Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

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Union army destroyed historic church in Murfreesboro
During the occupation of Murfreesboro, few things angered local residents more than the destruction of First Presbyterian Church and the "desecration" of the City Cemetery by Union troops. The church site and the Old City Cemetery got a spot on the Tennessee Preservation Trust's "Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites" for 2008. During the winter of 1863-1864 Union troops altogether destroyed the building. Wooden fixtures were used for firewood and the brick was converted into ovens and fireplaces for campgrounds. There was nothing left of the structure by March 1864.
by murfreesboropost :: 2008-06-09 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Religion in the Civil War - A new study by Bill Anderson
"Last night I slept very little... because I had great anxiety about the battle which the morning would bring with it. I prayed much of the night... Did he hear?' Wrote General Marsena Patrick on Sept. 19, 1862 in a Union Army camp near the Potomac River. To Bill Anderson they are the clearest path to understanding the Civil War soldier. "You like to work with the primary sources. ... The soldiers are writing privately - there was no censorship during the Civil War - and they are telling exactly how they feel." Over his career, Anderson has read over 25,000 letters, extracting material.
by theapostolicreport :: 2008-04-29 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Causes Won, Lost & Forgotten - American Civil War in pop culture
Gary W. Gallagher is one of the foremost historians of the American Civil War. Often his concern is not so much what took place in the past but what we think we remember about it. This concern moves to the focus in "Causes Won, Lost & Forgotten", an analysis of pop culture images of the Civil War. The conclusion: The South hasn't quite risen again, but the North is doing really badly. The Vietnam War nearly expelled the Civil War from the American radar. In 1969, the publishers of Civil War Times Illustrated nearly shut the magazine down, since they feared there was no longer a market for it.
by starnewsonline :: 2008-04-12 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

"L. Virginia French's War Journal" gives a glimpse into Civil War days
Anyone who's interested in Civil War history will find something entertaining in L. Virginia French's War Journal, published by Jerry Smith of the Blockade Runner sutlery in Wartrace. It takes the reader through an detailed account of civilian life in 1862-1865 McMinnville through the eyes of L. Virginia French. French's account of the time period has been called one of the best Civil War journals to come to light in this century. Smith, the owner of one of the largest Civil War uniform and accouterment reproduction companies in the country, discovered a typed copy of a large portion of French's journal 7 years ago.
by t-g :: 2008-02-20 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Ordinance from 1865: still dangerous
Article no longer available from the original source.
Explosives can be found all over the U.S. and are usually found on battlefields. The majority of these bombs contain black powder and are dangerous, said a Marine with Explosive Ordinance Disposal, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. "People don't realize their souvenirs are fully loaded bombs," said William D. Whitlock. The Civil War artifact was kept on show at a school house in Selma, N.C. for 50 years until the school was demolished. A lady who worked on the school board remembered it and retrieved it when the building was destructed. She then donated it to a museum where they learned it was full of black powder.
by marines :: 2008-01-20 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Fort Churchill, the birthplace of cavalry: Saddled with a myth?
From the American Revolution through the War of 1812, the Regular Army included small mounted units, called "light dragoons." Dragoons were mounted troops who fought dismounted; in the American experience, however, dragoons were cavalrymen. In 1833, Congress created the Regiment of Dragoons, renamed the First Regiment of Dragoons in 1836 when the Second Regiment of Dragoons was organized. The Third Dragoons existed only during the Mexican War. The Regiment of Mounted Riflemen came into being in 1846, and at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Regular Army had 5 horse regiments.
by rgj :: 2007-11-13

Historians Examine Amish, Mennonite Response to Civil War
James O. Lehman and Steven M. Nolt, two experts in Anabaptist studies, have collaborated on the first scholarly examination of pacifism during the American Civil War. "Mennonites, Amish and the American Civil War," describes the strategies used by the sectarian religious groups in responding to the North-South conflict and the effects of war on these communities. Integrating the most recent Civil War scholarship with little-known primary sources and new information, they provide a definitive account of the Anabaptist experience during the bloodiest war in American history.
by emu :: 2007-11-01

How a coffee played a role in American Civil War
Even in the midst of the Civil War, there was one thing the North and South shared: an addiction to caffeine. In that respect, the Union had an advantage. Not only did the North have over 2/3 of the population and control most of the heavy industry in the country, it hoarded supplies of the addictive little bean, leaving the Confederacy to wage its own war against java deprivation. Union troops loved their coffee because it was the best thing on the menu: Union supply chains were riddled with corrupt food contractors, but coffee was fresh because it was delivered in whole-bean form - making it difficult for even the most dishonest supplier to skimp on quality.
by cnn :: 2007-10-30 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

The Great Hanging - The largest mass lynching in American history
For 145 years Gainesville has tried to forget the Great Hanging - the largest mass lynching in American history. Now it is remembering those 14 deaths plus 28 other men executed amid the tension of the American Civil War. A city park filled with 42 crosses was dedicated to remember the 1862 deaths. Most were hanged as Union sympathizers. 14 were hunted down and lynched outright by a renegade mob angered by anti-war dissent. The lynchings are among the most shameful abuses in the Confederate States, yet they are rarely taught in history lessons. "People have kept this a well-guarded secret. Some people here wanted it to stay secret."
by civilwarlibrarian :: 2007-10-23 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Civil War aeronauts: Up, up and away in their dutiful balloons
On an airfield just west of Midland, Texas, sits a collection of vintage military aircraft. A sign at the gate states "The Confederate Air Force." And while most visitors to the place are aware of the anachronistic nature of that sign, not many know that the Union Army actually did have an air force: Aeronautical Corps, aka the Balloon Corps. Organized at the outset of hostilities and serving only the first 2 years of warfare the Yankees' Balloon Corps introduced aerial reconnaissance. The Union aeronauts were successful in spying about enemy forces, and in directing artillery fire. Most of the credit for establishing the Aeronautical Corps is due Thaddeus Lowe.
by jg-tc :: 2007-08-19 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Wild Bill Hickok, Man Into Myth: An Interview with Jeff Morey
Legendary hero of the West, Wild Bill Hickok, was shot dead in Deadwood on August 2, 1876. Jeff Morey is one of the leading experts on him. In fact, Morey is one of the leading researchers on the American frontier in general. He was historical adviser for the movie Tombstone and appeared as a commentator in the History Channel's Tales of The Gun series and its biography of Doc Holliday. --- Wild Bill Hickok follows heroic earlier frontiersmen such as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Kit Carson. But those men had real historical import, whereas it's hard to find historical reasons for Wild Bill's legend. How did he become a household name?
by americanheritage :: 2007-08-03 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Furniture raids by Union Soldiers in the Civil War
In 1863, Union invasion forces under General Nathaniel Banks began to move up the coast, capturing Confederate forts on the islands, intent on closing bays to blockade runners. The Union army moved on to capture Fort Esperanza, the Confederate bastion on Matagorda Island, and left behind the 20th Iowa to hold Mustang Island. The winter of 1863 was a cold one, so the soldiers dismantled the doors and walls for planks and tote off furniture from the houses of the Confederates. The regimental historian of the 20th Iowa wrote that the men built quarters and furnished them with comfort, even luxury.
by caller :: 2007-07-28 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Moor hunted down father's killer after the Civil War
Les Hornbuckle and Geraldine Locke are preparing to write a book of the Moore family of Morgan County. They found a box of American Civil War era letters that will be the center of the book. --- Sometime shortly after the Civil War, a teenage Alabama boy Joseph Moor went west looking for his father's killer. He spent 4 years riding the cattle trails of Texas before finding Jeff Darter, the man he believed ambushed his aging father in 1864. In the middle of the night, Moor cut Darter's throat, got on his horse and rode back to Alabama. Moor never told about his actions until he was on his deathbed in 1937.
by highbeam.com :: 2007-06-03 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Poor marksmenship of Union's troops created NRA
When the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) was formed in 1871, few realized that it would become the all-powerful organization. 136 years ago 15 NY National Guard officials met to form "an Association ... to promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis." All were veterans of the Civil War and thought it necessary to correct the widespread poor marksmenship among the Union's city bred troops. "The main aim of the Association is the encouragement of rifle practice throughout this state and the US," it declared. This led to the construction of the "best rifle range in the world" a few miles from the scene of an 1813 Battle of Lake Erie.
by fwdailynews :: 2007-05-29 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Civilians and Soldiers in America's Civil War
The Civil War changed the life of nearly every American. More than 620,000 soldiers and civilians died, 2% of the nation's population in 1860. In A People at War, Scott Nelson and Carol Sheriff examine the day-to-day realities of the Civil War as Americans experienced them. A work of synthesis, the book "stitches together" the findings, adding some "historical scraps to the patchwork" from diaries, letters and newspapers. They show how "striking deficiencies in medical knowledge and technology" produced Civil War killing fields. With ambulances scarce, some soldiers spend days where they had fallen in battle, chewing off fingers to cope with the pain.
by baltimoresun :: 2007-05-18 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Group has hard time finding Confederate flag cake for celebration
Connie Ansley didn't want to wave a Confederate flag, she wanted to eat one - And that just takes the cake. Ansley, a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, wanted to buy a cake decorated with a Confederate flag for the opening of Confederate Memorial Park museum. She drove all over looking for one and found out that Rebel pastries aren't that easy to come by. Costco and Wal-Mart refused to decorate a cake with the Confederate battle flag. So Ansley went to a Publix Grocery, where an employee agreed to make the cake. When Ansley returned to pick it up, she was told by a manager that the bakery never again would make such a cake.
by jacksonville :: 2007-05-03 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Federal raids to disrupt Rebel supply lines - Birney's Raid
Bits of rusting metal machines have long been a curiosity on the edge of the fresh-water spring at DeLeon Springs State Park. In late April 1864, machinery here drew destruction as the area's most productive plantation lay in ruins. The federal invasion of Confederate territory is called Birney's Raid after General William Birney. Fighting wasn't the goal, there were no enemy units. "Birney's Raid was the last major attempt of Union forces to redeem themselves" for the February defeat at Olustee. Federals wanted to destroy supply sources like John Starke's Spring Garden Plantation. Riverboats were captured and destroyed, slaves liberated and a few Rebels nabbed.
by treasurenet :: 2007-04-29 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Civil War Infantry School Coming To Fort Ontario
Article no longer available from the original source.
Fort Ontario State Historic Site will host a Civil War Infantry School, April 21. Participants will work on mastering Hardee's 1862 "School of the Soldier," including the manual of arms, loading and firing by the numbers, by rank, by file, kneeling, standing, and lying down. The troops will practice marching, wheeling, and flanking movements, followed by a lecture on the 7th Rhode Island Infantry during the Civil War, and company skirmish drill. The public is invited to observe the interpretive activities and tour the fort. Each re-enactor is an expert on the individual soldier's role during the Civil War, and is eager to share his or her knowledge.
by pall-times :: 2007-04-13 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

History of Welsh involvement in the American Civil War
The history of Welsh involvement in the American Civil War and a key 19th-century gold rush has been chronicled on a new website. While thousands of Welshmen took up arms during the 1861-1865 conflict, only about a dozen fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy according to the Welsh American Index, a website aimed at genealogists and historians. It contains obituaries for, and letters by, more than 1,000 Welsh Americans in the 1860s. Also included are details of Welsh people who were attracted by the gold rush to British Columbia. When the Civil War began, more than 90% of the US's Welsh immigrants lived in the north east.
by icnetwork :: 2007-04-11 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Civil War Terms
Left vs. right: Think of yourself facing someone and extending your right arm for a handshake. The other person has to reach across his or her own body to shake with a right hand. Your left hand is opposite that person's right. And so it was with armies during the Civil War. When they aligned across a battlefield, the left of an army faced the right wing of their opponent. Enfilade: Gunfire directed from a flanking position along the length of an enemy battle line. Enfilade fire was effective with artillery. Canister could be used to take out whole sections of advancing infantry. Regiment: military unit composed of 10 companies and led by a colonel.
by murfreesboropost :: 2007-02-05 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Researchers authenticate a message from history
Mrs. Michelson was cleaning out a drawer when she found an 8-inch-by-4-inch piece of wood that appeared to have been inscribed by a local man who served in the Civil War. The wood was taken from a carriage house that was razed several years ago. It was inscribed with the following: "James Muzzey, 2nd Company, 4th Regiment, War of Rebellion 1861 to 1864." With the help of Thomas Dolan, Mrs. Michelson has authenticated that the piece had indeed been inscribed by a Civil War veteran. Historians said it was common practice to mark their involvement in the Civil War by inscribing their service record in some fashion upon the structure of their homes.
by telegram :: 2007-01-25 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

The oldest intact Civil War monument - Battle of Stones River sites
Here are top sites of the Battle of Stones River. (1) The Round Forest (Hell's Half Acre). The Round Forest was a crucial position for the Federal Army of the Cumberland. Poised between the Nashville Pike and the Stones River, the forest anchored the left of the Union line. Col. William B. Hazen's Brigade was assigned this crucial sector. (2) Hazen's Monument: erected in 1863 by the survivors of Colonel William B. Hazen's brigade is the nation's oldest intact Civil War memorial. An engraving on the monument says: "The Veterans Of Shiloh Have Left A Deathless Heritage Of Fame Upon The Field Of Stone River."
by murfreesboropost :: 2007-01-08 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Researcher of Civil War finds conflicting data
Terrell T. Garren spent thousands of hours during the past 5 years searching and counting in libraries and archives. He counted and read military records on both Union and Confederate soldiers. He counted by county, by regiment, by place of birth. He counted those killed, wounded and in prisons. After hours reading hundreds of books, letters and reports and consulting with historians, he found that the reports of Unionism during the Civil War in western North Carolina are overstated. "All together, I spent thousands of hours on this work. It took about five years. I read 27,000 individual Confederate records twice. I read thousands of Union records."
by wilmingtonstar :: 2006-12-29 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Yankee gang steals Confederate train and the First Medal of Honor
Russell S. Bonds has written a thick book about an incident on April 12, 1862, that could have changed the course of the Civil War. Much of the book is speculative history, but the first-rate research makes it worthwhile. James Andrews appointed himself an undercover agent on behalf of the Union military, with a hope that he could undermine the Confederate armies with a daring operation behind enemy lines. And Lincoln's secretary of war, who created the Medal of Honor, awarded it to some members of the Andrews group. The historiography that Bonds demonstratesis is often as fascinating as the Civil War combat and strategy revelations.
by charlotte :: 2006-12-11 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Shame of the Yankees - The worst act in American history
This year, the second day of Chanukah will coincide with the 144th anniversary of the worst act of anti-Semitism in American history. On Dec 17, 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, Union general Ulysses S. Grant issued his "General Order # 11," expelling all Jews "as a class" from his conquered territories within 24 hours. Henry Halleck, the Union general-in-chief, wired Grant in support of his action, saying that neither he nor Lincoln were opposed "to your expelling traitors and Jew peddlers."
by freerepublic :: 2006-11-17 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

GAR - The Grand Army of the Republic
Almost a year after Civil War General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House in 1865, a group of veterans gathered in Decatur, Ill. As a result of that meeting came the idea of the GAR. Originally a fraternal organization, it also developed into a lobbying force, influencing the political agenda throughout the next five decades. The GAR consisted only of Civil War veterans, just as the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion do today for veterans of conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries.
by rutlandherald :: 2006-11-13 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

John Hunt Morgan's raiders romantic but ruthless in waging war
There was a lot of glamour associated with the legend of John Hunt Morgan, but there also was a lot of "harsh, gritty reality to it as well." Morgan, then a colonel, was ordered to leave middle Tennessee and to join General Kirby Smith's forces in the Bluegrass. Smith, facing troop buildups along his front and concerned about Union division of 8,000 at his rear, ordered Morgan to lead a force of 800 men to intercept. The Confederate colonel get at Proctor first and burned the steam flourmill so that when the hungry Union soldiers reached the river they found the much-needed source of food in ruins.
by winchestersun :: 2006-10-19 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Footnote in America's war with Mexico: raid on Rancho Penasquitos
On a December day in 1846, a group of battle-weary U.S. soldiers raided a Mexican ranch house in their retreat to San Diego. It was a footnote in America's war with Mexico 1846-1848, which is largely overlooked in the U.S. history. More than 12,000 Americans died, and Mexico lost nearly half its territory. The raid on Rancho Penasquitos by U.S. soldiers followed one of the bloodiest battles in the war: General Stephen Watts Kearny believed the California territory was under U.S. control, so he left all but 100 of his troops behind and crossed the Mojave Desert to confront the militia - who overtook them using guns and 16-foot lances.
by nctimes :: 2006-09-25 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Trekking around Texas with camels
For some 8 years now, Doug Baum and his camels have led folks on treks replicating a mid-1800s experiment to introduce the animals to Texas. "I came up with the camel trek idea. I've always been interested in culture and history." Historically Camels first were brought to Texas in 1856 at the urging of Jefferson Davis, the future Confederate president who was the U.S. secretary of war at the time. Davis was familiar with the desert Southwest and the animals were assigned to Army troops. During the Civil War some camels were captured by confederate forces. After the Civil War, the animals, never a favorite of the troops, were sold off.
by ap :: 2006-09-20 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Why British don't remember their Civil War and Americans Do
In 1998 I visited Gettysburg. The American Civil War had long fascinated me by its resonances with the more distant conflict on which I worked. The Battlefield Park was astonishing. There was not one single monument, but hundreds to individual regiments. -- To commemorate a war, someone has to want to keep its memory alive. The American Civil War was followed by a determination to remember the fallen and the moments of military glory. Both sides evolved a clear if oversimplified sense of what the war had been about, and turned that sense into monuments. In the English Civil War people's sense of what the war was about changed during the war itself.
by hnn :: 2006-08-15 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Behind enemy lines to steal a Confederate train
William Pittenger, one of the first six soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor, is buried in a Fallbrook cemetery. In 1862 he and other Union soldiers went behind enemy lines to steal a Confederate train. The stolen train ran out of fuel, and the soldiers were captured - 8 were hanged. Pittenger became prisoners of war. Edwin Stanton and President Abraham Lincoln presented the Medal of Honor to Pittenger and his comrades in 1863. Wayman gave Arnold custody of a sword. The sword and other Pittenger memorabilia will go on display. As for Pittenger's medal, it was sold after being given to a relative, and its whereabouts are unknown.
by signonsandiego :: 2006-05-04 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

Pockets of Northern sentiment even in the Deep South
Civil War maps can sometimes be misleading. A typical map will usually show the Confederate states solid gray, and the Union states all blue. In reality, there were pockets of Northern sentiment even in the Deep South, and secessionist groups in the North. One of the larger secessionist movements flared into view in southern Illinois, a free state. The "South" of Illinois was centered around the strategic town of Cairo (pronounced there as Cay-roe), along the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The area was often nicknamed Egypt. It had always been more pro-Southern, as well as poorer, than the rest of the state.
by washingtontimes :: 2006-04-22 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

50 Chinese Soldiers Fought in U.S. Civil War
Those were the days of sailing ships augmented by steam power and China was as remote from the Eastern United States as it was possible to be. Still, Chinese Americans found their way to the East Coast, and researchers claim that as many as 50 Chinese fought as soldiers during the American Civil War. The number does not include the Chinese who served in the U.S. Navy. The soldiers fought on both sides. Chinese soldier of the Union participated in the most famous battle of the Civil War: the three-day Battle of Gettysburg. Pvt. Joseph L. Pierce enlisted in the 14th Connecticut Infantry in August 1862.
by def-ink :: 2001-08-17 :: Facts: Strange and Rare - American Civil War

American Civil War in the News is a edited review of American Civil War related news and articles, providing collection of hand-picked 1861-1865 era history.