Interesting History - Little Known Facts About The Civil War

By: Mark Bowman

1. When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation he
wasn't actually freeing ALL the slaves, he was only freeing the
slaves in the rebellious states. It's interesting that he chose
to free the slaves in those states that he had the least power
to do so. It did however serve a political purpose by adding a
moral component to the Union cause and also allowed blacks to
join the Union Army and Navy. By the end of the war as many as
200,000 blacks had fought for the Union.

2. Union General Major General Lovell H. Rousseau once rounded
up leading citizens during the Union occupation of Huntsville
Alabama and each day placed one of them on the Union trains
traveling in and out of the city to discourage Confederates from
indiscriminately firing into the trains.

3. By the end of the war, Federal funds had paid for an
estimated 840,000 horses and more than 430,000 mules.
Confederates officers and mounted troopers were required to
provide their own horses although they were reimbursed at a
daily rate of forty cents. If the horse was killed, he was
required to find a new one or he might be transferred to
infantry service.

4. During the American Civil War, more men died from disease
than died from actual combat. Exact numbers are hard to come by
especially on the Confederate side since many of the records
were lost or destroyed. Estimates, however, put the total number
of Civil War deaths at over 600,000 for both sides combined. Of
that number, just over 200,000 were from combat and the rest
were from disease and other causes.

5. It was not a forgone conclusion that Robert E. Lee would
command the Confederate States Army. In many ways he sympathized
with the North. He considered slavery wrong and supported the
preservation of the Union, yet he turned down Lincoln's offer to
command Union forces. In the end, his loyalty to his state of
Virginia was stronger than his loyalty to the Union.

6. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln invited Grant and his wife to join
he and Mrs. Lincoln in Washington. Mrs. Grant didn't have
particularly warm feelings towards Mrs. Lincoln so they declined
the offer. Had they gone to Washington, they likely would have
been there that night when Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's
Theatre.

7. President Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln was once saved
from falling under a train by famous actor Edwin Booth. A few
months later, Edwin Booth's brother John Wilks Booth would
assassinate President Lincoln.

8. The first fatality in the Civil War was an accident. After
two days of shelling by the Confederates on Fort Sumter causing
heavy damage and many fires, there were still no fatalities.
After running short on supplies, Union Maj. Robert Anderson
agreed to surrender the fort, one of the stipulations being that
they be allowed to salute the flag as they took it down. The
next day, during the 100 gun salute, a smoldering piece of
cartridge landed on a pile of new cartridges causing an
explosion that killed Pvt. Daniel Hough and fatally injured
another.

9. Ulysses S. Grant's wife Julia Grant was once taken prisoner
by the Confederates. Julia and their youngest son Jesse often
traveled with Ulysses and stayed in his camps so he could have
"good home-cooked food". In December of 1862, Julia was captured
by Confederate troops under the command of Confederate Brig.
Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. This is believed to be the only
wife of a Union General to be taken prisoner. When her identity
was discovered, Forrest had her released immediately.

10. The first submarine to sink an enemy ship was the H.L.
Hunley. On February 17, 1864, the Confederate submarine, with a
crew of 8 including Confederate Lt. George Dixon, set off into
the Charleston Harbor to sink the Union ship U.S.S. Housatonic.
The sub was man powered by hand cranks attached to the propeller
shaft. They were successful in attaching an explosive to the
U.S.S. Housatonic and detonating it, sending the ship to the
bottom, however, before it could return to port, the H.L. Hunley
sank to the bottom also killing its entire crew.

Article Source: http://collectibles-articles.com

Mark Bowman is a history enthusiast and author of the Interesting History web site. If you found this article interesting, please visit www.interestinghistory. info

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