The Bloody, Disorderly Chaos of Civil War Combat — War Is Boring

The Bloody, Disorderly Chaos of Civil War Combat

‘Mr. Lincoln’s Army’ recounts how orderly ranks fell apart when the bullets began flying

by ROBERT BECKHUSEN

This article was sponsored by Open Road Media.

The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American history and those who lived through it were beset by what historian Bruce Catton described as an “air of outright melodrama.”

The war certainly took on apocalyptic dimensions for many Americans. For others, it was a reckoning. The secession of the slave states and the outbreak of war in 1861 would escalate into an event which, to this day, is hard to wrap the mind around.

More than 700,000 people died. Millions of black slaves would be freed with the vanquishing of the Confederacy. There’s a strong argument that the Civil War was America’s second revolution.

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