Legacy of the Civil War

As we've done our genealogy, we often find soldiers in the family. Perhaps you had Civil War soldiers and have thought about how difficult it must have been for them, particularly those families who found themselves on opposite sides during the long years of conflict.

Did you know that the Civil War . . .

1.  Set the stage for the organization of modern hospitals?
2. Led to improved use of anesthesia and safer surgical techniques?
3. Saw the first organized ambulance and nurses' corps, eventually becoming the foundation of the American Red Cross?
4. Led to the foundation of more than seventy National Park Service Civil War sites?
5. Was the beginning of mass production of canned food?
6. Encouraged the development of left and right shoes, each shaped differently?
7. Was the first "modern war" using repeating rifles, machine guns, submarines, hot-air balloons, soldier's ID tags, land mines, and ironclad ships?
8. Led to the system we now have in place of national cemeteries for veterans, homes for veterans (becoming the Veterans Administration), and pensions for widows and orphans?
9. Encouraged the use of national paper currency and was the impetus for our federal income tax?
10. Left us with slang we still use today, for example, carpetbaggers, deadlines, horse sense, and greenback.

These are just a few of the lasting effects of the Civil War. Curious to know more? There are many websites where you can learn about the war's impact on our ancestors' lives and how we still are influenced by that war today. Here are a few you might like to look at:

"The Civil War: Facts, Events, and Information about the American Civil War: 1861–1865" http://www.historynet.com/civil-war

"How the Civil War Changed Your Life"
https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-04-2011/8-ways-civil-war-changed-lives.html

"The Civilian Experience in the Civil War"
https://www.nps.gov/resources/story.htm%3Fid%3D249