Why is the US Civil War considered the first modern war?

Answer 1

The US Civil War was called the first modern war because it was the first major war to use rifle infantry rifles in mass quantity and it was the first war that used the railroad to move men and supplies vast distances relatively quickly.

And of the Battle of Hampton Roads t the ironclads the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor in the course of one day made every single naval ship in the world obsolete. The American Civil War was also the first war in which weapons such as repeating rifles and land mines were proven in combat.

Answer 2

There are several wars worldwide that are called 'the first modern war'. The Civil War in the US was one of these. Innovations in the Civil War included the first ship sunk by a submarine, use of aerial surveillance to guide artillery, mechanized movement of troops, ironclad ships, rifled guns (both naval guns and infantry weapons), trench warfare, repeating rifles, percussive cannon shells, and more. Many of these innovations were also used in the Austria-Prussia War and Franco-Prussian war, which preceded and succeeded the Civil War respectively.

Answer 3

First widely photographed.

First where railways were used effectively.

First where commanders communicated by telegraph.

First 'total war' in modern times (Sherman in Georgia, Sheridan in the Shenandoah)

Answer 4

First time troops were moved direct to the battlefield by train.

First time that the telegraph became a standard means of carrying reports.

First time that rifled artillery was used.

First widely-photographed war.

Answer 5

The outbreak of the US Civil War caught both sides largely unprepared to face the huge task of fighting the conflict. Neither had an army, as the small regular US Army, made up of professional rank and file, consisted of only 16,215 men at the end of 1860, that was absolutely insufficient even to begin the war and, to worsen the things, it was mostly displaced to garrison and control the Western Frontier.

So, after the first clashes, and the first pitched battled, primarily fought by poorly armed and poorly trained volunteers, both the North and the South realized that the war would be a very long and costly one.

They had therefore to organize, train, arm and supply an army from the beginning and that also implied the adoption of new weapons, explosive devices, innovative type of ships, new strategic and tactical doctrines and new industrial infrastructures.

During the four years of the conflict both sides were able to reach that task, though the Confederacy lost it.

The Civil War was therefore called "The first modern war", several years after its end, because of the new technologies, devices, the strategic, tactic, logistics doctrines and political initiatives which were adopted.