Blog #4 - Revolution Article

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze

1. The American Revolution is considered to be more important in our society today than the Civil War by many people, despite the fact that the Revolutionary War was fought on a much smaller scale and arguably affected America less than the Civil War. This is because the Revolutionary War seemed much more illustrious and noble than its counterpart, due to the technology available at the time and the circumstances surrounding the war. and  started as a revolution against England which sparked a war, while the Civil War is often not classified as a revolution, since it started as a war to maintain the Union and only became a revolution after the war had begun.

2. Revolution-era paintings often portray a romanticized point of view of the war, the most notable examples being the work of John Trumbull, Emanuel Leutze, Archibald Willard, and William Trego. All the paintings created by these men depicted the War and its circumstances as more civilized and less brutal than they actually were. By the time the Civil War began, the camera had been invented, and men like Mathew Brady used it to to truly capture the Civil War in all its morbid reality, leaving a darker and more frightening image of the Civil War in the minds of the American people.

3. The rhetoric of the Civil War era is often deemed more incisive than the speeches given by less experienced Revolution-era men. The Gettysburg Address was a prime example of Lincoln's powerful ability to influence others with his speech. In this address, Lincoln specifically mentions the Civil War and the losses suffered by the brave soldiers fighting in the war, painting a clear, horrific picture of the war for the American people. Washington was not often considered to be a stellar orator, and spoke very little of the horrors of war, so the people were left with a more idealistic image of that war.

4. The Civil War also carried with it more advanced technology in the form of weaponry. These improved firearms and artillery were capable of inflicting much heavier casualties, and did so very effectively. Despite the greater number of losses during the Civil War, combat during the Revolutionary War was undeniably bloody and difficult, due to the close range the soldiers fought at. The fighting between southern Loyalists and northern rebels was similar to, perhaps even indicative of the future conflict of the Civil War.

5. Civilians also incurred heavy losses and great suffering during the Revolutionary War. They were affected by disease spread by the troops to small towns, and the populations of those towns were often quickly infected and wiped out. The constant fighting in cities and smaller towns took the lives of many civilians as well. Tories and Whigs fought one another, especially in the south, and when the Revolution succeeded, over 100,000 Loyalist Tories were driven into exile.