re: Verdun, February 21, 1916. How long could you stand the bombardment of a million shells?

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Foreign observers did a piss poor job of conveying the sights and sounds of the Overland Campaign of May-June 1864 to their superiors on the general staffs of the various European countries. Those late American Civil War battles between Grant and Lee were a definite sign of things to come.

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I think quite the opposite, as the European war observers and strategists were making attempts at adapting with later wars. The Franco-Prussian war (1870) was the war that marked the change from muzzle loading to breech loading both rifles and artillery. The next large engagement shaping WW1 tactic was 2nd Boer War (1899-1902). The results from Boer War experience caused tactics revolution in most major European powers. Due to those previous two I mentioned, when the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) came about, most world military powers were eager to study modern war while being on the sideline. The Russo-Japanese war strangely had neutral (at the time) western powers observing from both the Russian and Japanese side. Their sole purpose was to study modern war, and they did, with many reports created. Lessons from Russo-Japanese were never, or incorrectly, used in WW1. I think it was the most foreshadowing the World would see leading into war.

The Russo-Japanese War is very intriguing as I was never taught about this in school other than small snippet on Teddy Roosevelt and Nobel Peace Prize. Another interesting side bar is that the Russo-Japanese War and peace treaty, was the start of anti-American sentiment in Japan. Stop me if you've heard this as a reason for war, but Japan felt the United States swindled them into an unfair peace treaty.