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Since the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775, America has been engaged in at least 23 major military conflicts in the last 240 years. The most significant one was fought among ourselves on our own soil 150 years ago and resulted in more deaths than any war before or since.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war#cite_note-27
For the last 110 years, the number was said to be 618,222 men died in the Civil War, 360,222 from the North and 258,000 from the South β by far the greatest toll of any war in American history. In fact, recent estimates stated in a 2012 New York Times article cited a research paper that now raises that estimate by 20% or so to 750,000 deaths! A pre-eminent authority on the era, Eric Foner, a historian at Columbia University, said: βIt even further elevates the significance of the Civil War and makes a dramatic statement about how the war is a central moment in American history. It helps you understand, particularly in the South with a much smaller population, what a devastating experience this was.β
Tennessee became the LAST state to leave the Union (June 8, 1861) and the FIRST state to rejoin the Union (July 26, 1866).
Not only was the Civil War fought on our own soil, but it was fought almost entirely in the south and the states of Virginia followed by Tennessee saw the bloodiest battles of the 1861-1865 War of the Rebellion. The Battle of Shiloh was fought on April 6-7, 1862 just 40 miles away and several battles and skirmishes were fought in the immediate area of Bolivar and Hardeman County.
Bolivar was occupied by Federal troops for most of the war from the spring of 1862 until the end of the war in April 1865. On May 4, 1864, the courthouse and practically every business house in town were burned by Federal troops. No one living in Bolivar and/or Hardeman County escaped the ravages of the Civil War regardless of which side they supported.
Here are images of an actual document General Orders, No. 12 issued at Bolivar, Tenn., April 16th, 1863 by Brigadier General M. Brayman. This document was recently acquired on eBAY and was donated to the Little Courthouse Museum in Bolivar, TN (where it can be viewed). This document makes for interesting reading for it is hard for people today to comprehend being under marshall law. The document even identifies certain families that it considers "aiding and abetting the Southern cause".
The Wheels of History Turn Slowly
From the founding of our country in 1776 ...
It took 88 years and a Civil War to outlaw slavery
Then it was another 56 years before women got the right to vote
Then it was 44 more years after that before we passed the Civil Rights Act to make things more equal among the races
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