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rexonaddy1 t1_j9rl1jw wrote

Super crazy the same people who fought in the civil war got to witness the escalation of violence that was the first world war.

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jcd1974 t1_j9tgpxi wrote

WWI began 49 years after the Civil War. At the time Civil War vets would be like Vietnam vets today.

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PaoliBulldog t1_j9rmxhn wrote

The Civil War is actually considered the harbinger of modern warfare. The Great War was like the Civil War, but worse.

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Hambredd t1_j9rr2y3 wrote

It really wasn't. The franco-prussian war or the russo-japanese war are probably better fits for that. The American Civil war wasn't much more modern than Napoleonic wars.

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PaoliBulldog t1_j9rs32v wrote

Disagree wholeheartedly. The Union in particular brought the power of industrialization to the battlefield for the first time in the history of warfare. The Civil War introduced rapid-fire weaponry (the Gatling gun), modern supply chain logistics, submarine & aerial warfare, long distance communication & mass battlefield carnage to the world.

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Louis_Farizee t1_j9tfqd8 wrote

You’re forgetting about the transformative effect the railroad and the telegraph had on logistics, and the transformative effect the telegraph, photography, and mass media had on propaganda.

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Thunda792 t1_j9u8yrd wrote

Napoleonic tactics started to go out the window after the first couple years as well, and were largely replaced by proto-WWI style trench warfare.

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dressageishard t1_j9wbrf9 wrote

I made that point, too. I added continuous fighting through winter. No more winter camps.

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Hambredd t1_j9rsxev wrote

The Gatling gun and submarines (if you can even call them that), were barely used. Balloons are hardly aerial warfare and were used in the Napoleonic wars. What about artillery the single most important weapon of World war 1? It was still used like the Napoleonic armies had. The infantry still fought in massed ranks.

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emcee_pern t1_j9s3mp7 wrote

The Siege of Petersburg towards the end of the war was nine months of trench warfare that very much looked like an early version of the front lines of WW1.

Also artillery was extremely important during the Civil War. It wasn't as advanced of course but there was still plenty of it having a large impact on battles.

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Hambredd t1_j9s4z3l wrote

Trenches have been in sieges seen ancient times. The Battle of Alesia, of the siege of Vienna both had stagnant trenches.

Artillery was used like it had been for hundreds of years. Sit a battery on a hill and fire at the enemy you can see. A far cry from the millions of high explosive rounds constantly fired from 20 miles away.

This is just the old american exceptionalism myth , the same is the idea american revolution invented light infantry.

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KindAwareness3073 t1_j9scx71 wrote

If you want to claim your nation deserves more credit for the industrial scale senseless slaughter of human beings I am sure the US will give that to you.

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[deleted] t1_j9sdj74 wrote

[removed]

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TheGallant t1_j9u2fwn wrote

We're getting downvoted to oblivion, but I'm with you: Civil War is in no way a harbinger of the First World War. Anyone who says otherwise does understand the unprecedented scope and scale of the Great War.

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WiseBreadfruit5335 t1_j9w6y5s wrote

I honestly wouldn't consider anything until the turn of the 20th century the harbinger of Modern Warfare. It isn't until the Second Boer War really that you start to see an analysis of small unit tactics and a break away from big conventional armies in formations.

Obviously groups like the Zulu and Maori have used irregular tactics for centuries, but on a global scale, it was really the Second Boer War that brought global attention to small infantry tactics and when people started looking into "ok, how do we operate with a squad/platoon in close quarters and adapt to unorthodox maneuvers" rather than "how do i organize this company in ranks and columns and follow a set battle drill?"

Then obviously we have WWI and Rommel's Infantry Attacks. That's when small unit tactics really started to become the basis of modern warfare.

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dressageishard t1_j9wbjui wrote

Generals Sherman and Grant introduced what was considered warfare. This includes the Gatling gun and grenades. Additionally, the Civil War brought about constant fighting through winter. There was no more winter camp.

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Shank6ter t1_j9uogia wrote

This was taught but it really wasn’t. Most European powers were not impressed by American battle tactics. I think the only two things of note were the first use of ironclad warships and the extent of artillery used by both sides was abnormal for the time

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CharonsLittleHelper t1_j9w18rv wrote

And trenches. Tail end of The Civil War they used trenches.

Not WW1 scale. But still trenches.

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Shank6ter t1_j9w1i3v wrote

Yeah I mean they did introduce Gatling gun but it didn’t have nearly as big an impact as the ironclads and the artillery. To be fair the trenches towards the end were likely a last ditch effort to hold ground. By late 1864 it was obvious who was wining that war

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gourdsworth t1_j9w52yc wrote

The trenches certainly were a "ditch effort" -- last or otherwise

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jonsticles t1_j9ww3fa wrote

>By late 1864 it was obvious who was wining that war

Please, do go on. I like the next part.

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Shank6ter t1_j9wwak2 wrote

Oh do you mean Sherman burning the south in the single most inspired bit of military history ever, or the part where Grant thrashed Lee to the point of submission?

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jonsticles t1_j9wzktj wrote

Who can even pick between those two?

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Shank6ter t1_j9x02zf wrote

I prefer Sherman’s March, simply for the balls on that man

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throwaway_ghast t1_j9rx53e wrote

Decent chance they met with future WWII veterans that may still be around today. When you think about it, this country really isn't that old.

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Category3Water t1_j9rz0vh wrote

My great great grandfather served in the confederacy as a teenager. My grandfather‘s grandfather. My grandfather served in WWII and only died within the last decade. That makes the past seem close. Theres a greater truth in that I grew up in an area that was majority black and so most of the kids my age had grandfathers that served in WWII as well, but didn’t get a GI Bill. And their grandfather’s grandfather had a lot riding on the outcome of the civil war as well. Maybe more. This country isn’t that old.

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fulthrottlejazzhands t1_j9twiel wrote

My great great grandfather was a Chaplin in the Civil War (got him literally straight off the boat at Ellis Island). His son was a doughboy in WW1. His son, my grandad fought in Italy, Normany, and the Bulge. My dad was a chopper pilot in Vietnam, in the shit, as it were.

I fought bravely and with distinction in the War Against Al-Qatala on PS4.

Edit: on a serious note, I was lucky enough to know my great grandfather whose father, in turn, was in the Civil War - - and I'm not that old.

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HighHcQc t1_j9trha6 wrote

If you are over 25 there is a good chance that you knew someone who knew someone from the 1800's.

My grandfather was born in 1937, his own grandfather was born in 1876 and lived until the 1960's...

Crazy to think about.

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Andy_Liberty_1911 t1_j9ty30j wrote

My grandfather was born in 1911 and I knew him a little when I was young. Not quite your statistic but close!

Also apparently my dad had an aunt who thought Porfirio Diaz was “very handsome in uniform”. Pretty insane someone in my family met the Mexican dictator like that.

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20BensonLikeAGoodLad t1_j9uqln1 wrote

I have a neighbour who was born on the 1st of July 1916, the day the battle of the Somme started. He is still alive at the age of 106. If someone were to live to 106 in 1916, they would have been born in 1810.

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ascoult t1_j9ulb3w wrote

I think you may need to adjust your '25 years', people born in 1998 probably did not meet anyone from the 1800s.

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HighHcQc t1_j9uo8ba wrote

My younger brother was born that year and knew my grandfather. He is the reason why I chose this number. Also, I didn't say that anyone over 25 met someone from the 1800's. But that anyone over 25 met someone who met someone from then.

I never met anyone from the 1800's.

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PaoliBulldog t1_j9rmqui wrote

The fights that broke out at that Reunion were dubbed The Battle of the Walking Sticks.

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PaoliBulldog t1_j9rtceu wrote

"Introduced."

The Civil War resembled the Great War a lot more than it did the American or French Revolutions.

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Noctumn t1_j9rd1g1 wrote

Things like this just go to show longevity is some combo of genetics and luck

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Flaxmoore t1_j9u8xxd wrote

So 75 years later.

I can't imagine having Nazis and Allied troops meeting up in 2019- the 75th anniversary of Normandy.

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ShortOldFatGuy t1_j9w453p wrote

A college history professor of mine told us the most significant world aspect of the Civil War was that it was the first 'Modern War', meaning large numbers of men killed in a very short period. Many tens of thousands in hours. Comments?

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VengefulMight OP t1_j9w70fd wrote

Probably true. The Boer War I think is a good insight into the tactics The Union might have had to use had The South not surrendered and instead adopted a guerrilla warfare approach.

Britain defeated the Boers in conventional warfare in the early 20th century, however the Boers then adopted commando raiding tactics which were highly effective.

Eventually Britain brought in a scorched earth policy and concentration camps to isolate the insurgents and starve them out.

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[deleted] t1_j9rf75v wrote

[deleted]

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PaoliBulldog t1_j9rmiry wrote

The Union didn't consider the Confederates traitors. Why do you?

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lemonpepperlarry t1_j9s13bb wrote

The political ambitions of the union government at the time doesn’t change the simple truth that any rebellion is of course lead by a bunch of traitors. Losers too, but traitors first.

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Hambredd t1_j9rqt1g wrote

You're surprisingly angry about something that happened two centuries ago.

Also it's very cute that Americans are so angry about traitors. I heard they get worse treatment in prison than paedophiles.

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the_ill_buck_fifty t1_j9rsjtr wrote

> As opposed to what, have Germany cease to exist? No shit most, got to keep their jobs, someone still had to run the government, and the military, and the police, and the trains etc etc

Is this you justifying not denazifying Germany? I think we know what kind of shit you are.

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CbVdD t1_j9rilza wrote

Louder for the fucksfolks in the back

Edit: a poem?

‘whoever they were’

Decided they weren’t

I came over “hur”

Regrettably current.

>!yer goddamn right I’m a fan of schnoodle!<

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[deleted] t1_j9rizes wrote

[deleted]

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[deleted] t1_j9rma5s wrote

[deleted]

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PaoliBulldog t1_j9rn5gq wrote

Do you realize that the District of Columbia was a slave city until 1862?

Or that the Union was a slave nation when the Confederacy surrendered, & remained a slave nation until 1866?

Or that the Emancipation Proclamation was worded carefully so that slaves in parts of the Confederacy that the Union controlled remained slaves?

Maybe you don't. In fact, I'm sure you don't.

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PerfectlyImpurrfect8 t1_j9w3gpw wrote

Only Muricans call war civil.

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Grinderiny t1_j9z2v3j wrote

Can't tell if you're making a joke or are ignorant of the meaning of civil in this instance.

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PaoliBulldog t1_j9rs60d wrote

Another bot bites the dust.

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Gabagool1987 t1_j9syj9i wrote

Were still some Gettysburg veterans alive in the 1950s, albeit the drummer boys and such. Imagine fighting in that battle then living to see jets and space travel. Technology has really stagnated since the early 2000s

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Skipaspace t1_j9tw3ve wrote

The device you typed that reply on would disagree.

Satellites improved, GPS improved, cell phones improved, we now walk around with, essentially mini computers in our pockets, not to mention the technology that improved surgeries (not so invasive), the technology that allows us the edit genes, we also have drones, and a lot of jobs can now be performed remotely...due to technology.

Technoloy has not stagnated since 2000.

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torsun_bryan t1_j9tg17q wrote

I don’t know about veterans of Gettysburg, but the last remaining Civil War veteran, Albert Woolson, died in 1956. He was a drummer boy in a Union regiment that never saw action.

The last surviving civil war combat veteran was James Hard, who died in 1953.

He fought for the Union from First Bull Run to Chancellorsville, but was mustered out before Gettysburg

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