the American Civil War was a hokey, small-time, ginsu-knife affair that would have been over in three months if the North's generals hadn't all been cowards, bunglers or drunks
We lost half a million more than any other war combined and this guy says it was small. If the war had gone differently we would be living in a different world. Who wrote this article is an idiot.
The Civil War was the last Napoloeonic war, and the first fully modern war dependent upon railroads, and telegraphs. The year-long siege of Petersburg fully anticipated the First World War, and Grant's Richmond campaign anticipated our strategy in the Vietnam war. My favorite Civil War history, by the way, is Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, a four volume collection of first hand accounts colleced and edited by The Century Magazine. Sadly, it's out of print, but used copies are avaiable on the Am**on Marketplace.
"Just asking, do you consider Maryland a Southern state?
Today, parts of Maryland, those areas South of the District of Columbia, are certainly Southern: St. Mary's, Charles, and Calvert Counties, for example. But back in 1860, everything below Frederick, including Baltimore and the District of Columbia, was sympathetic to the South. Understanding this, General Windfield Scott was wise to quickly sieze the District of Columbia armory when Virginia succeeded to prevent the pro-Southern District of Columbia militia from taking control of the city, which is just what they had intended to do. While in Maryland Southern sympathy was so strong that General Benjamin Butler was forced to place cannon on what is still today known as Federal Hill to keep Baltimore under Union control. Recalling those troubled days, Maryland's official state song written in 1861, Maryland, My Maryland, contains the following lines :
The despot's heel is on thy shore,
Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple door,
Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore
That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
[snip]
Virginia should not call in vain,
Maryland!
She meets her sisters on the plain-
[snip]
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb-
Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!...