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Do you have any odd facts about the Civil War that you'd like to share?
Let me start:
1. General's Lee: There were 3 General's Lee serving with the Confederate Army during that war: Robert E. (the Commander of the Army of Northern Viriginia) and his sons, Major General's George Washington Custis Lee and Fitzhugh (Rooney) Lee. Another son, R.E. Jr, rose to the rank of CPT of the Artillery after having begun his service as a common Private, by choice.
Gen. R.E. Lee also owned a home overlooking Washinton DC, the Lee-Custis mansion, which was appropriated by the Federal government as a cemetery for the nation's war dead. It is now Arlington National Cemetery.
2. LTG Arthur MacArthur was awarded the Congessional Medal of Honor for his heroism during the Battle of Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga, TN. Nearly 80 years later, his son, Douglas MacArthur, would be awarded the same medal for his defense of the Philippines during WWII. Up until 2001, they were the only father/son duo to ever receive that award. (Can you name the other father/son team and describe the circumstances?)
3. Wilmer McLean: Today, you can visit the McLean house when you tour the Bull Run National Battlefield (Manassas Junction to the Confederates) and the McLean house at Appomatox Courthouse, Va. Guess what? They are the same McLean!
After Bull Run, a good bit of which was fought in farmer McLean's front yard, he determined that much of the coming war would be fought in northern Virginia, so he sold his farm and moved about as far south as he could go and still remain in Virginia. He bought a house in a small community which would be re-named Appomatox Courthouse when it was designated as the county seat.
In 1865, the war came to him once again, and Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant in his parlor. Once again, he was virtually wiped out. The first time by cannon and musket fire; the second time by souvenier seekers who almost stripped his house bare, including G.A. Custer who seized the desk on which the surrender had been signed and presented it to the wife of his Commander, Phillip Sheridan, as a keepsake.
4. The South had President Jefferson Davis. The North had General Jefferson C. Davis. He served as a CPT under Maj. Anderson at Ft. Sumpter and rose in rank throughout the war. Can you imagine the ribbing he took because of his name? (By the way, Pres. Davis was, himself, a graduate of West Point and a hero of the Mexican War, where his "Mississippi Rifles" withstood the charges of Mexican Lancers at the Battle of Buena Vista, near Monterey, while serving under his former father in law, and future President of the United States, Zachary Taylor. Davis's first wife was Taylors' daughter, but she died of malaria about 4 months into their marriage, of which Taylor did not approve.)
5. The Battle of Shiloh, Tn (Pittsburgh Landing to the Confederates) saw FOUR future Commanders of the United States Army on the field: Henry Halleck (Overall Commander), Ulysses S. Grant (Commander of the Army of the Ohio), General William Techumseh Sherman (Division Commander) and CPT Phillip Sheridan, then a Quartermaster Corp officer.
Halleck and Grant would command the whole army during the war, while Sherman and Sheridan would command it after that.
6. Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant both served in the peacetime Army during a time when the officer corps was very small and intimate. Both had served under Winfield Scott in Mexico (Lee as Scott's chief engineer and Grant as an officer of artillery), but they had never met, even socially, until they confronted each other in Wilmer McLeans parlor at Appomatox, VA.
7. When Confederate General Pierre Gustav Tousannt Beauregard personally ordered the firing of the first shot of the Civil War at Ft. Sumpter, SC, he knew very well that the target was his friend, confidant, mentor and former instructor of Artillery Science at West Point, MJ Robert Anderson.
8. Arguably the greatest light Cavalry commander of the entire war, Nathan Bedford Forrest, had no formal military training at all. He had been a plantation owner, businessman and slave trader before the war, but he rose to such prominance in the Cavalry that his tactics are still studied today by students of warfare.
9. W.T. Sherman, the scourge of Georgia and ultimate Yankee bad-boy, had lived in the South for several years. At the time of the outbreak of hostilities, he was Commandant of the Louisiana Military Seminary in Alexandria, LA (which later moved to Baton Rouge and became Louisiana State University, LSU) and had a great affinity for the South and their cause.
10. The defender of Vicksburg, MS, Gen. John C. Pemberton, was a certified, natural-born, sho-nuff Yankee, having been born and raised in Pennsylvania (He also died and was buried there). His loyalty to "the cause" was suspect throughout the whole war and some questioned his surrender of the key city on the Mississippi. To allay such suspiscions, Pemberton asked for, and got, a reduction in rank after being repatriated. He served out the remainder of the war as an Artillery officer in Virginia and South Carolina.
11. Gettysburg: During one of Gen. Ewell's assault's on the right end of the Federal line on Culp's Hill, a young Private named Culp was killed. It was his own, family farm on which he died.
When the war broke out, PVT Culp was attending school in South Carolina and, instead of returning home to fight for the Union, he joined the South Carolina militia, only to be present when the fighting at Gettysburg commenced. He was killed by Union fire while racing up the very same hill he'd played on as a child.
Sounds like Stilkit's been reading one of the popular Civil War books written around the time of the Centennial in the early 1960s.
Jefferson C Davis was a character. He fired the first defending shot back form Fort Sumter, murdered his commanding general with a revolver in a Lousiville hotel and got away with it and rose to be a very capable division and then corps commander, commanding George Thomas's old Fourteenth Corps in Georgia and the Carolinas.
Sounds like Stilkit's been reading one of the popular Civil War books written around the time of the Centennial in the early 1960s.
Jefferson C Davis was a character. He fired the first defending shot back form Fort Sumter, murdered his commanding general with a revolver in a Lousiville hotel and got away with it and rose to be a very capable division and then corps commander, commanding George Thomas's old Fourteenth Corps in Georgia and the Carolinas.
No, not just one book. Hundreds of them!
I'd forgotten about Davis' little escapade in Louisville. As Bob Hope would say, "Thanks for the memories."
I have a book on my roster of book to read in the near future - "Strange Battles of the Civil War". Should be good reading.
The civil war was full of strange events:
I remember reading (not in the above book, but somewhere else), I think it was in the Second Battle of Bull Run, an episode in which part of the battle line had soldiers fighting with rocks. In one entrenchment part of the confederate line ran out of ammo and the soldiers started to throw rocks over the rifle pits. It must of beaned a few yankees because they put down there weapons and started to throw rocks back.
I also read just yesterday of some of the creative ways the south tried to destoy union gun boats. In late 1864 one gun boat or steamer with a corp commander and naval commander on board started smoking like crazy. No one was injured, but I think the boat was considerably damaged. What happened was - a confederate spy created a grenade type missle, with powder inside, disguised as a lump of coal. He simply threw it into the ships coal container as it was docked. The tender put the disguised coal into the steamer's engine and - BOOM.
To me, perhaps the most unfortunate last words ever uttered occurred during the War Between the States by General John Sedgwick...
At the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May of 1864, he was directing artillery placement. Confederate sharpshooters where potting away at his officers from about 1000 yards away, their shots caused members of his staff and artillerymen to duck for cover. Sedgwick continued to walk around in the open and was quoted as saying, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I am ashamed of you. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Although ashamed, his men continued to flinch and he repeated, "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way. They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
Unfortunately, for Sedgewick, he was proven wrong. Those were the last words he spoke as he was shot dead within seconds of saying that...showing, that yes, an elephant COULD not only be hit, but killed at that distance.
(Speaking of which, I saw today where a British sniper had killed a Taliban leader with a shot from 1.15 MILES away. Talk about reaching out and touching someone...)
An Illinois sharpshooter shot Confederate General Martin Green dead through an embrasure on the Vicksburg lines after Green had been warned to lay low by the rankers. His last words were "The bullet hasn't been molded that will kill me."
Gen. Dan Sickles, III Corp Commander in Meade's army at Gettysburg.
Much could be said of the colorful career of Dan Sickles, but three things stand out:
1. He lost his leg to a Confederate cannon ball in the Peach Orchard during that battle and kept the shattered bone, which he donated to the US Army Medical Corps museum. It is reported that he visited his leg occassionally for the rest of his life.
2. He was charged with murder for killing his wife's lover, the son of Francis Scott Key. His outrage was little hypocritical as he, himself, had taken his favorite prostitute with him on a mission to England and presented her to the Queen under an assumed name.
3. During his trial for murder (which he confessed to), he was acquited due to temporary insanity. He was the first person to use that as a defense in a court of law. Many "insane" killers owe Dan Sickles a tip o' the hat for that.
3. During his trial for murder (which he confessed to), he was acquited due to temporary insanity. He was the first person to use that as a defense in a court of law. Many "insane" killers owe Dan Sickles a tip o' the hat for that.
And his lawyer who came up with the notion was Edward Stanton, later Lincoln's very capable Secretary of War
Do you have any odd facts about the Civil War that you'd like to share?
In 1865, the war came to him once again, and Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant in his parlor. Once again, he was virtually wiped out...the second time by souvenier seekers who almost stripped his house bare, including G.A. Custer who seized the desk on which the surrender had been signed and presented it to the wife of his Commander, Phillip Sheridan, as a keepsake.
If I may, a small correction on this point. The table upon which General Grant wrote the terms of surrender was not "seized" by George Custer. The table was in fact purchased by General Sheridan for twenty dollars in gold and given to Custer's wife, Libby, as a gift. The table was one of her most prized keepsakes and remained in her possession until her death in 1933. Sheridan sent a letter along with the table that said:
"My Dear Madam: I respectfully present to you the small writing table on which the conditions for the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was written by Lt. General Grant, and permit me to say, madam, that there is scarcely an individual who has contributed more to bring about this desirable result than your very gallant husband."
Other then that, a very interesting list of facts.
If I may, a small correction on this point. The table upon which General Grant wrote the terms of surrender was not "seized" by George Custer. The table was in fact purchased by General Sheridan for twenty dollars in gold and given to Custer's wife, Libby, as a gift. The table was one of her most prized keepsakes and remained in her possession until her death in 1933. Sheridan sent a letter along with the table that said:
"My Dear Madam: I respectfully present to you the small writing table on which the conditions for the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was written by Lt. General Grant, and permit me to say, madam, that there is scarcely an individual who has contributed more to bring about this desirable result than your very gallant husband."
Other then that, a very interesting list of facts.
You're right. I should have checked my memories before posting.
Do you know what ultimately happened to the table?
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