The myth about the war
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 2:30 am
This is something that has anoyed me alot, it's how some people hype up the war or battles, when they don't need to be hyped up.
Shelby Foote did this a few times, he said Shiloh was as bloody as Waterloo, which is just silly, Waterloo was bloodier then Gettysburg and waterloo lasted only 10 hours, pound for pound, the napoleonic wars were much bloodier then the ACW, yet some people seem to think ACW was some kind of super war that outdid all pervious wars and wars after, just to make it even more epic.
Another commen one, is to compear gettysburg with Vietnam, they say, "the castualties at gettysburg were as high as the americans killed in vietnam" were there is a diffrence CASUALTIES is NOT DEAD, yes Gettysburg had about 54 000 castualties, but less then 8000 actualy died, vietnam had 58 000 DEAD!! and over 350 000 wounded, meaning castualties were over 400 000, quite a lot higher then 54 000 at gettysburg, ofcouse gettysburg was pound for pound bloodier, with 30+ % castualties, much much higher then vietnam were it was around 5% But still not in anyway did gettysburg has as many killed as vietnam.
Yet another one, is that gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in american history, Which it's not 8000ish dead, 40 000ish wounded, compeard to 19 000 dead and up to 60 000 wounded in the battle of the bulge.
So yes, the american civil war was an epic and bloody war, one that helped shape the united states for ever, yes it was the bloodiest war in american history with combined losses at over 600 000 dead.
But lets not try and make it even more bloody and nasty then it was, it was bad enough in reality, with out having to make up "fun" facts.
Shelby Foote did this a few times, he said Shiloh was as bloody as Waterloo, which is just silly, Waterloo was bloodier then Gettysburg and waterloo lasted only 10 hours, pound for pound, the napoleonic wars were much bloodier then the ACW, yet some people seem to think ACW was some kind of super war that outdid all pervious wars and wars after, just to make it even more epic.
Another commen one, is to compear gettysburg with Vietnam, they say, "the castualties at gettysburg were as high as the americans killed in vietnam" were there is a diffrence CASUALTIES is NOT DEAD, yes Gettysburg had about 54 000 castualties, but less then 8000 actualy died, vietnam had 58 000 DEAD!! and over 350 000 wounded, meaning castualties were over 400 000, quite a lot higher then 54 000 at gettysburg, ofcouse gettysburg was pound for pound bloodier, with 30+ % castualties, much much higher then vietnam were it was around 5% But still not in anyway did gettysburg has as many killed as vietnam.
Yet another one, is that gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in american history, Which it's not 8000ish dead, 40 000ish wounded, compeard to 19 000 dead and up to 60 000 wounded in the battle of the bulge.
So yes, the american civil war was an epic and bloody war, one that helped shape the united states for ever, yes it was the bloodiest war in american history with combined losses at over 600 000 dead.
But lets not try and make it even more bloody and nasty then it was, it was bad enough in reality, with out having to make up "fun" facts.