. They naturally resented that. For many years after the war, people still felt hostile towards each other and this created problems for a country that was trying to reunite. Some families were broken apart when men from the same families chose different sides. There were cases of brothers fighting brothers, literally.

Photography had just been invented so the Civil War was the first war to be photographed. There were photographers who went out onto the battlefields and took pictures of the dead and dying men. People didn't just hear about the battles, they actually saw what happened to real people.

Answer 2

The Civil War was the worst war in American history because it was so necessary. America of the mid-nineteenth century had issues combined with beliefs and virtues that compromise no longer offered a viable option. With each new state entering the Union, it threatened the already unstable balance of power. The southern states saw this as a means for the free states to impose their will over the South and put an end to what they believed was their God-given right to choose their own way of life. Secession, therefore, seemed to be the only logical action to take.
The War pitted brother against brother, father against son, neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend. What made the fighting truly terrible, was that the weapons far exceeded the tactics used resulting in horrific casualties, often 30 percent or more. More Americans died in the Civil War than all other American wars combined. Over 620,000
Though the War was not fought completely in vain, what problems were resolved were replaced by new problems when the fighting finally ended including segregation, inequality and racial supremacy some of which exist to this day.

Answer 3

It would depend on your point of view.

The statistics speak for themselves as far as casualties, as more Americans were killed and wounded in the civil war than in every conflict since combined.

The term 'civil war' is misleading though. It was actually a war between two separate nations. Since the Union forces won the war, its called the civil war today because the southern states were forced back into the union.

Some would also say it is the worst in American History because of the atrocities. Entire southern cities were burned to the ground, and citizens both north and south were rounded up into prison camps or killed if they did not agree with Lincoln's politics. Citizens in the north were often imprisoned if they voted against Lincoln's agenda, and several editors, owners, and writers of northern newspapers were imprisoned for printing articles critical of Lincoln. Orders were issued from Lincoln to arrest and imprison the entire Maryland and Missouri state legislatures to eliminate political opposition.

Answer 4

A couple of reasons the South (and they might disagree) was fighting mainly over the interests of the wealthiest 5 percent to be able to control their cotton plantations with slaves. The ironic part was mechanized machinery would have made this a smaller issue within the next couple of decades and it is arguable that a war would not be fought over it. Another reason is that more Americans were Killed in WW1 WW2 and I think Vietnam combined. (check that one). Another reason is the aftermath in the south that came after wards. The invasion of the Ohio carpetbaggers and the formation of the KKK to stop this. The KKK would go on to attack other people (obviously) but their original purpose was to stop the Carpetbaggers from claiming too much of the South's valuable property. We also have the creation of POW camps during this war. The condition at Andersonville was atrocious and led the person in charge of it to be hanged. (one of the few officers to be hanged after the war).

Answer 5

Because the casualty or death toll was staggering! Approx. 700,000 americans combined from the Union and Confederate sides lost their lives. If you research it, that's more than all other US war deaths combined! It was a bloodbath!! The death toll in the Vietnam war was what? 50,000+ over a 10/12 year period? 50,000+ was the death toll at Gettyburg over a 3 day period! The Civil War was an unbelievable exercise in slaughter and carnage.

Answer 6

For Americans of the time back then, the Civil War (an oxymoron if ever were any) was very much as close to the world's end as one could get. The lives lost scored into numbers that shook fear into people back then---and to this day amaze us, looking back in history.

It was a speechlessly banal and savage war: Americans killing Americans senselessly---and for what??? Poor, un-educated black people to toil in slave labor fields along the South??? The Civil War destroyed villages, towns and cities--destruction by man's hand that far outdone anything nature could have done by any measure.

And like every war, there's the death toll. The Civil War death toll weighs in to this day in numbers that rank it up there with the Revolutionary War, WW I / WW II and Vietnam. Men ran into battle....and were never seen or heard from ever again.....they disappeared like victims of a hungry behemoth beast.

Then there were the costs of reconstruction / recovery--of which is felt even today--as tolls and price-tags economically and socially, were very very deep to bear on us as American citizens.

I think slavery was a patsy reason for the Civil War. The Northern states were fast becomming industrialized--machines and locomotive engine trains were springing up everywhere.....and they needed one thing to keep them going smoothly. What was that one special fluid, folks???

Say it with me now.........OIL!!

And who had OIL?? The South--more precise, Texas had it--and the North wanted it. Why do you REALLY think Mexico made their try at claiming Texas for anyways????

Answer 7

There were single battles in the Civil War that killed as many people in one day as all 12 years of Viet Nam.

Answer 8

American fanatic supremacists consider it to be the worst war in American history, because in that war Americans killed other Americans. Just like Jewish fanatic supremacists consider Rabin's assassination to be the worst (on second worst, after the Holocaust) tragedy in Jewish history...

Answer 9

Because the issues involved meant that people in the same family often took opposing sides. That meant family members would end up on different sides in a battle, and were duty bound to try and kill each other.

Answer 10

It was the only war on our own soil....it divided our country...... I am not exactly sure it would be accurate to say it was our worst war.......statistically the amount of deaths was higher than any incurred at any other time when we were at war.