American Civil War.
This is coolbert:
Accompanying the April 2005 issue of the National Geographic magazine is one of those excellent, nay, superlative maps that are issued as supplementary to an article.
Maps issued by the Geographic are almost without question done in the finest fashion imaginable, with running commentary amplifying the visual.
This map of the April 2005 issue is no exception. Entitled, "A Nation Transformed by Civil War" , this map highlights issues of the American Civil War that are seldom touched upon in conventional histories.
Excerpts from the commentaries in the map such as:
[My own comments in bold].
"Before the war began, the United States held more slaves than any nation on Earth."
This may not be entirely true. Brazil may have had more slaves. Slavery was practiced in Brazil until the 1880's.
"In 1860 human property was worth more in raw dollars than all the capital invested in U.S,. railroads, factories, and banks combined."
"With populations more than half slave, South Carolina and Mississippi seceded first. Nine other states followed, roughly in order of their slave density."
Current suggestions by modern revisionist historians was that the American Civil War WAS NOT about slavery. That it was a war over "states rights". To which I would ask, "well, what states rights were the southerners so concerned about??" The value of dollars the slave population represented and the order with the southern states seceded almost surely suggest that the "states rights" most dear to the southerners was the right to own property, in this case the property being slaves. NO other one reason seems to make sense.
"A campaigning army of 100,000 men could consume about 600 tons of supplies daily and would need 2,500 wagons and 35,000 draft animals to keep food, munitions and necessities moving."
The Geographic map shows a wagon park of 240 wagons and draft animals. And it does make for an impressive site to see this small portion [less than 1/10th] of the number needed to provide supplies on a DAILY basis for an army of 100,000 men.
"Wartime manufacturing demands, especially for firearms . . . sparked industrial growth in the north."
"Dozens of types of long guns, handguns, and artillery pieces were used. This array required almost as many different types of ammunition and created a tremendous logistical challenge."
"By the 1870's the U.S. had become one of the world's largest exporters of small arms - - a status it retains to this day."
Many fortunes were made in the north during the American Civil War. Including that of John D. Rockefeller. This capital, much of it from manufacturing war munitions, became the "seed money" that helped stimulate the "gilded age" , and the ascendancy of the U.S. to be the world's foremost industrial nation.
"In 1860 many doctors had never treated a gunshot wound or witnessed the
amputation of an arm or leg. They were ill-prepared for what they'd see on the battlefield . . . Civil War medicine has often been unfairly stereotyped as primitive, painful, and ineffective. But it was advanced for its time and led to significant improvements in trauma surgery. Nearly 75 percent of amputation patients survived."
The educational level for a doctor in 1860 was abysmally low. The medical "colleges" of the time produced doctors who level of education was probably not even equal to a graduate of a conventional college with a four year baccalaureate degree!! It was not until around 1900 that this situation was remedied. Doctors of the Civil War era learned their trade primarily by "practicing". That is part of why to this day doctors are called "practitioners". That 3/4 of amputations were successful IS an amazing statistic, given the treatments and care of wounds of the time. Quite often care of patients was the exact opposite of modern treatment [bleeding, keeping wounds moist]. That so many amputations were successful is probably due not so much to advanced medical care but is more of a tribute to the rugged constitutions found in so many persons of that era.
"The electric telegraph, which allowed almost instant communications over long distances, played its first major military role during the Civil War."
Of course this communication, on both sides, had to be safeguarded by cryptographic systems. Confederate crypto was woefully inadequate [polyalphabetic ciphers reusing the same small number of keys, mixing plain text with cipher text, etc.]. It is said that the Union interceptors of Confederate so-called secure message traffic were able to read every last message they could get their hands on. In contrast, Union secure traffic was indeed secure [enciphered code], Union cryptographers developing more and more secure systems as the war progressed. Southern interceptors were NOT able to read Union encrypted messages.
"The Union sought to seal off 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline from Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. With ten major ports and 200 navigable inlets to guard, it was a daunting job . . . Union naval forces captured some 1,500 blockade runners and succeeded in cutting southern trade to a third of prewar levels."
The Union naval blockade of the south is said to be the only naval blockade in history that succeeded. Cutting trade of the south to only 1/3rd of prewar levels HAD to be significant. And you would not need to guard on an uniform basis the entire 3,500 miles of coastline. You WOULD need to identify major ports and provide the necessary naval assets to blockade those ports with "cast iron coverage". That of itself would have a significant impact. Much of the movement of blockade runners WAS from Bermuda, British territory!! Britain did have a definite affinity for the southern plantation aristocrats. Cuba was also another territory friendly to blockade runners. Blockade runners sailing from Cuban waters were primarily destined for Galveston, Texas. Shipping war munitions in from Cuba through Galveston cannot have been that important. Just getting the munitions ashore was one thing. Getting those munitions to where they were needed by Confederate troops was another.
coolbert.
Excerpts from the commentaries in the map such as:
[My own comments in bold].
"Before the war began, the United States held more slaves than any nation on Earth."
This may not be entirely true. Brazil may have had more slaves. Slavery was practiced in Brazil until the 1880's.
"In 1860 human property was worth more in raw dollars than all the capital invested in U.S,. railroads, factories, and banks combined."
"With populations more than half slave, South Carolina and Mississippi seceded first. Nine other states followed, roughly in order of their slave density."
Current suggestions by modern revisionist historians was that the American Civil War WAS NOT about slavery. That it was a war over "states rights". To which I would ask, "well, what states rights were the southerners so concerned about??" The value of dollars the slave population represented and the order with the southern states seceded almost surely suggest that the "states rights" most dear to the southerners was the right to own property, in this case the property being slaves. NO other one reason seems to make sense.
"A campaigning army of 100,000 men could consume about 600 tons of supplies daily and would need 2,500 wagons and 35,000 draft animals to keep food, munitions and necessities moving."
The Geographic map shows a wagon park of 240 wagons and draft animals. And it does make for an impressive site to see this small portion [less than 1/10th] of the number needed to provide supplies on a DAILY basis for an army of 100,000 men.
"Wartime manufacturing demands, especially for firearms . . . sparked industrial growth in the north."
"Dozens of types of long guns, handguns, and artillery pieces were used. This array required almost as many different types of ammunition and created a tremendous logistical challenge."
"By the 1870's the U.S. had become one of the world's largest exporters of small arms - - a status it retains to this day."
Many fortunes were made in the north during the American Civil War. Including that of John D. Rockefeller. This capital, much of it from manufacturing war munitions, became the "seed money" that helped stimulate the "gilded age" , and the ascendancy of the U.S. to be the world's foremost industrial nation.
"In 1860 many doctors had never treated a gunshot wound or witnessed the
amputation of an arm or leg. They were ill-prepared for what they'd see on the battlefield . . . Civil War medicine has often been unfairly stereotyped as primitive, painful, and ineffective. But it was advanced for its time and led to significant improvements in trauma surgery. Nearly 75 percent of amputation patients survived."
The educational level for a doctor in 1860 was abysmally low. The medical "colleges" of the time produced doctors who level of education was probably not even equal to a graduate of a conventional college with a four year baccalaureate degree!! It was not until around 1900 that this situation was remedied. Doctors of the Civil War era learned their trade primarily by "practicing". That is part of why to this day doctors are called "practitioners". That 3/4 of amputations were successful IS an amazing statistic, given the treatments and care of wounds of the time. Quite often care of patients was the exact opposite of modern treatment [bleeding, keeping wounds moist]. That so many amputations were successful is probably due not so much to advanced medical care but is more of a tribute to the rugged constitutions found in so many persons of that era.
"The electric telegraph, which allowed almost instant communications over long distances, played its first major military role during the Civil War."
Of course this communication, on both sides, had to be safeguarded by cryptographic systems. Confederate crypto was woefully inadequate [polyalphabetic ciphers reusing the same small number of keys, mixing plain text with cipher text, etc.]. It is said that the Union interceptors of Confederate so-called secure message traffic were able to read every last message they could get their hands on. In contrast, Union secure traffic was indeed secure [enciphered code], Union cryptographers developing more and more secure systems as the war progressed. Southern interceptors were NOT able to read Union encrypted messages.
"The Union sought to seal off 3,500 miles of Confederate coastline from Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. With ten major ports and 200 navigable inlets to guard, it was a daunting job . . . Union naval forces captured some 1,500 blockade runners and succeeded in cutting southern trade to a third of prewar levels."
The Union naval blockade of the south is said to be the only naval blockade in history that succeeded. Cutting trade of the south to only 1/3rd of prewar levels HAD to be significant. And you would not need to guard on an uniform basis the entire 3,500 miles of coastline. You WOULD need to identify major ports and provide the necessary naval assets to blockade those ports with "cast iron coverage". That of itself would have a significant impact. Much of the movement of blockade runners WAS from Bermuda, British territory!! Britain did have a definite affinity for the southern plantation aristocrats. Cuba was also another territory friendly to blockade runners. Blockade runners sailing from Cuban waters were primarily destined for Galveston, Texas. Shipping war munitions in from Cuba through Galveston cannot have been that important. Just getting the munitions ashore was one thing. Getting those munitions to where they were needed by Confederate troops was another.
coolbert.
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