Let’s put this claim in perspective. In the first half of the 19th Century, liquor was considered to be nutritious, it calmed the nerves, and helped with digestion. It could be used to wash down bad food. In 1830, it is estimated that Americans on average drank 5 gallons Read more
The following story is an example of an apocryphal story. Apocryphal means the anecdote is most likely not true. Or, as I would say, too good to be true. Many apocryphal stories begin with a true story that is “enhanced” for entertainment purposes. Unfortunately, the story is usually passed on Read more
In September of 1864, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was starving during the Siege of Petersburg. On Sept. 5, a scout brought some information to Major General Wade Hampton. Hampton was the commander of Confederate cavalry (after the death of JEB Stuart). The scout told him of a large Read more
It is estimated that around 400 women disguised themselves as men to serve as soldiers in the Civil War. One of the most famous was born Sarah Edmonds in Canada. The youngest of five daughters of a disciplinarian father who preferred sons, she worked on the farm doing men’s Read more
This is the third anniversary of this site. In honor of that, I am posting one of my favorite anecdotes. It’s a Civil War story and makes light of the fact that many underage boys enlisted. It is estimated that between 260,000 – 420,000 under age teenagers enlisted in the Read more
Mary Ann Bickerdyke was born in Ohio in 1817. She was one of the first women to attend Oberlin College. She became a botanical doctor, using alternative medicines like herbs and plants. After the Civil War broke out, a friend who was a regimental surgeon wrote her a letter Read more
We tend to teach the Civil War as a series of battles, when in fact a typical Civil War soldier would have seen combat for at most a total of two weeks a year. That’s a lot of time to kill. Some of it was spent marching in anticipation Read more
Horace Lawson Hunley was born in Tennessee but his family settled in New Orleans. He grew up to be a lawyer and a member of the state legislature. He was also a marine engineer interested in building a submarine. His first attempt had to be scuttled before Union forces Read more
Henry Wirz was one of the villains of the Civil War and one of only two men who were executed for war crimes after the war. Wirz was a Swiss immigrant at age 26. He settled in the South and when the war broke out he enlisted in the Read more
If you think the South was racist and the North was not, think again. There was plenty of racism in the North during the Civil War. From July 13-16, 1863, rioting in New York City resulted in hundreds of deaths. The rioters were mainly Irish immigrants, who ironically were Read more