I know they were used in history by the Roman's and such, even in the movies Gladiator and The Eagle you can see them used.
It seems like the end of the CW set up the battlefield for WW1 strategy
The south had some great generals, hard to say they were the best in the world or not. I'm not super familiar with European conflicts in the 1800s if they didn't involve the US or the Zulu.
Saw this fun post on Twitter today and the comments are on fire. Curious what you all think about either the US (Union) and the Confederate military if they went up against the top European countries of the same time.