civilwarfunfacts.com

We make every attempt to provide accurate information. If you find an error in the information, please bring it to our attention, by contacting us at mark@civilwarfunfacts.com. All the information were provide comes from the sources listed in the Bibliography page. Remember, different authors can view the same event in different ways. If you have a different take on an items, let us know that also.

148 years ago today:

July 3, 1861
Gen Robert Patterson’s troops march to Martinsburg VA forcing Gen Joseph Johnson’s Confederate troops to retreat.

Added June 29, 2009

Gen PGT Beauregard designed the familiar Confederate flag of 13 start in a blue X on a red background. At the start of the war the confederate flag was called the stars and bars, and looked very much like the union flag. In battle it was difficult to distinguish the two, and led to confusion.

African Americans died at the rate of two times that of whites. They wore ragged clothes, were made to do hard work, and many white doctors did not want to treat them

At General Lee's surrender, he was in a clean uniform and shiny boots. General Grant was in a rumpled uniform with muddy boots. An extreme contrast.

President Lincoln said that he went to school by the “littles”. He went a little while at ages 6, 7, 11, 13, &15. The total of all the days he attended a formal school was less than one year.

Average age of the Union soldiers was 26. 127 were age 13, 2366 of the soldiers were older than 50.

There were more than 2000 shipwrecks in the Civil War

On August 8, 1861, the US Congress enacted the first income tax on income greater than $800

In 1861 9 out of 10 blockade runners got past the union blockade. By 1864 2 out of 3 got past., and by the end of the war 1 out of 2. Blockade runners made millions in profits.

Paul Revere's grandson, Paul Joseph Revere, was killed at Gettysburg.

Added June 1, 2009

About 4000 cannon shells were fired at Ft Sumter

Both sides were reluctant to let African American into battle. The north felt that if captured, the would be treated especially bad. The south felt that if African Americans were given guns, the would turn on the other soldiers;

At General Lee's surrender, he was in a clean uniform and shiny boots. General Grant was in a rumpled uniform with muddy boots. An extreme contrast.

Abraham Lincoln highlights:
    1809 Born in Kentucky February 12
    1816 Moved to Indiana
    1830 Moved to Illinois
    1842 Married Mary Todd
    1861 Became President March, 4
    1865 Died in Washington DC April 15

Abraham Lincoln left the White House for a total of 42 days to visit the Army of the Potomac

Abraham Lincoln was never a formal member of any church.

The image of President Lincoln is in 5 stained glass windows, in 5 different churches. Three with the Emancipation Proclamation as the subject- Plymouth Church, Brooklyn ; St Stanislaus, Scranton; the Catholic Cathedral, Springfield IL. One at Foundry Methodist Church, Washington DC. One Central Woodward Christian Church, Detroit.

At one time, Abraham Lincoln work on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on a flatboat.

President Lincoln said that he went to school by the “littles”. He went a little while at ages 6, 7, 11, 13, &15. The total of all the days he attended a formal school was less than one year.

In President Lincoln's first inaugural address, he said that he would support an amendment that would prevent the federal government from interfering with slavery. That would have been the 13th amendment to the constitution. The actual 13th amendment, prohibited slavery.

Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson were opposed to slavery.

Added May 18, 2009

The first all black regiment in the war was The 1^st Lousiana Native Guards. It was

established in September 1862.

The Confederacy won the last battle of the Civil war on May 13, 1865 at Palmito

Ranch in Texas

Plusses and Minuses of the two sides:

The south had 7,000,000 people at the start of the war. The north had 22,000,000.

The north had more factories to make guns and ammunition, and more railroads.

Most of the fighting took place in the south, and the north did not know the area,

The southerners were hunters and used to handling rifles.

The home of Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the famous Civil War camp song

"Lorena" and the popular hymn "The Sweet By and By" is in Elkhorn Wisconsin, and

now the Webster House Museum.