At 04:48 PM 3/1/2004 -0800 Gautam Mukunda wrote:
>Not at all. But it is impossible for us, in the
>modern context, to imagine a war like the American
>Civil War. No Western power had fought a conflict
>that devastating since 1815, and the United States has
>never come close, before or since. Remember, the
>North lost thousands of men in a few _hours_ at Cold
>Harbor, and that was just one battle. After years of
>such slaughter - battle after battle after battle,
>with (for long periods) little sign of victory, and
>often repeated defeats, one after the other, I think
>that only a Lincoln could have held the course and
>convinced the American public to keep fighting.
Indeed, I believe that Antietam remains the most deadly day in US history,
and that Shiloh remains the most deadly battle.
Given how close this conflict was to home, and for how long it dragged on,
it is remarkable that the North did not eventually choose to settle.
JDG
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world,
it is God's gift to humanity." - George W. Bush 1/29/03
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