Civil War Facts

Civil War Facts

In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General and led the 533,000 men of the Union Army, the largest in the world. Three years later, he was made President of the United States.

Andersonville Prison in southwest Georgia held 33,000 prisoners in 1864. It was the fifth largest city in the Confederacy.

Alfred Thomas Archmedes Torbert held commissions in both USA and CSA armies simultaneously

General Stonewall Jackson walked around with his right hand in the air to balance the blood flow in his body. He thought that because he was right-handed his left hand didn’t get as much blood as his right. So, by raising his right hand, it would allow the excess blood to run into his left.

Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to a Lieutenant

General in the Civil War.

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The words "In God We Trust" first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864.

By the end of the war, Unionists from every state except South Carolina had sent regiments to fight for the North.

On November 9, 1863, President Lincoln attended a theater in Washington, D.C., to see The Marble Heart. In the play was an accomplished actor named John Wilkes Booth.

On May 13, 1865, a month after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana became the last man killed in the Civil War, in a battle at Palmito Ranch, Texas. The final skirmish was a Confederate victory.

Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first black man ever elected to the U.S. Senate. He filled the seat last held by Jefferson Davis.

The results of the 1860 census show a total population of a little more than 31 million, of which 13% are slaves. Slaves equal 2% of the population in the Northern Aligned States and 39% in Southern Aligned States.

One New York regiment included thirty schoolmasters

At one time or another, the Northern armies numbered 2,100,000 soldiers. The Southern armies were considerably smaller.

The chance of surviving a wound in Civil War days was 7 to 1.

About 15 percent of the wounded died in the Civil War.

George Pickett’s doomed infantry charge at Gettysburg was the first time he took his division into combat.

The diseases most prevalent during the Civil War 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.

Howitzer at Peninsula, Virginia.

This image available for photographic prints

and downloads HERE!

Besides the rifle and cannon, weapons consisted of revolvers, swords, cutlasses, hand grenades, Greek fire and land mines.

Fully armed, a soldier carried about seven pounds of ammunition, including a cartridge box with 40 rounds. If an extensive battle was anticipated, he might carry an additional 60 rounds.

The muzzle-loading rifle could be loaded at the rate of about three times a minute. Its maximum range was about 1,000 yards.

During the Battle of Antietam, 12,401 Union men were killed, missing or wounded; it was the bloodiest single day of the Civil War.

Though artillery was used extensively, only about 10 percent of the wounded were the victims of artillery fire.

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 battle of Gettysburg, 1,100 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.

During the Battle of Murfreesboro, 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.

At the Battle of First Bull Run or Manassas, between 8,000 and 10,000 bullets were fired for every man killed or wounded.

On March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term. Yards away in the crowd was John Wilkes Booth with a pistol in his pocket. His vantage point on the balcony, he said later, offered him "an excellent chance to kill the President, if I had wished."

General Stonewall Jackson never ate food that tasted good, because he assumed that anything that tasted good was completely unhealthy.

In eleven months the C.S.S. Alabama captured 69 Northern vessels valued at $6,500,000.

At Cold Harbor, Virginia, 7,000 Americans fell in 20 minutes.

Senator John J. Crittendon of Kentucky had two sons who became major generals during the Civil War: one for the North, one for the South.

During the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862, "Stonewall" Jackson marched his force of 16,000 men over 600 miles in 39 days, fighting five major battles and defeating four separate armies totaling 63,000 men.

Continued Next Page

The Battle of Cold Harbor.

This image available for photographic prints and

downloads HERE!

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Civil War & Military Photographs - From our personal Photo Print Shop, you can now order prints that provide dramatic glimpses into the Civil War and other military expeditions and battles that occurred during the days of the Old West . From battlegrounds, to generals, Indian Campaigns,the cavalry, and everything in between, you'll find it here and check back often as this varied collection grows daily.