En espanol |Echoes of the nations greatest fight the Civil War still reverberate from coast to coast.
And the 620,000 ancestors lost.
Here are eight ways the Civil War indelibly changed us and how we live:
1.
We have ambulances and hospitals.
The Civil War began during medieval medicine’s last gasp and ended at the dawn of modern medicine.
Each side entered the war with puny squads of physicians trained by textbook, if at all.
Doctors laid out the hospitals as camps divided into well-defined wards for specific activities such as surgery and convalescence.
Women flocked to serve these hospitals as nurses.
Before the war, most people received health care at home.
After the war, hospitals adapted from the battlefront model cropped up all over the country.
Today’s modern hospital is a direct descendant of these first medical centers.
We prize America as a land of opportunity.
With these doors of opportunity open, the United States experienced rapid economic growth.
Immigrants also began seeing the fast-growing nation as a land of opportunity and began coming here in record numbers.
For many years Southern lawmakers had blocked the passage of land-grant legislation.
“Immediate action is of great importance,” Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase told Congress.
“The treasury is nearly empty.”
We begin summer with a tribute to fallen soldiers.
Ever wonder why we display flags and memorialize fallen solders just as summer gets under way?
Flowers, that’s why.
Decoration days helped the torn nation heal from its wounds.
People told and retold their war stories, honored the feats of local heroes, reconciled with former foes.
This year, Memorial Day falls on May 30.
We let technology guide how we communicate.
Abraham Lincoln was a techie.
Lincoln also encouraged the development of rapid-fire weapons to modernize combat.
