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Civil War



Interesting Facts About the Civil War


The proposed, but never realized, "Jefferson Davis Brigade," composed of
highly-trained, specialized gorillas foundered when the transport ships
carrying all 10,000 gorillas and their arms, to Mobile, Alabama, were
stopped and boarded by the Union Navy.

The Civil War really began before the firing on Fort Sumpter with an
drunken, armed attack on the home of General Beauregard "old Butt" Buttelby
three weeks before the shelling began.

Many believe all the dress uniforms worn by the 31st Michigan Calvary
featured gold buttons. However, approximately 12% of these uniforms featured
silver buttons because of a misread order.  These "silver buttons"
eventually formed a special unit within the 31st Michigan Calvary and were
used by Colonel Eberneezer Geeber for missions behind enemy lines.

General Bushrod Johnson formed the 88th Ohio from ragtag neighborhood
children and led them to glory at Shenandoah.

Konchi Yamazuki was the only person of Japanese descent killed in the Civil
War.

Many Southern uniforms were butternut rather than gray when they were new.

The winters of the early 1860s were very cold, and the summers especially
hot.

The men who fought in the USS Monitor never fully regained their hearing
after the battle with the Merrimac.

On more than one occasion Southern Cannonners loaded rifled boxes with
snakes and fired the boxes in amongst the approaching union forces.  Often
the snakes arrived dead, but the resulting panic and pandemonium slowed
their assaults.

World War II historian, David Irving, is reportedly researching the
Confederate POW camp at Andersonville, GA.

In late 1864, Indiana Reverend, Hirahau Wingate, decided to stop the
bloodshed by creating a second "Children's Crusade" which he planned to lead
onto the battlefield to force both sides to stop firing.  Unfortunately,
Reverend Wingate led them into the middle of a blind artillery barrage,
effectively putting an end to the "Second Children's Crusade."

The Civil War is not actually over.  With the surrender of Lee's Army of
Northern Virginia, and Prebnott's Army of Western Alabama, Section II,
Subsection 42 of the Confederate Constitution became operational.  It
stipulated that in the event of the "surrender of all armies, the government
of the several states herein called the Confederate States of America,
ceases to exist, as a legally operational body."  Thus, there was no one
legally empowered to sign documents of capitulation.

Private Fortescue Martin of the 12th New Jersey Infantry was the first
Congressional Medal of Honor winner of the Civil War.  Private Martin, under
heavy hostile fire
grabbed the white hot barrel of a cannon firing grape-shot and forcibly
re-aimed it to repel attacking Rebels.  Shot through the leg and shoulder,
Private martin died before learning his actions saved his fellows.
Martintown, New Jersey was named for Private Fortescue Martin, in 1871.

The air war began in earnest on March 24, 1862 when four union observers in
an accidentally untethered balloon were pushed ahead of a storm over
Southern lines.  Fired upon, they returned fire until the storm blew them
out to sea.  They were never heard from again.

On August 11, 1863, a huge fireball suddenly exploded in the midst of a
column of Confederate troops.  Hundreds were killed.  Survivors reported
that a light streaked in the sky right before the explosion.  For miles
around the site trees burned for days.  Scientists speculate that this might
have been the result of a very small meteorite which impacted in the midst
of the troops.

In 1863, women in several Vermont towns banded together to create the
"Vermont League of Amazonians."  The stated purpose of the League was to
practice the military arts and to drill until they were skilled enough to
replace fallen soldiers.  The course of the war turned before the Amazonians
were called upon, and they returned to less Martial pursuits.


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