Naturally, if you are from a one of these countries, your interest and knowledge would be much more in tune with the one you are most familiar. Of course they both had an enormous significance not in their own countries but also from a worldwide perspective.
Most people outside the United States, understand that the American Civil War was instrumental in ending the abomination of slavery in that country. Now, that from a "foreigner's" point of view, would be the main issue to have come out of that unfortunate confrontation. You may say why unfortunate, but I maintain that loss of life in wartime is unfortunate.
The Civil War in England between Oliver Cromwell's parliamentary forces and the Cavaliers of King Charles I, produced the world's first attempt at Parliamentary democracy and the much-maligned Cromwell has to be credited with being the first man to follow the principle that the power of a nation should be with the people, not with one person. There was enough people around, however, not to agree with his views and the ensuing battles became fierce and bloody.
Both these wars left their mark on us as a world for the reasons I have just mentioned and we can use them as an example of what can come out of these battles. I am sure that none of us would have wished them to have happened if only for the death count, but I am not going to judge here what the balance should be in loss of life against the political outcome of a war.
Let's move on to the 20th and 21st century. Out of sight and, unfortunately, out of mind, we have probably had civil war taking place in all four corners of the world on a regular basis. The difference is that it is sometimes difficult to see why battles are being waged. I wonder if it is because we are being "fed" information almost daily about these troubled spots and for that very reason, we have become accustomed to the violence and almost come to the point of acceptance because it is "over there" and does not affect us.
I look with interest at the moment at the situation in Iraq. The coalition forces set about their task, completed it to that satisfaction of the powers that be. This left the local folk with the option of setting up government. As I see it, that nation is no better off now that when the occupying forces stopped firing bullets. Divisions are greater in this civil war situation than they have been for a long time.
I personally now look at civil wars in a different light. The two, described first in this article, seemed to have achieved something and developed our society in a certain way. I wonder, if in today's world, we will see the power brokers in the current civil war conflicts throughout the world, sit down and discuss peace for the benefit or all within a war-torn community.
Before The Civil War
When it became obvious that there was going to be a shooting war between the North and the South, there were days of immense personal conflict to a great many regular army officers. Among them, of course was Robert E. Lee, who was one of the most famous officers in the army, and to whom Winfield Scott offered top command of the Union army. Lee took a day or two to mediate over this. As a professional army officer, naturally, this was not the sort of thing a man turns down lightly. But he finally refused it on the grounds that he was, after all, a loyal son of Virginia. We don't have that sort of loyalty to homeland these days. But they did then. Lee had it as did a great many other men. Lee had to go with his state and so turned down the promotion and became a General in the Confederate army.
Other officers on lower levels had the same problem. There was a very poignant incident that occurred in what was then the little town of Los Angeles. In an army fort close by to the town, one night in the spring, a farewell party in the officers' quarters was given for some of the officers who were resigning their commissions to go South, as Lee had done. Others were staying in the Union army. One of the latter was a Captain name Winfield Scott Hancock. During the course of the evening, an old friend, Captain Lewis Armistead, came to him. With tears in his eyes, Armistead took Hancock's hand and gripped it saying, " Hancock, you'll never know what this is costing me, but good-bye, good-bye".
As they were saying good-bye, a woman who was present, the wife of one of the officers, sat at the piano and sang the haunting tune "Kathleen Mavourneen" - "when will we se each other; it may be for years and it may be forever".
Armistead went to Richmond; Hancock to Washington. In July of 1863, these two old friends who had not seen each other since that spring evening in Los Angeles crossed paths at the battle of Gettysburg. Hancock was in charge of the Union line Cemetery Ridge around that famous landmark, the "little clump of trees". Pickett's charge was heroically moving forward and at the spearhead of it was a man who carried his felt hat on the point of his sword and waved it high over his head so that his soldiers could see it; that man was General Lewis Armistead. As the Confederates reached the Union line and broke into the middle of it, Hancock was shot down with a wound in his thigh.
Armistead reached a battery in the center of Hancock's line, placed his hand on the muzzle of one of the cannons, waved that hat on the point of his sword and then was shot. He lived just long enough to ask the officers who tried to pick him up and tend him to give his love to General Hancock. It was that kind of war.