What Are The Reasons For The Civil War
The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American history for many different reasons. The first reason is because it is a Civil War. Anyone who died in the war would for the most part, be an American. This is the reason this was considered a brother v brother war because you could have families who would be split on certain issues and end up having siblings who would fight each other in battle just because of their different issue. The second reason is due to a mix of old-school battle tactics and new weapons. Rifled muskets accounted for 90 percent of all casualties in the Civil War. The reason Rifled muskets accounted for so many deaths was because of the aforementioned old battle tactics. Generals on both sides used Napoleonic tactics.
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These tactics essentially required rows of men to line up shoulder to shoulder and volley fire. While this tactic was considered effective and useful back during Napoleon's time, it was not designed to be used with such effective killing machines. Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant had no idea that these strategies would lead to disaster. Generals did change their strategies during the end of the war, but the death toll was already so large. Rifled muskets had grooves inside the barrel which allowed the bullet to spin as it exited the barrel.
This allowed for increased accuracy and speed. This innovation was significant because compared to a smooth-bore musket, you would have a 50 percent higher chance of hitting your target at a certain range. This means that if these muskets were used with Napoleonic tactics, rows of men would just die almost instantly. This led to an almost never before seen bloodbath. While new inventions such as the Gatling Gun and the submarine had potential to wipe out swaths of enemies, they were almost never used and did not prove effective. However, if they were innovated to be more practical, the death toll of the Civil War could have been much higher. The last reason you the Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American history was because of pathogens. Even if you did survive a bullet shot from a rifled musket, you were likely to die from disease because of inferior hygiene practices. Germs were unknown of back during the era of the Civil War, meaning doctors would re-use the same instruments without cleaning. This meant that if you were shot in certain areas of the body, there would be an almost 60 percent chance of dying from the
surgery. This led to violent outbreaks of gangrene among the patients. It was because of this, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. Her simple, but revolutionary idea of using clean bandages and cleaning medical instruments reduced the infection rate drastically.
These tactics essentially required rows of men to line up shoulder to shoulder and volley fire. While this tactic was considered effective and useful back during Napoleon's time, it was not designed to be used with such effective killing machines. Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant had no idea that these strategies would lead to disaster. Generals did change their strategies during the end of the war, but the death toll was already so large. Rifled muskets had grooves inside the barrel which allowed the bullet to spin as it exited the barrel.
This allowed for increased accuracy and speed. This innovation was significant because compared to a smooth-bore musket, you would have a 50 percent higher chance of hitting your target at a certain range. This means that if these muskets were used with Napoleonic tactics, rows of men would just die almost instantly. This led to an almost never before seen bloodbath. While new inventions such as the Gatling Gun and the submarine had potential to wipe out swaths of enemies, they were almost never used and did not prove effective. However, if they were innovated to be more practical, the death toll of the Civil War could have been much higher. The last reason you the Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American history was because of pathogens. Even if you did survive a bullet shot from a rifled musket, you were likely to die from disease because of inferior hygiene practices. Germs were unknown of back during the era of the Civil War, meaning doctors would re-use the same instruments without cleaning. This meant that if you were shot in certain areas of the body, there would be an almost 60 percent chance of dying from the
surgery. This led to violent outbreaks of gangrene among the patients. It was because of this, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross. Her simple, but revolutionary idea of using clean bandages and cleaning medical instruments reduced the infection rate drastically.