Who was affected by the American civil war?

Answer 1

The American Civil War had an affect on the entire nation. Here are some facts & affects of the US Civil War:

A. Families were destroyed as over 600,000 soldiers from both the North & the South were killed;

B. Slaves throughout the USA were freed;

C. Casualties among all soldiers are hard to measure but it was a large number;

D. Casualties were also among untold number of civilians, as they were collateral damages from canon fire & fires;

E. Strict "reconstruction acts" were forced on the rebellious States of the Confederacy;

F. US President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated as a result of the war;

G. The United States Treasury was left with almost $8 billion in debt because of the war;

The outline above of some of the terrible facts about the US Civil War, are almost hard to imagine. Yes slavery was ended but as most historians have said: If both sides knew what the cost would be to end slavery in the US, then another way, not a civil war would have been found.

The heavy toll extracted from both sides hurt the United States. Of all the wars fought in USA history this one, fought mostly by volunteers, was the bloodiest.

Losses were greater in the South. Almost 20% of Confederate soldiers were killed and about 16 % of Union soldiers died.

The odds were stacked against the South from the beginning. The highly populated North had 3 times as many men of military age to call upon.

The Confederacy was less populous so their soldiers enlisted for most times for the War's duration. This placed the individual "Rebel" on the field of battle longer and thus increased his chance of falling victim to the War. The South also had a shortgae of doctors & other medical personnel & 50% of Southern deaths were due to disease rather than gunfire.

To place the loss of life in better perspective, one count has Civil War deaths at 6656,000 ( this a high projection). In stark comparison WW One had 116,516, WW two at 405, 399, in Korea 54, 246, ( I have seen lower counts for Korea ) & 58,000 for Vietnam ( here I have seen lower & the 2,000 MIA's is a problem)

The economic affect needs more detail, but the costs are harder to calculate.

In terms of destruction of property however, the war was fought mostly in the South so destruction there was immense. One estimate has the South producing agriculture in 1900 to only 75% of pre war products.