Little Known Facts about the Civil War
What follows are a few little known facts about the Civil War era. Most
Americans think they know all about the "War between the States" simply
because they are Americans. In fact, the real story -- not the one in most
textbooks -- is crammed with little known facts. Information has been drawn
from multiple sources for this report.
Lincoln did not believe that whites and blacks could live together in peace.
He had planned to relocate the entire black population of the United States
to Central America.
Sickness accounted for a full one-third of all casualties in the Civil War.
The 12th Connecticut Regiment entered the war with a compliment of 1,000 men.
Before it entered its first engagement, sickness had reduced its strength to
600 able bodied soldiers.
There were more than 10,000 soldiers serving in the Union Army that were
under the age of 18.
Union and Confederate forces stationed at Fredericksburg during the winter of
1862 traded items by constructing small boats and floating them back and
forth across the Rappahannock river.
General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate forces, traveled with a
pet hen that laid one egg under his cot every morning.
Approximately 130,000 freed slaves became Union soldiers during the war.
The artillery barrage at the battle of Gettysburg during Pickett’s charge was
heard over 100 miles away in Pittsburgh.
The famous Confederate blockade - runner, the C.S.S. Alabama, never entered a
Confederate port during the length of her service.
The first civilian killed by the abolitionist John Brown and his cohorts at
Harper’s Ferry was a free black man.
During the Civil war a person who had been drafted could hire a substitute.
This bounty system was exploited by so called “bounty jumpers”. These men
would hire out to more than one draftee and then make a hasty exit once they
were paid. The record for bounty –jumping was held by John O’Connor. He
admitted to hiring himself out 32 times before being caught. He received a 4
year prison term.
Black soldiers were paid $10 per month while serving in the Union army. This
was $3 less than white soldiers.
Approximately 2,000 men served in the 26th North Carolina Regiment during the
course of the Civil War. With Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox courthouse,
there were only 131 men left to receive their paroles.
According to the U. S. Census, the population of the United States in 1860
numbered 31,443,321 persons. Of these, approximately 23,000,000 were in the
22 Northern states and 9,000,000 in the 11 Southern states. Of the latter
total, 3,500,000 were slaves.
At one time or another, the Northern armies numbered 2,100,000 soldiers. The
Southern armies were considerably smaller. The total dead on both sides was
about 500,000.
Of the 364,000 on the Union side who lost their lives, a third were killed or
died of wounds and two-thirds died of disease.
The chance of surviving a wound in Civil War days was 7 to 1; in the Korean
War, 50 to 1.
About 15 percent of the wounded died in the Civil War; about 8 percent in
World War I; about 4 percent in World War II; about 2 percent in the Korean War.
There were 6,000,000 cases of disease in the Federal armies, which meant that,
on an average, every man was sick at least twice.
The diseases most prevalent were dysentery, typhoid fever, malaria, pneumonia,
arthritis, and the acute diseases of childhood, such as measles, mumps, and
malnutrition.
The principal weapon of the war and the one by which 80 percent of all wounds
were produced was a single-shot, muzzle-loading rifle in the hands of foot
soldiers.
Most wounds were caused by an elongated bullet made of soft lead, about an
inch long, pointed at one end and hollowed out at the base, and called a
"minie" ball, having been invented by Capt. Minié of the French army.
Fully armed, a soldier carried about seven pounds of ammunition. His cartridge
box contained 40 rounds, and an additional 60 rounds might be conveyed in the
pocket if an extensive battle was anticipated.
The muzzle-loading rifle could be loaded at the rate of about three times a
minute. Its maximum range was about 1000 yards.
Most infantry rifles were equipped with bayonets, but very few men wounded by
bayonet showed up at hospitals. The conclusion was that the bayonet was not a
lethal weapon. The explanation probably lay in the fact that opposing soldiers
did not often actually come to grips and, when they did, were prone to use
their rifles as clubs.
Artillery was used extensively, but only about 10 percent of the wounded were
the victims of artillery fire.
Besides the rifle and cannon, weapons consisted of revolvers, swords,
cutlasses, hand grenades, Greek fire and land mines.
Many doctors who saw service in the Civil War had never been to medical
school, but had served an apprenticeship in the office of an established
practitioner.
In the Peninsular campaign in the spring of 1862, as many as 5000 wounded
were brought into a hospital where there were only one medical man and five
hospital stewards to care for them.
The first organized ambulance corps were used in the Peninsular campaign and
at Antietam.
In the battle of Gettysburg, 1100 ambulances were in use. The medical director
of the Union army boasted that all the wounded were picked up from the field
within 12 hours after the battle was over. This was a far cry from the second
battle of Bull Run, when many of the wounded were left on the field in the
rain, heat, and sun for three or four days.
Eighty percent of all wounds during the Civil War were in the extremities.
The first U. S. Naval hospital ship, the Red Rover, was used on the inland
waters during the Vicksburg campaign.
Some authorities accredit the 26th North Carolina Regiment with having
incurred the greatest loss in a single battle recorded in the Civil War. At
the Battle of Gettysburg, it lost 708 of its men, or approximately 85 percent
of its total strength. In one company of 84 men, every man and officer was
hit. The orderly sergeant who made out the report had a bullet wound through
both legs.
During the Battle of Murfreesboro (Stone's River), the Union artillery fired
20,307 rounds and the infantry exhausted over 2,000,000 rounds. The total
weight of the projectiles fired was in excess of 375,000 pounds.
Approximately 6000 battles, skirmishes, and engagements were fought during
the Civil War.
Did you know that in the Civil War, General Stonewall Jackson walked around
with his right hand in the air to balance the blood in his body? Because he
was right-handed, he thought that his right hand was getting more blood than
his left, and so by raising his hand, he’d allow the excess blood to run into
his left hand. He also never ate food that tasted good, because he assumed
that anything that tasted good was completely unhealthy.
During the Civil War, glasses with colored lenses were used to treat
disorders and illnesses. Yellow-trimmed glasses were used to treat syphilis,
blue for insanity, and pink for depression. Thus we get the term, To see the
world through rose-colored glasses.
Centuries before and decades after the Civil War, including the war itself,
doorways were wide, not because of the width of women’s skirts, but so
coffins could be passed through, with a pallbearer on either side.
Did you know that the average American in the 1860’s could not afford to
paint his house, and a painted house was a sign of affluence? In order to
keep up appearances, they used cedar clapboards.
Did you know that when a woman mourned for her husband in the 1860’s, she
spent a minimum of two-and-a-half years in mourning? That meant little or no
social activities: no parties, no outings, no visitors, and a wardrobe that
consisted of nothing but black. (Shame on Scarlet O’Hara) The husband, when
mourning for his wife, however, spent three months in a black suit.
Surgeons never washed their hands after an operation, because all of the blood
was assumed to be the same.
Did you know that during the Victorian era, the dead were either laid out in
their parlors, or, as the Southerners preferred, in their bedrooms? There was
no such thing as a funeral home; death was a part of life, and the dead
remained in the house up until they were buried. The tradition of flowers
around the coffin comes from the Victorians trying to hide the scent of the
deceased.
Did you know that when a child died, parents would have a photograph taken of
the child? They wanted to preserve the memory for as long as possible. A lot
of photographs taken of sleeping children are actually of deceased sons or
daughters.
After the Battle of Gettysburg, the discarded rifles were collected and sent
to Washington to be inspected and reissued. Of the 37,574 rifles recovered,
approximately 24,000 were still loaded; 6,000 had one round in the barrel;
12,000 had two rounds in the barrel; 6,000 had three to ten rounds in the
barrel. One rifle, the most remarkable of all, had been stuffed to the top
with twenty-three rounds in the barrel.
Did you know that President Lincoln had a mild form smallpox (varioloid)
while he gave the Gettysburg Address. On the train back to Washington he
quipped, “Now I have something that I can give everybody.”
Did you know that President Lincoln’s favorite tune was “Dixie”?
The Civil War was also known as The Brothers’ War, the War for the Union and
the War of the Rebellion.
General Nathan Bedford Forrest, CSA, had twenty-nine horses shot from beneath
him during the war years.
One of the most popular questions park rangers get when giving tours around
Civil War battlefields is: “Did the soldiers have to fight around all of
these monuments?” They could only smile and say yes: They knew exactly were
to die.
Did you know that during the Civil War, including the times before and after,
it was legal and socially acceptable for a man to beat his wife, provided
that the instrument used in the beating was no thicker that his thumb? Thus
we get the term: Rule of thumb.
Did you know that during the Battle of Gettysburg, pennsylvania, the only
civilian to die was twenty-year-old Mary Virginia "Jennie" Wade, who was shot
through the heart while making bread?
Did you know that not all battles of the Civil War were fought in the South?
The Confederates actually managed to sneak all the way up to Vermont to fight,
via Canada.
Did you know that germs were unheard of during the Civil War, and men would
drink out of water that thirty yards upstream, a man relieved himself in?
Did you know that during the Civil War, muzelloading rifles were preferred
over the faster firing breachloaders? The breachloading rifle was invented in
1803 and had been issued by the army in 1825. They were discontinued and all
government research stopped in 1840, however, because it was thought that the
soldiers would waste ammunition.
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