The Horror of the Civil War

 The Civil war was the bloodiest war in American history. About 1,264,000 people were killed.

 
      At the beginning of the war, the boys began eagerly signing up for battle. They thought it would be so cool to wear their uniforms, carry guns and bayonets and be able to set ambushes on the enemy. All the people thought there would be a couple minor skirmishes and then the war would be over. At the first battle, people came to watch the "Victory." But it was quite different from what they had expected. Instead, the war lasted for four long dreaded years.
The Civil War was a turning point in American history. Many new war weapons were invented. Some of the most dreaded weapons were the land mines, water mines and the Gatling gun. The most dreaded was the Ironclad.
     The first weapons that I will talk about is the land mines and the water mines. These were one in the same thing. If you stepped on a land mine or floated your boat into one of the water mines, it would automatically explode.
     The Gatling gun was a very dreaded weapon that would totally cut off the first line of soldiers. People were terrified to be on the wrong side of it. It was like a small machine gun.
The Iron Clad was the worst of all. It was the very first submarine. It had canons on it and some had turrets at the top that you could twist around to get a good shot at the enemy. If it rammed into a ship it would sink the ship. If it was shot at, the shell would ricochet off.
     Another one of the horrors of the Civil War were the prison camps, the worst camp being Camp Douglas. It treated its southern prisoners terribly. They were not fed well at all. When they went into the camp there was a very small chance that they could escape.
     The war had both good and bad on both sides, which I will not talk about today. But you can come back next time to hear a little bit more about that.