Introduction
Of all the disasters that the United States has had to endure in its existence, few if any, are as calamitous and catastrophic as the conflagration that was the Civil War. Brother rose against brother and American killed American in a war should never even have happened. Further, states and governments made the choice for and on behalf of their citizens on which side they were to fight on. Not fighting was never available as a choice with the Union passing the Enrolment Act of 1863 which would be used to enable the drafting of soldiers to fight in the Civil War. It is, however, the outcome of the war that would be the greatest disaster of them all. The ends for which the war was fought, which was the ending of slavery and racial discrimination was never achieved either de jure or de facto. Calamity envelopes the cause, the process and the outcome of the Civil War, making it the greatest disaster in American history .
The Cause of the Civil War
In a country whose constitution clearly states that all men are born equal and ought to be free, the populace could not agree that slavery was wrong, evil and should be completely eliminated. It is the disagreement on the fate of slaves and slavery between the North and the South that the Civil War was premised. As the debate about slavery ensued, America became divided between proponents of slavery and those who sought to abolish it. A collision between these two parties was exacerbated in the 1850s upon the passing of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Laws. The law sought to compel northers to return runaway slaves who had escaped from the Southern USA and gone to hide in the Northern part of the country which was sympathetic to escaped slaves. Based on the act, Southern slavers began crossing to the Northern USA ostensibly on the hunt for escaped slaves. These forages led to conflict between slavers and abolitionists with the Christiana Riot of 1851 being such a skirmish 1 . The law favored the slavers and many abolitionists were indicted as reflected in the indictment below.
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Everyone today agrees that slavery is wrong and should never have happened. Therefore, there should have never been a dispute between the Southerners and the Northerners about slavery at all. The fact that the Civil War was based on grounds that should never have existed is among the grounds for the war to be considered as a major disaster.
Brother Forced to Fight Against Brother
The Civil War not only pitted brother against brother in vain violence but also gave no choice to the participants on whether or not they wanted to fight, another ground for it to be termed as a disaster. The Southerners were made by their governments to believe that the federal government was out to cripple their economy through the ending of slavery. On the federal side, the Enrollment Act was passed to force young men to participate in the war 2 . The cartoon below shows that the only option available during the Civil War was either to fit or leave the USA.
A war that forces the sons of the same nation to fight and kill one another can only be defined as a disaster. The disaster is exacerbated by the fact that the war ruined the lives of participants, making them require charity to survive as reflected in the photo above.
The Disaster within the Process of the War
The Civil War was elongated and acrimonious leading to the death, maiming, and wounding of hundreds of thousands of Americans, hence being considered as a disaster. Contrary to the belief at the advent of the Civil War, the conflict was protracted and extremely belligerent. Each of the two sides went out of its way to invent military and industrial means to destroy one another. Great guns that could fire almost man-sized ammunition as reflected in the photo below, was developed by Americans to kill Americans.
It is unfortunate when a battle pitting countrymen ends up becoming a kind of war of attrition and it is on this basis that the Civil War must be considered as a disaster.
The Aftermath of the War
The fact that the Civil War did not end racial discrimination on which slavery was based is another ground for it to be considered a disaster. Racial discrimination existed before the Civil War begun, was prevalent during the pendency of the war, and was still a major problem a century after the war ended. Indeed, racial discrimination was still prevalent even in the Union side that was supposed to be fighting for and on behalf of the colored communities. The picture below shows clearly that although African Americans participated in the Civil War on the Union side, they were mainly relegated to support staff duties or fighting in the ranks 3 . The blacks in the photo are not even in uniform.
As reflected in the photo, the African Americans serving alongside whites in the vessel are not even in uniform, an indication of their low rank and informal duties. Based on a letter by a colored member of the US Navy, as late as the 1950s, racial discrimination was not only rife in the USA but also within the disciplined forces themselves. In spite of the grave damage it caused, the Civil War failed in offsetting the crisis of racial discrimination that it was meant to eliminate.
Conclusion
It is clear from the foregoing that the Civil War was disastrous to United States based on many perspectives. For a start, the war was based on a disagreement about slavery, which should never have happened at all as slavery is universally accepted as an evil. The existence of a draft and other means of compelling people to fight adds to the disaster that pitted brother against brother and American against American. Further, the war was protracted and acrimonious leading to an exponentially high number of casualties. Finally, the war was a failure as it never solved the problem of racial discrimination. The Civil War was indeed the greatest disaster in the history of the United States.
Bibliography
Anderson, John. Christiana Riot of 1851 | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. 2018. Accessed April 28, 2018. http://www.blackpast.org/aah/christiana-riot-1851.
Costly, Andrew. "Black Troops in Union Blue." Constitutional Rights Foundation. 2018. Accessed April 28, 2018. http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/black-troops-in-union-blue.
Schecter, Barnet. "United States History." The Draft in the Civil War. 2018. Accessed April 28, 2018. https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h249.html.
1 John,Anderson. Christiana Riot of 1851 | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. 2018. Accessed April 28, 2018. http://www.blackpast.org/aah/christiana-riot-1851
2 Barnet Schecter. "United States History." The Draft in the Civil War. 2018. Accessed April 28, 2018. https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h249.html
3 Andrew Costly. "Black Troops in Union Blue." Constitutional Rights Foundation. 2018. Accessed April 28, 2018. http://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/black-troops-in-union-blue .
