Civil War

I'm reading a book about American history: Kenneth C. Davis Don't Know Much About American History. It's written at a 4th grade level, so it's surprisingly interesting. It hits the high points of our history without going into excrutiating detail about any of it. I just finished reading about the Civil War, and here are some interesting quotes with my thoughts added...

"In Antietam, Maryland, in the bloodiest single day of the war, the dead and wounded top 10,000 on each side." -p 91 "About 620,000 people died in the Civil War." -p 93

• This really puts the 3500 dead troops in Iraq in perspective, now doesn't it? 10,000 in one day verses 3500 in 5 years. Yes, 3500 deaths is sad, but we need to remember perspective.

"Since the United States was the only significant democratic government in the world, Lincoln believed he was fighting to preserve freedom and democracy around the globe, not just in America." -p 94

• I wonder if Lincoln was accused of all sorts of evil motives for fighting this war. "He's just trying to make money for his northern friends in the cotton mills. The south had cotton, they needed cotton to make fabric, their profits were slipping because of it, etc."

Some other interesting things...

• Lincoln only had 1 year of education. I bet the newspapers made fun of him too.
• Lincoln was a very religious man. Who can identify where he got the line "A house divided against itself cannot stand"?
• The Civil War was going very poorly--then it turned around in a very drastic fashion and the north won
• Sherman's march through Georgia destroyed everything in a 40 mile wide path from Atlanta to Savannah. He did what it took to win the war. I bet women and children died in the process. I wonder if the Senate was trying to pass non-binding resolutions saying that was bad...