okay guys let's uh finish up unit 14 and uh thereby finishing up the course itself uh so we're looking at the civil war just to review we've covered part one part two part three and part four so we've covered the entire war from the beginning all the way to the surrender at appomattox uh what i want to do in this is kind of impart to you a little bit of what was significant about the american civil war but also what was the cost involved with the american civil war uh in terms of the cost okay what was the cost of this war in terms of blood and money well in terms of blood uh you had about 360 000 or so union dead about 258 000 confederate dead uh 275 thousand union wounded 120 000 confederate wounded property loss was in the billions it's really hard to put an exact figure on it although people try uh but it's in the up upwards of the billions of dollars uh you have to remember that the war is going to result in the end of slavery which factors into the property loss and there's just really no way to put an exact number on all that property loss but we do know that it's in the billions uh the translation here in terms of the cost of the war in blood is that the american civil war was the bloodiest event in american history more americans died in this war than all the wars in american history combined that's wars before the civil war and wars after the civil war and this is usually the case with civil war civil wars regardless of where they are tend to be that nation's most bloodiest uh events because you have uh in this case americans killing americans and so every casualty every death is going to be an american lost so in terms of the cost of the war the property loss is in the billions the cost is in the billions the cost of blood very very high bloodiest event in american history but what was significant about the american civil war well there's lots of things about this war that are significant but kind of let me let me briefly just describe three of the most important significance of the american civil war the first is that it is the defining moment in american history it is the defining moment for the united states and here's what i mean by that you know if the american revolution was where the united states declared who it was meaning an independent nation well then the american civil war was by far the moment that the united states declared what it was going to be it was the moment the united states began to turn into what it is today all the good and all the bad the nation you live in today is a direct result of this defining moment the american civil war you live in a heavily industrialized nation with big business railroads greater democracy et cetera et cetera the nation you live in today was born out of the american civil war but all the bad things too of the that characterized this nation are a direct result of uh of the american civil war but in terms of the good you know the nation greatly industrialized during and after the american civil war uh this was the rise of industry in not only the north this is the birth of the second industrial revolution uh it was the birth of the transcontinental railroad all these things were brought about because of the civil war and so the nation you live in uh is is the nation that was defined by the civil war but of course all the racial issues we deal with in this country today and have dealt with since the civil war were all a result of the civil war for example on the left there that's a depiction of what were known as the black codes which came about after the american civil war uh in the early 20th century up until the 1960s you know we had segregation in this country again a direct result of the results of the war um so although all the good and all the bad of the nation you live in today it can be traced directly back to this american civil war i guess what i'm trying to impart to you is that it's the defining moment in terms of american history because it sets up everything that explains the world you live in today in this country that's why it really is this defining moment uh the other reason the civil war is significant is that slavery as a result of this war is put on a path of destruction uh in the entire united states now if you remember the emancipation proclamation uh issued by lincoln during the war uh will end up freeing most of the slaves by the end of the war meaning that all those areas in orange there these were the areas that were affected by the emancipation proclamation and meaning that slaves in those areas are free and forever free well the only way to actually free them was that they the union army needed to occupy these areas uh thus freeing them forever now by war's end all of that area and orange will be occupied by the union military and so the proclamation has the effect of freeing most of the slaves but again when we talked about the proclamation we talked about that there were some states and areas of the confederacy that were exempt because they were not technically in rebellion so slavery as a result of the war isn't ended in those areas but understanding that slavery had somehow caused all this uh the united states congress passed and the necessary amount of states ultimately ratified the 13th amendment to the u.s constitution constitution uh at the end of the war now below are the two sections of the 13th amendment section 1 states that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except his punishment for crime shall exist within the united states or any place subject to its jurisdiction so the 13th amendment ended slavery in this country but you never would have gotten the 13th amendment without the proclamation and without the civil war so the civil war does put slavery on a path of destruction here in the united states i hope you would agree it's a very very significant outcome uh but here's a really good way to think about the relationship between the proclamation the emancipation proclamation and the 13th amendment think of the proclamation in terms of it helped preserve the union by helping the union win the war and the 13th amendment think of it as it ensured the union's future survival by removing that one root cause of the war itself forever this is a really good way to think about the relationship between the two proclamation was a tool helped a tool that helped the union preserve the union and win the war 13th ensured that we remove that root cause that led to this whole bloodshed in the first place but here's the biggest reason that the civil war was significant the civil war resulted in north being victorious and that meant then that the united states the union was preserved this was by far the most significant outcome of the american civil war now you may want to say well slavery was pretty significant but i would say yes of course it is but you cannot end slavery if you don't preserve the union and the preservation of the union was larger than just that what i mean by this is that the union victory came at a time in world history where worldwide democratic republican governments were failing they were being replaced in many cases by dictatorships by autocracies maybe even plutocracies the point is that around the world during these decades before and after the civil war is that you know democratic republican governments were failing across the world and it seemed as though democratic a democratic republic was doomed to failure in the annuals of world history uh it looked like you know it was a noble experiment but it just wasn't gonna work but here as a result of this war that didn't happen and lincoln more than anyone else saw very clearly what the war meant and why the war was significant not only in terms of ending slavery and not only in terms of preserving the united states preserving the union lincoln saw very clearly what the war meant on a global scale now when the war before the war was over abraham lincoln traveled to the to the gettysburg battlefield in which he gave a very famous speech known as the gettysburg address uh now this speech was given at the dedication of the the cemetery that was built at gettysburg and there's a great story that goes along with his gettysburg address and i promise there's a moral to this story it builds on what i was just talking about uh the guy that introduced lincoln here at gettysburg got up and gave a two hour introduction of lincoln just building this man up into the greatest thing ever uh put on the face of the planet lincoln got up after the two-hour introduction and gave a five-minute speech and it is in my opinion the greatest speech in american history here it is it's known as the gettysburg address and i've highlighted some of the more important parts of it uh that illustrate what the war meant and what it was all about now most of y'all may be able to recite the beginning line by by memory but he's saying four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal and i really like this line because he does not give it away he does not say that he or anyone else has to believe that all men are created equal but what he's telling you is that this nation is dedicated to the idea that we are now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure we are met on a great battlefield of that war and we have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those here for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live it is all together fitting and proper that we do so but in a larger sense and this is where it gets good we cannot dedicate we cannot consecrate we cannot hallow this ground the brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract the world will little no nor long remember what we say here i think that was a gross misunderestimation by abraham lincoln because here we are talking about it but it can never forget what they did here it is for us the living rather to be getting dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus so far nobly advanced it is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us and i'll come back to that line in a second that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion that we here here that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation under god shall have a new birth of freedom and that a government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth what he's telling you here is that the war was larger than simply preserving the united states that the great task remaining for the united states was to prove to the world that this experiment began by our founding fathers this experiment in creating a nation of the people by the people and for the people the great task remaining to us is to not allow it to perish from the earth and for lincoln that's really what the war meant it proved to the world that a democratic republican government could deal with an internal revolution such as the civil war that it could deal with the civil war and still preserve the freedoms that we cherish so much and that's what he really meant it's a twofold meaning by what he said a birth of new freedom he meant not only the freed slaves but also the nation itself all right enough of my soapbox so this concludes unit 14 and this will conclude the course uh when you're ready go ahead and take the unit 14 quiz and then when you're done with that study your notes prepare email me any questions and when you're ready go ahead and take that module 3 exam the final exam and good luck on it i hope you've enjoyed the course i've really enjoyed reading y'all's discussion boards and i hope you learned something out of all this