I’m not taking anything as gospel from a blog.
It is however and undisputed fact that tens of thousands (or perhaps as many as 250,000) of civilians died as a result of the US Civil War
If a blog predicted that the sun would rise in the morning
I would seek other confirmation. Any retard can write a blog.
from the article: "100,000 to 250,000 CIVILIAN DEATHS were caused by the war--the vast majority being in the South."
AnalogReigns: "It is however and undisputed fact that tens of thousands (or perhaps as many as 250,000) of civilians died as a result of the US Civil War."
AnalogReigns: "My point stands whether 10,000 or 250,000 of civilians died as a result of our Civil War.
All historians put the number in at least the 10s of thousands..."
AnalogReigns: "My main point is—as civilized as we think we are—in an era without any 'weapons of mass destruction' the USA—primarily by the actions of the US government—killed a LOT of our own civilians, during a relatively short period of time."
The fact is that historians have searched for over 100 years to find actual evidence of all the massive civilian deaths claimed by pro-Confederate propagandists.
They searched news reports, legal documents, even grave yards to find some evidence -- anything -- to justify a claim of "massive civilian deaths."
They found nothing.
Finally they went to the census reports and tried to estimate what would the 1870 population have been without the Civil War.
Well, it turns out that between 1850 and 1860 the US population grew 35%.
Between 1870 and 1880 it grew 30%.
So, extrapolating from 1860 to 1870 we might expect it to grow, say, 32%.
That would make the 1870 population 41,500,000.
But since the actual 1870 count was only 38,500,000 we have a "shortfall" of around 3,000,000 people.
Subtract out 600,000 military deaths leaves 2,400,000 "missing" civilians.
So who are those civilians?
Well, maybe a million babies not born because their fathers were at war.
Maybe a million immigrants who stayed at home in their Old Countries out of fear of the US war.
And maybe 400,000 old or sick people who died sooner than necessary because their families were not able to provide for them as well as they would have during peacetime.
And that is what all the large estimates of civilian deaths amount to -- statistical guess work.
There's no hard evidence to support any of it.
What the evidence does support is a massive dislocation of former slaves after the war, unknown numbers of whom may have died.
Not one of those deaths was at the hands of Union troops.
Evidence also reveals a pro-Confederate propaganda campaign which started at war's end, whose purpose was to restore both self-respect and political clout of Southern states, and which to a large degree succeeded.
For a specific list of enumerated US Civil War atrocities, I'd challenge anyone to produce a more complete or accurate list than this one:
Ten War Crimes of the US Civil War
Note that three were committed by the Union, seven by the Confederacy.