Essay

Jervina Byard

Instructor Name

American History

4 December 2019

The Contemporary Effects of the Civil War

There are several ways in which the Civil War has managed to affect our lives. First, the concept of Ambulances became mainstream during the war. The development of the nation's first ambulance crops was done during the war. The idea was to collect wounded soldiers and transport them to field hospitals. After the conclusion of the war, people began to receive treatment at these war-time field hospitals instead of their homes. After some time, these ambulances, hospitals, and nurses became a permanent part of the American society, with the famous wartime nurse, Clara Barton, establishing the famous American Red Cross that has branches not just in American but in all the major cities of the world CITATION Bar98 \l 1033 (Barton, 1898). Another effect of the civil war is the increased role of technology in the field of communication. President Abraham Lincoln was highly interested in the role of technology in war CITATION Nye03 \l 1033 (Nye, 2003). He created the first Balloon Crops for the use of air balloons in war reconnaissance. But the biggest contribution of President Lincoln is the excessive use of Telegram on the battlefield. This idea gave rise to investments in the field of peacetime and wartime communications, that led to the development of the telephone and the Internet, the latter being solely developed for military purposes. There have been political ramifications of this civil war as well. Before the start of the civil war, there were many parties like Whigs, Free Soiler and many others. But after 1854, the Republican party was formed which absorbed defectors of all other parties. The result came in the form of two mainstream parties that have survived to this day, resulting in a largely two-party house consisting of Democrats and Republicans. Another vital result of the civil war that affects us to this day is the abolition of slavery. With the ratification of the thirteenth amendment, slavery was abolished in the United States. Lastly, the most important effect of the Civil War in our lives is that it united us as a single nation. The Gettysburg address did the job of the perseverance of a single national ideal of peace and equality. The effects of those two hundred and seventy-two words created a nation that is still united under a single banner.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Barton, C. (1898). The Red Cross in Peace and War. Stanford University. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.pk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QD8JAAAAIAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA13&dq=clara+barton+and+the+red+cross&ots=DelOBaTiKZ&sig=2YpFD93JBxEE5orurnIBH1fRnTM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=clara%20barton%20and%20the%20red%20cross&f=false

Nye, D. E. (2003). Technology, Nature, and American Origin Stories. Environmental History, 8(1), 8-24. DOI:10.2307/3985970