The American civil war is noted for its brutality - both one of the first instances of large-scale industrial warfare, as well as weapons that had developed far quicker than military tactics.
Since the Franco-Prussian war shortly followed the civil war, are they comparable in this regard? A quick look at deaths suggests that it might be, but I haven't read much about the war, and I certainly haven't read anything about any elements of "total war" like Sherman employed.
Was there a difference in European culture and militaries, or was it an especially brutish conflict like the US civil war?
Elos_ has a great post dissecting the different conflicts of the mid-Nineteenth century and seeing how they compare. Check it out:
No, the U.S. Civil War was a long and drawn out slog between two powerful states. They used the same technology and tactics, and was total war, ending up as just a battle between economies really. The Franco-Prussian War was different. When people say the U.S. Civil War is the first modern war, I tend to disagree as the tactics were same from before (mostly), I would say the the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 was (just picture a quicker version of the Franco-Prussian War against Austria 3 years earlier, same story really). This is because the Prussian tactics relied heavily on mobility, with emphasis on things like the train to get troops to and from the battlefield very quickly. They employed manoeuvre warfare as opposed to total warfare. That and the Prussians had the Dreyse Needle Gun which allowed quick accurate fire that could be reloaded while lying down, while the French, still using the Minié ball, had to load standing up and stood in formation, making pretty much every contact a whitewash. Just picture it, they had reasonably accurate weapons, considering the standard of weapons in previous decades, but the French had to fire at hidden skirmish lines of prone men, while the Prussians were up against big blocks of men in the open, and could fire faster. The Franco-Prussian War was a quick, decisive war between two mismatched opponents, while the U.S. Civil War was a long match of stamina where the economic size was the main factor, not tactics or rifles.
Sorry if this is hard to follow, it's late, I'm tired and I'm on mobile so...ya know...excuses and all that shit