The US Civil War - Research Paper Example

One of the ways that people recorded the events of the civil war was through photographs that included some people who lay dead as a result of the struggle between the warring groups and soldiers who held the responsibility to mitigate the war. Some photographers recorded the events that took place in the period of the war and some of those were Brady and Gardner who accompanied the union army in 1862 when they went to Antietam in Maryland and they took photos of soldiers who were killed in the course of the war. In one of their photos, Brady and Gardner covered a scene where many soldiers lay dead following a struggle in the civil war front and it created an impression of the fierceness of the battle that took place between the people and the soldiers. From the photo of Brady and Gardner, it was clear that there killing that happened at the time of the battle were so many and it reflected that many soldiers from the south and the Union army lost their lives. The photo, however, covered a small section of the war front as an indication of the issues of the civil war in the course of the antagonism between the government side that opposed slavery and the southern states armies that wanted to advance it.

Following the American civil war, there were various events that followed in order to address the issues that resulted as well as to establish frameworks to prevent any occurrence of a similar situation in the future. A report on the events of the war was prepared that outlined the main issues that caused the emergence of the civil war in an otherwise peaceful country so that the future would be able to be better. In the report, the political stand about slavery of the then-elected presidents of the United States (US), Abraham Lincoln is said to have triggered the mayhem.

In his presidential campaigns, Lincoln had promised that he would contain the spread of slavery and finally abolish it, a move that was not allowed by many people from the south who depended on slaves for their work (Clark and Neely 138-139). When the southern states that supported slavery realized the election of Lincoln as the US president would have a negative impact on slavery, they formed a group by bringing together armies from their different states to frustrate the attempt of the president.

Immediately they attacked Fort Sumter, an army garrison at Charleston in South Carolina the Union army, that opposed slavery prepared to attack. This triggered the need to respond to the attack from the government side led by President Abraham Lincoln so that they can contain the forces that opposed the government’s attempt. This meant that war had to begin so that to abolish slavery, which became the main goal of the civil war after the contention of different soldiers from different states.

In the war, southern states wanted to overpower the government so that to advance slavery but the northern side focused on routing them and attain the abolishment of slavery in America. When the report of the war was written, it focused on the importance of the war in the US and it proposed various things thing that could be done in the future so that the conditions could be better for other people. One of the suggestions of the report was the protection of the battlefields as important historical places in the lives of Americans who did not exist during the war and those who lived far from them.

The report also gave highlights on the things that the government ought to do to ensure the sustainability of the program of protecting the battlefield so that they maintain the places for a longer time than they and to remain relevant to the future generation (Civil War Sites Advisory Commission 3-27). According to the photos of the Antietam battlefield, many soldiers died at the battlefield and this could be an indication of the fierceness of war between the different army groups.