Southern Slavery Never Caused The Civil War

So, Why The Obvious Misrepresentation?

The Civil War was easily America’s most catastrophic war as measured in both human and political terms. An estimated 620,000–750,000 Americans died, which is more than the total deaths accounted for in Iraq/Afghanistan, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Revolutionary War combined. The upwardly revised figure reflects a 2012 research study that is not completely accepted by academia. I’ve read other estimates that are as high as 800,000. Clearly, the science of definitively accounting for battle fatalities isn’t exact. The death total is complicated because most of the deaths were from field-related diseases. Dysentery was the most common fatal disease. Soldiers also died from typhoid fever, a bacterial disease transmitted by lice, as well as malaria, pneumonia, smallpox and yellow fever, all of which were the result of poor sanitary conditions.

For the purpose of this essay I’ll use 620,000 representing roughly 2% of the total American population. In present day terms, that equates to 8 million American lives. The three-day 1863 battle in Gettysburg, PA alone accounted for 51,000 deaths, which is close to the total loses in the Vietnam War. More specifically, close to 10% of all American males were either killed or wounded in this war. A large percentage of the wounded soldiers…