I would say that these ideas most likely appealed to so many people because t<span>hey promised a way for people to end worldly suffering. People were sick of seeing other people, including themselves, suffer every single day in this rotten world, which is why they wanted to seek help somehow. They managed to find it in Buddhism, which recommended walking down the rightful path in order to end suffering and pain.
During the Civil War, the country was divided between the North (Union States) and the South (Confederate States). The division began long before the onset of the war in 1861.
