FREE ESSAY ON THE CIVIL WAR

THE CIVIL WAR

The Civil War
The civil war was doubly tragic because it was completely unnecessary. Slavery had been
ended in other nations with the stroke of a pen, and yet in the mighty United States the
country was willing to go to war over the issue of whether slavery should remain.
The southerners felt that it was their constitutional right to own slaves and did not see
a time when they should be required to give up that right. However, upon the election of
Lincoln as President, the southerners felt threatened, and felt their slave holding
rights were being threatened, and in an effort to protect these rights they chose to
secede from the union. The northerners and Lincoln saw the importance of maintaining a
united country, set out to bring back the seceded states. Thus the Civil War began.
During the civil war 970, 227 Americans were either killed or wounded, this number was
surpassed by only World War II. While the civil war originally began as a quest to bring
the southern states back to the union. However, the goal of the war did soon change to
that of abolition. While the war may have seemed necessary to the soldiers and
governments who were participating, in retrospect it was unnecessary.
In three separate European countries, slavery had been abolished prior to the American
Civil War, and each without arms being raised. Slavery had been abolished in Britain in
1838, Sweden in 1848, and in Holland in 1863. It indeed could have similarly been
abolished in the United States. However, the southerners, who were dependent on the slave
institution, refused to give up their right to own slaves easily.
Had the South been more progressively thinking many lives would have been saved and blood
need not have been shed in the name of slavery. This is particularly true because if the
south had given up their right to free labor (slavery), they would have soon received the
gift of mechanical labor. Indeed they might have profited more from the use of the
machines which were soon to be invented, as they did not require housing, and food.
However, the southerners were deeply rooted in their institution of slavery and were
prepared to go to war over their feelings.
During this war the battle fields were transformed into shambles where during the
duration of the war 634,703 union soldiers were killed or wounded, and 335,524
confederate soldiers were killed or wounded. Indeed this was the second most intense war
second to World War II. In the civil war 3,846 soldiers from both the union army and the
confederate army were killed per month of fighting. This clearly shows the intensity of
the battle and the strong will which drove both sides to continue fighting in the face of
such catastrophe.
The financial burden endured by both sides was astronomical for the time period. The
union force spent a combined 3.2 billion dollars which in terms of current currency
values is 27.3 billion dollars. The confederacy spent two billion or 17.1 billion
dollars. This is the price both sides were willing to pay in the name of slavery.
The North and South went to war over the issue of slavery and endured a great expense in
terms of human lives, and money. They could however have followed the example of Britain,
Sweden, and Holland and simply signed away the institution of slavery and saved thousands
of lives, and billions in dollars. However, the south was too deeply rooted in the
institution of slavery, and when the Emancipation Proclamation came which freed the
slaves they still treated them as they did before, often outside of the legal limits.
Even after the 14th amendment which legally made people of color American citizens, there
were strong racial and prejudicial feelings which ran rampant in the south, for example
the KKK, and Jim Crow Laws, and literacy tests for the right to vote. African Americans
endured these hardships for years to come, indeed until the civil rights movement in the
20th century.