Why was the American Civil War such a bitter and brutal affair?

Why was the American Civil War such a bitter and brutal affair?





As in, what exactly made the American Civil War the bloodiest war in US history?





- so bloody that casualties in the American Civil War alone outnumber the total casualties and losses from all the other wars the United States participated in from the American Revolution all the way to the Vietnam War.





Please explain your answer in-depth, with relevant examples and support.





Thanks!|||It was fought by generals who learned their trade at the time of Napoleon and generally the tactics used in the war were Napoleonic. That is, positions were assaulted by massed charges in an attempt to take a position by overwhelming the defenders.





BUT, and here's the reason it was so bloody....





The war was fought with what were effectively modern weapons. Rifled barrels ensured greater accuracy, repeating rifles ensured a greater rate of fire. The so called "Mine Ball" a 0.5 inch slug used in rifled barrels caused such massive wounds that a hit anywhere on the body took the soldier out of action, if the wound was in the torso then death was almost certain.





So you have a war fought with modern weapons and Napoleonic tactics. That's why it was so bloody.





And just to show that we ignore history at our peril, the military leaders of the First World War failed to study the American Civil War and killed thousands because of this failure. In WWI they commited the same blunder; Napoleonic tactics and modern weapons. That's why that war was so bloody too.|||If those weapons were so effective why don't we use them today? This sounds like a retarded question, but I need to know.

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|||They were effective at the time. Just as high-power sniper rifle would do for us today.

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|||It was so bitter because it was literally a country divided - the armies weren't fighting outsiders, foreigners, people of different cultures, they were - quite literally - fighting their brothers. There are many recorded instances of some members of a family fighting on the Union side, others from the same family fighting on the Southern side. And that is a tragic situation. |||First, you had brother against brother on the same soil. Secondly, the South was fighting to preserve their state autonomy and to protect their homeland from invaders. When you have that situation, the fighting is more vicious. Consider the German army. The fighting in Europe was at its worst when the allies went into Germany. |||Gettysburg Address...