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Perhaps your history teachers failed to alert you to these Civil War facts: Jefferson Davis nearly got mugged by an angry female mob; Abraham Lincoln loved the Confederate anthem "Dixie," and Paul Revere was a Civil War casualty.
Perhaps your history teachers failed to alert you to these Civil War facts: Jefferson Davis nearly got mugged by an angry female mob; Abraham Lincoln loved the Confederate anthem "Dixie," and Paul Revere was a Civil War casualty.
7. The armies weren't all-male
Hundreds of women on both sides pulled a Mulan, assuming male identities and appearances so that they might fight for their respective nations.
Some of them did it for adventure, but many did it for monetary reasons: the pay for a male soldier was about $13 month, which was close to double what a woman could make in any profession at the time.
Also, being a man gave someone a lot more freedoms than just being able to wear pants. Remember, this was still more than half a century away from women's suffrage and being a man meant that you could manage your monthly $13 wages independently.
So it should come as no surprise that many of these women kept up their aliases long after the war had ended, some even to the grave.
Their presence in soldiers' ranks wasn't the best-kept secret. Some servicewomen kept up correspondence with the home front after they changed their identities, and for decades after the war newspapers ran article after article chronicling the stories of woman soldiers, and speculating on why they might break from the accepted gender norms.
Perhaps not surprisingly, in 1909 the U.S. Army denied that "any woman was ever enlisted in the military service of the United States as a member of any organization of the Regular or Volunteer Army at any time during the period of the civil war."
The day after the Surrender at Appomattox, Lincoln told a crowd of Northern revelers, "I have always thought 'Dixie' was one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it."
He then asked a nearby band to play it in celebration.
It is a damn fine tune, and I'm always worried about accidentally whistling or humming it where inappropriate. I like Lincoln's take.
I know women disguised themselves as men and served as soldiers during the war, one of the most famous cases was an Illinoisan who fought in The Army of the Tennessee (Federal) and was described by her comrades (in handsight) as being very handy mending clothing and always ready to help a comrade who needed mending done. As I recall she lived as a man her whole life and wasn't discovered to be a woman until on her deathbed.
But I wonder what's the source for claiming "hundreds" of women did that. Sounds like BS to me.
Some other little known Civil War facts that your teachers probably overlooked:
Jefferson Davis, in addition to his other qualities, was an extremely agile acrobat and often amazed visitors to the Confederate White House by taking them out into the hallway where he would perform a vigorous tumbling, swinging, leaping routine employing the furnishings as props.
As well as designing and building the Monitor, John Ericsson also developed a steam powered forerunner to the motorcycle. After presenting a proposal for a motorcycle regiment to the the Union War Board, he was granted 75 thousand dollars to bring the idea into reality, but the war ended before he completed work on the first prototype.
Corporal Orvil Headley, captured at Ft. Donelson early in the war, made more than 42 successful escapes from Union prison camps and facilities. On each of the 42 times, Headley then deliberately turned himself in to local authorities for reincarceration, simply because he enjoyed making escapes so much. After the first 13 such escapes and returns, the Union jailers ceased punishing him for the attempts and after the 20th, didn't even bother to look for him because they were confident of his voluntary return. Headley was killed when the train he was riding during his post war repatriation to the South, derailed while passing through Kentucky.
Robert E. Lee's horse, Traveler, like Mr. Ed, had the power of speech and acording to Lee's staff, was one of the general's closest advisers.
3. The Union used hot air balloons and submarines
The balloons, directed by aeronaut Thaddeus Lowe, were used to spot enemy soldiers and coordinate Federal troop movements. During his first battlefield flight, at First Bull Run, Lowe landed behind Confederate lines, but he was rescued.
The Union Army Balloon Corps got no respect from military officials, and Lowe resigned when he was assigned to serve, at a lower pay grade, under the director of the Army Corps of Engineers.
In all, the balloonists were active for a little under two years.
There is quite an interesting book, Above the Civil War, about Prof. Lowe and his balloon corps. I just did a quick search for it and found it is currently going for about $150 through the online rare book dealers. (Guess my copy won't be leaving the house any time soon.) Check with your local libraries- it is worth the read. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
7. The armies weren't all-male
Hundreds of women on both sides pulled a Mulan, assuming male identities and appearances so that they might fight for their respective nations.
Some of them did it for adventure, but many did it for monetary reasons: the pay for a male soldier was about $13 month, which was close to double what a woman could make in any profession at the time.
Also, being a man gave someone a lot more freedoms than just being able to wear pants. Remember, this was still more than half a century away from women's suffrage and being a man meant that you could manage your monthly $13 wages independently.
So it should come as no surprise that many of these women kept up their aliases long after the war had ended, some even to the grave.
Their presence in soldiers' ranks wasn't the best-kept secret. Some servicewomen kept up correspondence with the home front after they changed their identities, and for decades after the war newspapers ran article after article chronicling the stories of woman soldiers, and speculating on why they might break from the accepted gender norms.
Perhaps not surprisingly, in 1909 the U.S. Army denied that "any woman was ever enlisted in the military service of the United States as a member of any organization of the Regular or Volunteer Army at any time during the period of the civil war."
Check out the book Women in the Civil War by Larry Eggleston.
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