Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

==The American Civil War==
{{topquote|We are [[Grimdark|not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people]], and [[Exterminatus|must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war]].|William Tecumseh Sherman preparing to [[Rip and Tear|go absolutely fucking scorched earth]]}}

The American Civil War is one of those subjects that we could write a shit ton about, but one we could never do the due diligence to be 100% accurate to the events. Needless to say, this is our humble attempt to cover the subject. If nothing else, just know it wasn't about [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_Confederacy| States Rights.]

Shortly after achieving independence, a distinction between the newly United States became more and more pressing. The southern colonies had been settled by men who wanted to make a lot of money in the New World and who set up plantations manned by slaves growing tobacco and cotton. The desire to present a united front in the writing of the constitution compromised with the slave states in giving them extra political power a la the 3/5ths compromise, where somewhere around 60% of the black population counted towards a seat in the House of Representatives. Of course, they wouldn't dare let the people who are giving them more power from sharing said power except by making money. The northern colonies were settled by groups who wanted to recreate England (or their ideal version thereof) where the cash crops grown on plantations were not profitable and to whom slavery increasingly became morally repugnant and was perceived as economically unfair. 

There was some hope that slavery was on its way out at first (many of the Founding Fathers had believed that the growth of industrialization and the declining price of tobacco would make slavery obsolete and thus left the problem for future generations to solve), and then Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which made it much easier to process cotton and allowed for the vast expansion of cotton plantations, leading the slave owners to become very wealthy and invest their profits in buying more slaves to pick more cotton. Even those who did not profit directly from slavery still supported the institution, if only because they were terrified of the possibility of a slave revolt or an outright race war, as had been the case in Haiti just a few decades prior. 

There was also a growing sense of abolitionism in the North. The British had shut down their transatlantic slave trade in 1807 and abolished slavery in 1833, with France following in 1848. While the number of hard-line abolitionists in the North was comparatively small, they were making headway and there were various groups opposed to slavery to various degrees. Tensions rose gradually in the first few decades of the nineteenth century, from "mere" outright brawls in the United States Senate to the "Bleeding Kansas" incident, to John Brown's attempted slave revolt at Harper's Ferry. This led to the Southern states attempting to create new slave states as fast as possible and other ploys which spiraled things out until South Carolina decided to secede, and James Buchanan refusing to do anything because he sympathized with the southern cause. Fearing that "The Peculiar Institution" would be contained, constrained, and eventually brought to inevitable extinction, the powers that be in the South pushed for a violent breakaway. This in spite of the fact that Lincoln had historically sought compromise as opposed to taking a hard line on the issue, something that changed as the war progressed.

This war is notable for being the most destructive conflict to take place within the United States, killing 700,000 and leveling several cities, and was among one of the biggest wars that was fought between industrial powers up to that point. One reason for this is that the North simultaneously held that South never left the US and that a total war with intentional targeting of the civilian population and infrastructure was OK. Another was a fear among the North that if the war was not won quickly (regardless of cost in lives) public opinion on it would sour, Lincoln would lose reelection and the war might end without the South's defeat.

The war consisted broadly of two halves, cleanly divided by the Battle of Gettysburg. The first half was characterized by a series of grand maneuver battles in the east in which the Confederates tended to win on account of all the more competent, professional generals with experience from the Mexican war picked their side, most notably the [[skub|legendary]] [[tactical genius]] Robert E. Lee, while the Union had to make do with politicians, corrupt hacks, and career deskwarmers. Morale was also an important factor; the Confederates tended to be on the average much more motivated, as they were carried by a deep belief that they were fighting a defensive war, something that was amplified in Confederate propaganda. The Union forces, on the other hand were mostly comprised of poor sods from the slums of New English cities like New York that couldn't afford to buy their way out of being conscripted. In some other cases, soldiers were recruited straight from the ships that carried numerous European immigrants, and among these the Irish were the most prominent. A vicious cycle ensued where every moron Lincoln gave command to would boldly set out to conquer Richmond and end the war in one stroke, only to run into Lee playing tower defense on the most unfair terrain available. Union Commander of the Month would furiously throw men at Lee's lines until the grumbling from the ranks started to sound mutinous (Fredericksburg, Manassas, the Peninsula) or just stare at his lines until getting blindsided outta fucking nowhere, usually by Stonewall Jackson (Chambersburg, Chancellorsville, Second Manassas). 

Either way, it'd end with the Union sulking back to Washington with about 2/3rds the army they started with. This would repeat several times until eventually Lee got cocky and tried the same thing (Gettysburg and technically Antietam although that was more of a really bloody draw). By the time of Gettysburg, there were Union soldiers (the remnants of the 2nd Maine for example) who could accurately claim to [[Fail|have gone 0 for 11 against the Army of Northern Virginia]]. At Gettysburg, however, shit went sideways for the Confederates in a big way. General Meade, a halfway competent general, was finally in charge on the Union side, Stonewall Jackson was dead, Jeb Stuart took his cavalry off on a pointless ride to nowhere, the Army of the Potomac found and occupied some of the best defensive terrain of the war, and the Army of Northern Virginia couldn't lever them out of it despite two days of very bloody fighting. This culminated in Lee picking out some of his best divisions and ordering them to charge up the middle of the Union position, supported by all his artillery. The Union army sat and waited for the the Confederates to finish shooting, then chewed the attacking divisions up with volley fire and artillery like a Carnifex brood tearing through Imperial conscripts. The attack actually breached the Union line, but was smashed and driven back with heavy casualties. The point the Confederates reached on Cemetery Hill is now known as the high-water mark of the Confederacy. 
[[Image:ShermansMarch.jpg|[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufSGd58gjAM M-i-c, k-e-y, m-o-u-s-e.  Who's the leader of the club that's made for you and me?]|thumb|right|250px]]
However, the Western Theater was a different story; a pair of grimdark badasses named Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman were leading the Union on a steady slog of wins up and down the Mississippi River system. Though there were some touch and go moments, such as at Shiloh, Grant kept his head and his command and ultimately masterminded the successful Vicksburg campaign, which saw him outflank the city after ordering his fleet to do a balls-out run past its defensive batteries before bitchslapping the Confederate defenders back into their trenches and settling in for a siege that lasted until 4 July 1863, the day after Pickett's Charge was shot to pieces at Gettysburg. Losing Vicksburg and New Orleans cut the Confederacy in half and gave the Union unchallenged control of the entire Mississippi, the most important interior waterway in the country. After Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Lincoln scented blood in the air, decided he just wanted to win and didn't care how messy it got, and so gave Grant command of the Army of the Potomac. Grant knew that the Union had more men and more equipment, and if he couldn't outmaneuver Lee, he was perfectly content to [[Imperial Guard|win by attrition]]. Grant sent Sherman rampaging through Georgia like an [[Eversor]] with flamers, and then settled in for a year of meatgrinder trench warfare with Lee that was basically just World War One without biplanes and machine guns.

It has to be noted: Grant was not just a "mindless butcher". He had terrible casaulty figures to be sure, but there were reasons for this: One is that Grant had noticed that the Confederates kept beating the Union by whipping them, then waiting to recover, then repeat. So the only real way to deny this to the Confederacy and especially Lee was to keep fighting and keep Lee's Army reeling, preventing any real reinforcement or supply to restore the lost men and material. Grant was bold, and displayed excellent leadership characteristics and a coolness under pressure. So cool, that part of the reason for his victory in the Wilderness campaign was because Lee lost his cool and flung men at a position and expected them to win the day. Yeah, Lee had a habit of this, and it's part of the reason that his reputation as a "tactical genius" is [[skub|hotly debated]] to this day.      

While the war was started over the issue of slavery, complete emancipation was not one of the North's original war aims. However, as more Southern territory fell to the Union advance, thousands of slaves came into the custody of the Union army, either by being liberated directly or by making a break for it as soon as the bluecoats were close enough. This became troublesome in the latter years of the war, as it presented the Northern generals with a serious logistical and humanitarian challenge: feed not only a fighting army on the move, but their ever-growing train of liberated slaves. This problem was particularly acute for [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_March_to_the_Sea Sherman's March to the Sea]. Some Union generals addressed this problem by offering enlistment to liberated slaves, although this practice was not universal. However, many slaves fled Confederate territory to join up with Union forces and a good number of them ended up serving in the Union Army, including the legendary 54th Massachusetts. Ending slavery not only became political policy, but also a weapon of war since it destroyed the Confederacy's economy. This led to the Emancipation Proclamation, issued after Gettysburg, and eventually the adoption of the 13th Amendment and with it the abolition of slavery. The vileness of slavery became more known as Union soldiers saw firsthand the plantations and what it did to black people, and while some didn't give a shit or even thought it was only natural, there were plenty who saw that shit and resolved to send the Confederates straight to hell for it.