How influential was the Crimean War on the American Civil War?

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2 Responses to “How influential was the Crimean War on the American Civil War?”

1. 1
   Darryl Raby says:

   10/25/2010 at 3:35 pm

   influential in health care for the wounded, but most of the technological & strategical advances & threory came from the 1840s in Europe

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2. 2
   Keith Parkhouse says:

   8/6/2011 at 3:25 pm

   The Minie ball, invented by a Frenchman, was first used extensively in rifle muskets in the Crimean War and then with a little modification was the basic infantry bullet used in the Civil War.

   On the outbreak of the Civil War Florence Nightingale sent detailed designs for a military hospital to the US War Department, but they seem not to have been greatly interested.

   Otherwise, the major influence was to stoke up the long-standing antipathy between Britain and the USA. (The USA supported Russia as far as her official neutrality would allow.) When the Civil War broke out, British hostility towards slavery, which should have lead her to favour the Union, was tempered by concern over American enmity towards Britain, and expressed particularly in terms of threats to annex Canada. This tension nearly lead to war between the two countries in 1861 over the Trent incident.

   'A World On Fire' by Amanda Foreman gives a thorough treatment of the issues.

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