The Civil War

   Determined to preserve a way of life rooted in slavery, 11 southern states declared

themselves the Independant Confederate States Of America early in 1861. President

Lincoln asked for 75,000 militiamen to put down this insurrection. Union strategy called

for cutting the Confederacy off from markets and resources abroad and destroying

it's defenses at home. Southern leaders planned to make the cost of these efforts

so great in blood and treasure that northern support for the war would collapse before

the Union's death grip closed on the Confederacy. So began four bitter years that saw

three million Americans take up arms against each other.

  Combat and disease killed at least 620,000 Civil War Soldiers. Nearly

half a million more were wounded.  Given the chaos of battle and record

keeping, exact numbers are impossible to know. Historians agree the

Civil War dead top the total number of Americans killed in all other wars

fought prior to Vietnam. Two percent of the nation's population perished

in military service between 1861-1865.  A catastrophe of equal magnitude

today would kill nearly six million Americans.