Shon Powers' Civil War Blog

There can be no look at the Civil War without looking at its aftermath. It was not that both sides turned in their arms, one in victory and the other in defeat, and went home to their shops and farms, which is what the common soldier wanted to do, but what to do politically with the former CSA.

President Lincoln wanted a kind and gentle reunion of the states, problem was, he was dead from an assassin’s bullet. His successor, Andrew Johnson, was a War Democrat who was on the Union ticket as Vice-President until that bulled thrust him into the center of the post-Civil War maelstrom.

Johnson, former Military Governor of Tennessee, had some of his own ideas that would have played better in the South than in the North in some matters. On the subject of the recently free slaves, he would accept that, but was against equal rights for African-Americans. He also wanted to let the states handle their own affairs.

This did not sit well with the most powerful faction in Congress, the Radical Republicans. They wanted harsh measures placed on the South, even demoting those states to Territorial Status. Even so, they did push through a plan to split the former CSA into military districts and to have the US Army maintain control.

District 1: Virginia, Commanded by Major General John Schofield.

District 2: North Carolina and South Carolina, Commanded by Major General Daniel Sickles.

District 3: Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, Commanded by Major General John Pope

District 4: Mississippi and Arkansas, Commanded by Major General Edward Ord

District 5: Louisiana and Texas, Commanded by Major General Philip Sheridan, who also had the job of securing the border with Imperial Mexico.

Tennessee, Johnson’s home state, was not in any district.

Congress and President Johnson were already on a collision course over several issues:

Johnson had issued a proclamation allowing whites-only conventions to elect members of Congress from the South. Congress retaliated by refusing to seat those elected.

Congress also passed laws (over the President’s veto) to strengthen the Freedmen’s Bureau, an organization dedicated to help freed slaves adjust to their new life. Part of that help was to establish small farms, which ended up under the control of landlords (usually their former masters) who saddled the African-Americans with a debt that few could repay. Other services included education and legal help.
There were also plans in the works for readmitting the Southern States; all they had to do was to ratify the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. As soon as that was accomplished, the state was readmitted, but the military government would still be in place.

1865: South Carolina, the cradle of the rebellion, was readmitted.

1866: Tennessee followed suit.

1868: North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas were back in.

1870: Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas were finally reunited.

Another sticking point was what to do with former Confederates. Most were receiving pardons in exchange for swearing a loyalty oath to the United States. Many of the Radical Republicans wanted men like former CS President Jefferson Davis and former General Robert E. Lee tried for treason. Davis was already in jail after being captured during his attempt to flee the country. Lee had returned to private life and would accept an offer to become president of Washington College in Lexington, VA. Neither would come to trial, but Davis would suffer two years behind bars before his release.

Eventually, Congress voided the Constitutions of the southern states, instead mandating that new conventions, this time staffed with African-Americans and Whites who did not support the Confederacy, elect new members of Congress. This would be a condition of lifting the military rule. As a result, two Senators and 15 Representatives were African-American.

Things finally came to a head when Congress passed a law limiting President Johnson’s ability to control the action of the military in the South, this being in response to Johnson preventing military commander from protecting African-Americans from assault. Johnson responded by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Radical Republican. In February of 1868, Congress responded by drawing up, and then approving, Articles of Impeachment. This is a Constitutionally approved method to remove a President, believed to be guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” from office. When the House of Representatives approved the articles, the Senate moved to hold the formal trial. When the final Senate vote was called, it fell one vote short of the 2/3 needed to find Johnson guilty, and remove him from office. This did have an affect on the Election of 1868, keeping the Republicans in the White House with the election of General of the Armies Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant continued the policies of the Radicals, pushing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted US Citizenship to African-Americans, the 14th Amendment, which prohibited states from limiting the rights of citizens, and the 15th Amendment, which granted all male citizens (including African-Americans) the right to vote.

All of these rules and requirements wore hard on former Confederate citizens; these changes that were overturning their world was enforced by the bayonets of garrison troops, many of then African-Americans, and assisted by Northerners and a few African-Americans acting as agents. They were known by their luggage, which was made of the same material that carpets were made of. These agents were called “Carpetbaggers” as a term of derision.

Some Southerners decided on direct action, starting with assaulting Blacks whenever possible, and then banding into groups to terrorize and intimidate African-Americans from exercising their new rights. The most notorious of these was the Ku Klux Klan, with former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest a reputed founder. These groups launched several attempts to stop African-Americans from voting, which resulted in several states imposing martial law and using their militias to attack the Klan. Congress responded by making it a Federal offense to prevent someone from voting. President Grant used that law in 1871 to enforce voting rights and to target Klan members in south Carolina.

During Grant’s second term, the tide was turning against harsh measures against the South in the hopes that Westward migration would help meld the two regions. Also, the Grant Administration was beset with scandals that lessened its effectiveness. A crisis in South Carolina resulted in Grant sending in Federal troops, but it was seen as unpopular.

Even though the 15th Amendment had been approved, many Northern states had instituted literacy tests on order to keep several minority groups from voting, a measure that would soon take place in the South.

Reconstruction came to an end with the Election of 1877. Rutherford B. Hayes, a former Union general, was declared the winner of a highly contested election by agreeing to remove all Federal troops from the South. The military governments were also being disbanded and the states returned to civilian control:

1869: Tennessee and Virginia

1870: North Carolina.

1871: Georgia.

1873: Texas.

1874: Alabama and Arkansas.

1876: Mississippi and South Carolina.

1877: Louisiana and Florida.

However, without the influence of Federal troops and other Federal intervention, the Southern States soon voted in Democrat majorities and the few gains that African-Americans had made were quashed, not to be revived for nearly a century.
The Union was once again whole, a set of problems was solved, but a new set of problems was there. These problems would not be addressed until the 20th Century.

At the beginning of the war, the US Military Medical Department consisted of one Colonel, the Surgeon General, thirty Majors, Surgeons, and 84 Captains and below, the Assistant Surgeons. This was not even close to being adequate for the massive army that was needed to put down the rebellion. Add to this the fact that several doctors were from the South and therefore going with their seceded states, and the US Army had a problem operating a Medical Department at first. Of course, the CS Medical Department had to start from scratch.

The Union’s doctors was led at the beginning by Thomas Lawson, a veteran of the War of 1812, and one that had a reputation of being a martinet. He also was dying of cancer, so the Surgeon General position became vacant very fast.

As far as appointing doctors were concerned, it was left to the states to commission those who wanted to be in the Medical Service.

The thing was, many of these doctors had just graduated from medical school, at the time not the eight-year course of study, complete with grueling exams and several years residency to top it off with. These medical students had two, three, and maybe four years worth of education.

It also did not help that many medicines used at the time were just as likely to kill as heal. Medicines such as blue mass and calomel contained mercury, a toxic metal.

Medical science was not complete; people knew that there was a connection between sanitation and health, but did not know why. Doctors knew that a clean camp had healthier troops in it rather than a dirty camp. It was that the discovery of bacteria laid years in the future. Doctors also had to put up with regular outbreaks of malaria and yellow fever, but could not figure how it was spread or that there seemed that there was a “season” for these diseases. That would not be discovered until the Spanish-American War and the discovery by Army Surgeon Walter Reed that mosquitoes were the ones spreading the disease.

Another thing that could have been considered was water sources, which were mainly streams and rivers. There were no clean water sources, other than wells, and filtration and boiling water were know, but seldom practiced.

As a matter of fact, the basic health advice of the 1860’s seemed to be thus:

1. Avoid use of ardent spirits (alcoholic beverages).

2. Do not drink very cold water. Cool water is best.

3. Tea, coffee and chocolate are best at meals.

4. Do not overeat and limit between meal eating.

5. Wear flannel in all weather conditions.

6. Wash clothes regularly or hang them in the sun.

7. Have a bed of hay, straw, or other such material for sleeping on. Avoid bare ground.

8. Sleep as much as possible.

9. Make sure there is a fire after rain and damp weather.

10. Wash entire body whenever possible with soap and water.

11. Wear a white flannel around the bowels if disease prevails (the book never said which disease).

12. Keep in open air but not in direct sunlight.

13. Wear shoes with thick soles.

14. Wear a silk handkerchief in your hat in order to prevent sun stroke.

15. Never eat a heavy meal before a march or a battle.

16. Coffee is a great restorative after a march or battle.

17. Never sleep without a cover.

18. If you must drink brandy, do so after a march or battle.

19. Drink as little as possible, even water.

20. If a wound is jetting blood, that means an artery is cut. Tie a handkerchief between the wound and the heart or else the wounded man will die. Use a stick or other thin device to tighten the handkerchief.

21. For a wound in the abdomen, make the wounded man comfortable, for this is fatal.

22. A full beard will give protection against dust and cold. Also will aid perspiration.

23. Avoid fats.

24. Keep your hair cut short and wash the scalp every morning.

25. Wear wool socks and loose shoes.

26. Keep toe and finger nails cut.

27. Wash feet in the evening and the hands and face in the mornings. This will keep the skin soft.

28. When hurt, the best position is on the back with the head elevated.

29. Put a coat on after a march to avoid a cold.

30. Get water to an injured person immediately. If you have no vessel, tie your shirt into a bag and use that.

31. If you are wet, keep moving and you will be all right.

32. If your cooking water comes from a pond or a sluggish stream, boil it, let it cool, and then stir it to get oxygen into it.

33. If you wear garish clothes in battle, you will be more likely to be hit.

34. Envelop a canteen with a wet woolen cloth to chill the water.

35. During a rest stop in the march, lie down. You will get more rest.

36. A tablespoon of cornmeal in a glass of water will aid in “evacuation of the bowels.”

37. Loose bowels is the first step toward cholera and the remedy is a diet of boiled rice. If it’s an advanced case, wrap the abdomen tightly in flannel.


Some of these “cures” and advice often contributed to killing the patient. For example: Confederate General Thomas Jackson was recovering from having his left arm amputated following his being wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville. He had a stomach complaint that was remedied by wrapping the abdomen with cold, wet towels. This caused the pneumonia that killed him.

The other thing to consider was the advancement of military hardware. Thirty years previous, the US Army’s main long arm was a smoothbore musket that took a ball slightly smaller than the barrel, resulting in low accuracy over long ranges. A French officer named Claude Minie developed a bullet that was cone shaped with a base that expanded to fit the barrel when the powder charge was fired. This, plus the addition of rifling and a percussion ignition system, and the accuracy and lethality of the long arm increased dramatically. A charging column of infantry could now be hit at longer ranges with relative ease.

When a Minie ball struck a person, the damage was horrific. The bullet did not have a metal jacket around it, so the lead cone turned into a mushroom upon entering the body, causing more damage. This round also traveled at speeds slowed than sound, so heat was not generated as in today’s supersonic bullets. The slow, tumbling, lead mushrooms smashed organs and tore blood vessels, making death almost certain.
When the round struck bone, it was really bad; the bone did not break, but shattered laterally. This is why most led and arm wounds resulted in amputation.

A head shot was almost instantly fatal.

Unless an arm or leg wound was in the muscle, the limb was usually lost.

A hit in either the upper or lower torso meant death, but slow and very painful. It was possible to survive that, but it would not have been easy.

Another thing to consider was infection, foreign objects, such as the cloth of a uniform, was dragged into the wound, causing complications. This happened to Union Major General Winfield Hancock. On Day Three of the Battle of Gettysburg, he was on a horse overseeing the defenses at Cemetery Ridge and observing the approaching Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge. During the exchange of musket fire, a Minie bullet struck the pommel of his saddle, tearing off a small nail and a bit of the leather, and drove the mess into Hancock’s right hip. The wound became infected and the resulting fever almost killed him. To get him on the road to recovery, an ingenious doctor placed a saddle on a sawhorse, and then he placed Hancock on the saddle. After figuring out the angle of the bullet’s trajectory, he was able to probe the wound with a small hook, finding and extracting the nail, which allowed the wound to be drained. Even with that help, Hancock never fully recovered from the wound.

As the war went on, a system of getting the wounded to medical attention was developed. For this, an Ambulance Corps was established so patients could be moved quickly from the battlefield to the field hospital. More often than not, the wounded soldier was either carried by friends, or stretcher bearers who were made up of musicians. There was a position where the ambulance could be found, but the usual case was that the wounded soldier was carried all the way. Sadly, causality collection was not as efficient as claimed, resulting in wounded soldiers lying on the battlefield for as many as 48 hours, many of dying from wounds that would have been survivable if the soldier was taken to the field hospital.

Upon arrival at the field hospital, the wounded was subjected to a triage method that divided them into at least three categories:

Those with minor wounds who could wait on treatment.

Those with wounds that are survival with treatment (this was usually the amputations).

Those with wounds that ware mortal. No treatment was prescribed but to make the patient comfortable as possible.

These hospitals were set up in farmhouses, barns, or any shelter that came to hand. The conditions on such places were not ideal, with surgeries being performed on planks laid over sawhorses, or even a door. The surgery “table” might be washed between operations, but that was not guaranteed. The surgeon’s instruments, the scalpels, bone saws, and probes, were usually not sterilized, so infections were passed on from patient to patient. The surgeon’s collection of instruments more resembled a carpenter’s toolbox than a doctor’s kit. Ether and chloroform was used to put the patient to sleep, but if that was in short supply, that did not stop the doctor. A skilled physician could complete an amputation within 15 minutes, and then be ready for the next one. The limbs were supposed to be burned, but more often than not, they were piled outside. One Union soldier’s account told of pigs eating the amputated limbs.

After treatment, the patient could either be returned to duty (minor wounds), or sent out of the area to a regional military hospital. If possible, the soldier could be sent home to fully recover (called recovery leave).

Both sides organized large scale hospitals in order to care for the wounded. Union hospitals were established in Washington D.C. as well as Nashville, TN, Jefferson, IN, and many other cities in the North. Washington alone boasted 25 hospitals, both military and private. Add to this the convalescent camps, and the Union had a somewhat decent system in order to treat the wounded.

One innovation that resulted was a Nursing Corps that was staffed by females. Women were already working as government clerks, but wanted to do more.

Louisa May Alcott, who would write Little Women, worked in a hospital.

Dorothea Dix, a social activist, was instrumental in recruiting women for the Nursing Corps. She did have some rather peculiar qualifications, no women under 30 and they could not be pretty.

Clara Barton did not qualify to work with Dix, but that did not stop her from attaining a position at another hospital. She would go on to create the American Red Cross. She worked with another nurse, Susie King Taylor, who became the only African-American to publish a memoir of her war experiences.

Mary Ann “Mother” Bickerdyke was so successful in the Western Theatre that by order of Major General William Sherman, she was the only woman allowed in his hospitals.

Another nurse, this one male, was the writer Walt Whitman, who worked in several hospitals after nursing his wounded brother back to health.

Not only there were women nurses, but at least one woman doctor, Dr. Mary Walker.

The Confederates were not without their own system of helping their wounded. They were hampered with lack of supplies and facilities. They did manage to create a model hospital, Chimborazo, at Richmond, VA.

Southern nurses included Kate Cummings, who defied Southern attitudes towards women to become a nurse, as well as Sally Louisa Tomkins, who was commissioned a Captain in the Confederate Army for her work.

With resources being stretched, it soon fell on private organizations to pitch in and help. The U.S. Sanitary Commission and the U.S. Christian Commission brought food, clothing, and comfort to troops in the field and in the hospital, even running several private hospitals. Several states also formed organizations so that their troops could be helped.

Sadly, beyond a few private organizations, there were no Sanitary Commissions in the CSA.

Of course with remedies such as these, it was a wonder anybody survived:

1. Thieves Vinegar: Take a handful each of rue, sage, mint, rosemary, wormwood, and lavender and out into a gallon of vinegar to infuse. Let sit in a warm place for four days. Strain the mixture and then add one ounce of camphor. Wash the face and hands with it before exposure in a hospital or sick room. It is called Thieves Vinegar because of a legend of thieves using this liquid to protect them as they plundered the houses of people sick with Bubonic Plague at Marseilles, France.

2. Prevention of Mosquito Bites: Mix oil of pennyroyal with olive oil and spread on the skin to repel mosquitoes.

3. Sprains and Bruises: mix one pint of train oil, ½ pound of stone pitch, ½ pound of resin, ½ pound of beeswax, and ½ pound of stale tallow. Boil for ½ an hour and skin off any scum. Pour liquid into cups to cool. When needed, spread it on a cloth and apply it to the sprain or bruise.

In Paris, the treatment for a sprain was to have the doctor grease his thumbs and press them on the sprain for ½ hour. Within one day, the patient was relieved.

A specific treatment for a sprained ankle was to wash the ankle with salted water and keep the foot as cold as possible. Elevate the foot, don’t eat too much, and take a “cooling medicine” until the sprain is cured.

Another cure for a bruise was to bath the area with water and apply a paper or cloth spread with treacle.

4. Stings: Take a wine glass of vinegar and mix in common (baking) soda. Apply it to the affected areas.

Another treatment was to apply a plaster of moistened salt. This was to draw out the venom of a bee or wasp sting.

5. Blisters on the feet: Rub the feed with spirits mixed with tallow from a candle.

6. Dirt in the Eye: Place a finger on the affected patients cheek and slightly pull down, exposing the area under the eye. For over the eye, use a knitting needle over the eyelid to hold it up. Use a silk handkerchief to remove the dirt. Bathe the eye and have the patient stay out of the sun for the day. If there is any inflammation, have the patient take a purgative and apply a cooling lotion.

7. Frostbite: For the feet, apply deer’s marrow to the affected area.

For other areas, take chrome yellow and hog’s lard and mix them into an ointment. Apply to affected areas after warming the ointment.

8. Coughs: Take one teacup of molasses, add two tablespoons of vinegar and bring to a simmer. Then add three teaspoons of paregoric and as much refined niter as you can place on a breakfast knife. Take two or three teaspoons before bed and one of two during the day to dispel coughs.

9. Nosebleed: Blow powdered gum Arabic or alum up the nose with a quill to stop the bleeding.

10. Headaches: Use epodeldoe, spirits of wine, and sal ammoniac applied as a lotion to the forehead.

11. Bleeding Wounds: Apply flour and lint to the wound.

12. Infectious wounds: Apply sugar to the wound. Another procedure is to wash the wound with wine, then apply sugar.

13. Warts: Wet the wart with tobacco juice and apply chalk. Another method is to rub the area with fresh beef.

14. Corns: Mix and melt together two ounces of beeswax and two ounces of ammonia. Then add ½ ounce of verdigris. Spread on linen and apply it to the corn.

15. Bunions: If caught early, bind the foot tightly to prevent bunion growth. If inflames, a poultice of twelve grains of iodine and a ½ ounce of lard can be applied. This should be done two to three times daily. If the bunion is enlarged, apply salad oil. Wear lose shoes or slippers.

16. Boils: Treatment is a poultice of molasses or honey mixed with flour. Apply until it disappears. If the boil is painful, a poultice of bread, milk, volatile liniment and laudanum should be used.

Or, when one was sick, these nutritional tidbits:

1. Panada: Take some bread slices, cut off the crust, and boil then in water. After five minutes, take out the bread and pound it in a bowl, adding a little of the water it was boiled in. Mix in butter, sugar, and nutmeg to taste.

2. Toast Water: Take one slice of bread and toast it. Lay the toast in a bowl and pour on boiling water. Cover bowl with a saucer and let cool.

3. Beef Tea: Take one pound of beef and slice it into thin strips. Add salt and boil it in water for an hour. Pour through a strainer into a cup and serve.

4. Broth: Take meat (chicken, beef, or veal), add two tablespoons of rice and boil it until tender. If needed, serve the broth fifteen minutes after boiling, otherwise cover and keep overnight.

5. Water Gruel: Start with two tablespoons of cornmeal or oatmeal with three tablespoons of water. Mix a pint and a half of boiling water slowly to the mixture. Once everything is mixed, put the whole mixture in a skillet and boil it for thirty minutes. Skim the mixture and season with salt. Sugar and nutmeg can also be used.

6. Rice Gruel: Mix one tablespoon of rice, one and a half pints of water, and either a cinnamon stick or a lemon peel. Boil it until soft and add a pint of milk. Strain the mixture and add salt, sugar, nutmeg, and butter to taste.

7. Milk Porridge: Same as the gruel but with equal parts of flour, cornmeal, milk and water. The flour, cornmeal and water is cooked first. Then the milk is added prior to boiling.

8. Mutton Custard for Bowel complaints: Take two ounces of mutton suet and shred it. Add cinnamon and nutmeg and boil it in a pint of milk. Skim off any scum that rises. Take a half teacup of this three or four times a day.

9. Bread Jelly: Boil a quart of water and set it aside. Take a 1/3 loaf of bread, cut off the crust, and toast it. Pot the toast into the water and boil it slowly until the liquid turns into jelly. Strain the mixture and set it aside. When used, sweeten it with sugar and a little lemon peel.

10. Wine Whey: Boil a ½ pint of milk. Add two glasses of wine and a teaspoon of sugar. After the mixture boils, take it off the fire and set aside. Curds (solids) will form and sink to the bottom of the pot. Pour the whey (liquid) into another pot and add boiling water. Add sugar to taste. Use in cases of typhus.

11. Calves Feet Broth: Take two calves feet and boil them in three quarts of water. When water is half boiled away, take off the fat, season with salt, and serve in a teacup with a spoonful of wine.

12. Rice Jelly: Take ¼ pound of rice, mix in ½ pound of sugar, and add enough water to cover it. Boil until it becomes glutinous. Strain it and set it aside. Season to taste.

13. Hot Lemonade: Cut up a whole lemon, add a teacup of sugar and boiling water. Great for colds.

1. Bread must be fully baked and eaten cold. The soup must be boiled for five hours before serving. Vegetables (when there were any) must be cooked until soft and digestible.

2. Messes are prepared by squads assigned to kitchen police for that day.

3. Ensure that all cooking vessels are properly cleaned.

4. The cooks are responsible for feeding prisoners.

5. No one is allowed in the kitchen area unless authorized.

6. An NCO must be in charge at all times.

1. Cartridge boxes and bayonet scabbards will be polished with blacking, not varnish.

2. Mark haversacks with the letter of the company and the number of the soldier.
(EX: C 57)

3. Mark the flap of the knapsack with the unit designation, and company letter, and the soldier’s number. (EX: 69NY
C 57)

4. Haversacks and canteens will be worn on the left side, canteen over haversack.

5. Private soldiers will wear uniform at all times, other clothing is not authorized.

6. Soldiers will be issued one plate, one cup, one fork, one spoon, and one knife for messing purposes.

7. NCOs and soldiers are to pay compliments to Navy and Marine officers.

8. NCOs and soldiers are to render customs and courtesies to any and all officers above them.

9. Salutes: With arms: bring the musket to right shoulder arms, then bring the left arm across the chest, touching the musket.
Without arms: bring the right hand to the corner of the visor, palm facing out.

10. If seated, the NCO or soldier will rise on the approach of an officer and render a salute.

1. If an officer is given temporary command, changing the chain of command was not authorized without the approval of the next higher commander.

2. If an officer takes permanent command of a unit, the outgoing commander will turn over all orders in force, public property, and unit funds.

3. An officer should not correct non-commissioned officers in front of privates.

4. Captains and Lieutenants are responsible for the upkeep and cleanliness of their company areas. They are also responsible for the cleanliness of the men, their uniforms, equipments, and weapons.

5. Officers will be in proper uniform at all times.

6. Company officers and higher will frequently inspect the kitchen areas to ensure sanitation.

7. The Commanding Officer (the Colonel) will set the schedule for the duty day while in camp.

8. No officer could inhabit a house, although vacant, without permission of the brigade or division commanders.

9. Officers in command of the picket line will inspect the line frequently.

10. Officers were responsible for controlling the men while on the march.

1. All arms will be kept in the condition that they were issued. Breakdown of weapons are not allowed except when authorized by a commissioned officer.

2. After firing, wash out the barrel, then run a cloth down the barrel in order to dry it. After cleaning, put a tampion in the muzzle to keep dirt and water out.

3. Do not have arms loaded in camp unless authorized.

4. Ammunition will be inspected as frequently as possible. Any unauthorized expenditure of rounds will result in the cost of the rounds being docked from the soldier’s pay.

5. Do not mix blank and ball rounds.

6. Expose ammunition to the sun to keep them dry.

1. Card games were popular. Poker, euchre, spades, and other card games were popular. Some were known to throw away the cards just before a battle. If the soldier was killed, he did not want his parents to know he played cards, which was considered a great sin at the time. If the troop survived the battle, he took the first opportunity to search for his cards. (Usually, he could buy a new pack at the sutlers.)

2. Board Games: games like checkers and chess helped pass the time in camp.

3. Cockroach races: place two cockroaches in the middle of a tin plate. After the bets were taken in, the roaches are released. First roach to the edge wins.

4. Dice: dice was rolled and winners and losers were determined by what numbers was rolled. This was considered a particularly evil vice, so much that Confederate General Thomas Jackson authorized severe punishments for his soldiers who were caught plating dice.

5. Baseball: As mentioned else ware, Union Major General Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball. There was already a small league in existence, but he might have had a hand in some of the modern rules. There were games between companies, or between regiments. There could also have been the occasional game between Union and Confederate regiments, but that could not be confirmed. A friendly game between teams that would see the next day trying to kill each other.

6. Reading: 10 cents at the sutlers could buy a “dime novel” for passing away the time. Other merchants would sell newspapers from New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, sometimes as recent as two days old.

7. Letters: A few cents at the sutlers would but you stationery, envelopes, and postage to send a letter home. If one could not write, a more literate member of the unit could make a few cents writing letters for his mates.

8. Horse Races: A good past time, as well was keeping the horses on shape. The most famous example was the Irish Brigade’s Great Steeple Chase of St. Patrick’s Day, 1862.

1. Two-man: each man carried one-half of the shelter, one pole, and some lines. When reaching camp, two would pair off and build the shelter.

2. Sibley: conical tent with an opening at the top so that a stove pipe could be accommodated. Sleeps 6-8.

3. There was also a large, rectangular tent that slept 8, or one Commanding Officer.

4. For winter encampment, a wood floor and short walls would serve as a foundation for the rectangular tent. A stove would be placed in the middle of the floor for heating.

5. If the winter encampment was in a heavily wooded area, log cabins would be built. High ranking officers (colonels and generals) could requisition a farm house for quarters.

1. The duty day starts when the bugle or drum “reveille” is played. This is usually at sunrise, or just after. In hot climates, coffee should be served in order to prevent malaria.

2. The troops will rise, wash, dress, and present them selves for roll call. The roll is called, absences noted, and those who identify themselves as ill are sent to the Surgeon.

3. Work details are then assigned; camp police (keeping the camp clean), kitchen police (assisting the cook), guard duty, sink duty (cleaning the area around the latrines), etc. Also times for drilling are announced.

4. The bugle or drum call “peas on trencher” announces breakfast.

5. Following breakfast, the work duties should commence.

6. The call “troop” signifies guard mount (beginning sentry duty).

7. To bring the regiment together, sound the “assembly.” This is usually for drilling and dress parade.

8. During the duty day, time should be devoted for individual equipment (musket maintenance, leather accouterments, uniforms, etc.).

9. When the call “roast beef” is called, its dinnertime.

10. All soldiers should be accounted for around the time “retreat” is sounded. They should be in quarters, unless on picket duty, when “tattoo” is sounded.

11. When “taps” (otherwise known as “Butterfield’s Lullaby”) is sounded, all lights will be out and the troops asleep.

At the end of a march or battle, it is important that the troops are encamped as quickly as possible. This would insure that the unit is fully accounted fore, as well as providing a dwelling place for the soldiers.

1. The idea area for a camp is a meadow with a slight slope for drainage; a hillside would be better, but not too steep.

2. An area with a stream or river nearby is most ideal. A spot upstream for drinking water, another area for washing and bathing, and a spot downstream for the sinks (latrine). The sinks should not be in an area that would pollute camps downstream. It that becomes a problem, dig a trench at the edge of the camp for that purpose. (It was known that there was a connection between cleanliness and disease, but did not know why.)

3. It would be a good idea to locate the field kitchen across the camp from the sinks. This area should not be near trees in order to cut the risk of fire.

4. Upon arrival at the site, post a company as camp guard in order to prevent unauthorized departures.

5. Weapons should be stacked in 3s or 4s and a guard placed on them.

6. Spots should be located for the Quartermaster and the Surgeon and their tents set up.

7. Tents for the Colonel, the Lieutenant Colonel, and the Major should be placed so they can overlook the camp. The Regimental Flags will be placed at the Colonel’s tent.

8. The tents of the private soldiers should be arranged in companies, with the Captain’s, Lieutenant’s, and Sergeant’s tents along the outside of the company area. The Private’s tents will fill the interior.

9. There should be a “street” between the soldier’s tents and the Commanding Officer’s. there should also be a large field for drilling, roll call, sick call, etc.

10. Once the tents are pitched, trenches should be dug to provide additional drainage.

The North had a solid industrial base, with about 100,000 factories and 1,100,000 workers. The South had 20,000 factories and 100,000 workers.

Union war material lost on the battlefield could be replaced within a day. The South had to make do with captured material at times.

The North had 20,000 of railroads to move goods and passengers. The South had only 9000.

A train trip from Chicago to New York took about four days. A trip from New Orleans to Richmond could take two weeks and several train changes due to different track gauges. Also, about 91% of the US railroad equipment was held in the North. (It was little wonder that the South resorted to stealing locomotives in order to keep things going.)

The North’s population was 22,000,000. The South’s was 9,000,000. This allowed the Union to field armies of 100,000 without straining the population while the South had shortages almost from the start.

Despite the horrific causalities, the North could refill its ranks despite occasionally resorting to a draft. In the South, one soldier killed or wounded was a giant blow to an army.

The North had a seafaring tradition and held most of the yards needed to build up a navy. The South seized one yard and did not hold that very long.

All the sea faring expertise was in New England, not New Orleans. There were ports in the South, just not the dry docks needed to maintain ships.

The North was changing almost daily with the influx of immigrants. The South was in a kind of stasis with its agricultural, slaveholding system.

The North was looking forward, the South backward.

The North had ready reserves of gold and specie to finance the war. The South’s economy was tied up in cotton and slaves, with losing either causing a collapse.

This despite the introduction of “greenbacks” and a temporary income tax.

It seemed that the South was doomed from the start. Without a large population, resources, industrial might, and the ability to transport goods (without resorting to blockade runners), the South might have had a chance, perhaps if they were organized enough to press the attack after First Manassas.

No. Despite early success and some amazing innovations, the South was not destined to win.

The Civil War was not a sudden occurrence. This event was a long way in coming, almost since the beginning of the USA. The process to Civil War might have begun even as the Declaration of Independence was being debated.

If one was to ask, “What caused the Civil War?” it would be like opening up a can of very angry worms. The causes were so various, according to which region one comes from, and so contentious that it stirs emotions even today. Even today, the number one cause, slavery, still makes headlines today:

Several African-American have been calling on the US Government to make reparation payments to the descendants of slaves.

Reenactments of slave auctions have been banned when some African-Americans were “traumatized” by the event.

There have been rallies by African-Americans to ban symbols such as the Confederate Flag, seen as a symbol of slavery, racism, and intolerance. There was a successful effort to have such a flag removed from the South Carolina State House when an economic boycott was threatened. This action even became an issue in the 2000 Presidential Election when candidate George W. Bush called that issue something for the people of South Carolina to decide. When the flag was finally taken down and relocated to a Confederate war memorial, it did not satisfy the protesters.

The issue of slavery, amongst others, was the hot button issues of the mid 19th Century, issued that divided a nation, not unlike today. This part deals with the issues that somehow forced a section of the US to actually break away.

Any opinions expressed here are those of the writer

Slavery:

This was the #1 issue out of all the issues that had to be dealt with. However, this was not totally a US problem. As a matter of fact, the African slave trade was in full motion even before there were plans to settle what would one day become the US East Coast. Since 1444 Portugal had been involved in kidnapping Africans and putting them to work, before the New World was discovered.

Spain soon took over and dominated the trade, bringing over Africans to work newly settled lands. Some were with the conquistadors in Mexico and accompanied explorers who discovered the Pacific Ocean. They were also put to work on plantations that produced food for the home markets.

The Dutch wrestled the trade rights from the Spanish and dominated it for fifty years. It is during this point that a certain English colony entered the picture.
August, 1619: A Dutch ship entered the small harbor at Jamestown, Virginia Colony and offloaded 20 Africans taken off a Spanish ship. These Africans were designated “indentured servants” and were put to work. This is when the American involvement began.

Crops such as rice and indigo were labor intensive, and there were not enough workers coming over from England so plantation owners jumped at the idea of importing workers. This became popular in the southern colonies, but this also became a money maker for New England merchants as well. As a result, England took over the slave trade in 1713 and that nation itself became a slave holding country.

What took place became known as the Triangle Trade. Ships would depart Boston with fish, grain, rum, and raw materials and sailed for the West African coast. There, they would trade their cargo for newly captured Africans. From Africa, the ships would sail for the West Indies. On arrival there, the Africans would be traded for sugar, molasses, “experienced” slaves, and their profits. That cargo would be taken to the Colonies, the “experienced” slaves would be sold to the auction houses, the sugar and molasses sold to merchants (usually turned into rum), and the profits went into the pockets of the businessmen backing the venture.

The trip from Africa to the West Indies was known as the “Middle Passage.” The newly caught Africans were dense packed into the holds of the slave ships, chained to the deck or to bunks, with the barest of sanitation, if that. Add to that meager food, and you had the ingredients for unimaginable horrors. Deaths from disease and suicide were common on these journeys. Those who were sick or who had died were thrown overboard for the sharks to eat. Even if one survived the trip, there was still being sold and put to work for the remainder of ones life.

As the Colonies strove to break away from England, there were paradoxes to the ideas that the colonists were fighting for:

George Washington, commander of the Continental Army and the future 1st President of the Unites States, had slaves at his Mount Vernon farm. They had belonged to his wife and they were freed upon his death.

Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, was built with slave labor. He did have his reservations about the practice as he was writing “all men are created equal.”

Many of the Founding Fathers either had slaves, or were fighting to free them. Many Africans were in the ranks of Washington’s army, accepted there without any fuss. (Some say that it was because the British Royal Army planned to increase their ranks with freed slaves.)

From 1775 to 1776, the Continental Congress took on the issue while hammering together the Declaration of Independence. There were many precedents that were being considered:

There was a vocal anti-slavery group in the colonies. In 1688, there was the first anti-slavery demonstration at Germantown, Pennsylvania Colony. In 1700, the first anti-slavery pamphlet, The Selling of Joseph was published.

1754: John Woolman, a Quaker minister, published Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes, another anti-slavery pamphlet.

There were, on the other hand, trouble between Africans and Whites, resulting in a slave revolt in South Carolina in 1739 and riots in New York City in 1741, just to name a few.

In a draft of the Declaration of Independence, there was a charge leveled against England’s King George III about the slave trade and charged that the Crown prohibited the colonies from abolishing the practice. This was opposed by the southern colonies, already heavily involved in agriculture and needing the labor. Under pressure, that language was stricken out of the final draft. It is at this point (writers opinion) that the countdown to Fort Sumter began in Independence Hall.

All was not lost for the anti-slavery forces. Vermont actually abolished slavery in 1777, with Pennsylvania gradually ending the practice in 1780 and Massachusetts in 1783.

In 1787, as delegates were meeting in Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention, the Northwest Ordinance had been already passed, allowing for new territories like Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to come into being. These territories, as new states, would be allowed to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery.

When the US Constitution was written, slavery was still a contentious issue, but there was compromise as far as Africans were concerned:

US involvement in the slave trade was to end in 1808.

Slaves, as property, were taxable.

A slave, or Free African, was counted as 3/5 of a person for the purpose on representation in Congress.

As the 19th Century was entered, the states on the North were already considering abolition of slavery. This as the Industrial Revolution began in 1790, making slavery uneconomical, at least in the North. In the South, any general drift toward emancipation was quashed when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a machine that plucked seeds out of cotton boles, a very labor intensive activity. This resulted in cotton becoming a cash crop, in itself labor intensive and requiring more slaves.

In the South, it was felt necessary to keep control the slaves with both legal and physical methods:

A slave marriage was not considered legal, allowing families to be split up at auctions.

Teaching a slave to read and write was declared illegal, in many cases punishable by death.

Minor infractions, like not working hard enough, were punished by whipping.

Escape was highly discouraged, there were professional slave catchers who were backed up by bloodhounds. They were also backed by the Fugitive slave Act of 1793, which made escape a Federal offense and prohibited local authorities from assisting runaways. In one of the first cases of civil disobedience in US history, many Northerners ignored this law, in many cases helping escapes slaves to British North America (Canada).

But then, who would blame the slave for trying to escape, they lived in log cabins, wore the most basic (and cheapest) clothes, fed usually meager food (learning how to make do with what they had actually led to several types of cuisine that people enjoy today, but at the time it was not so hot), woke up and were in the fields at the crack of dawn and worked until after sundown (not the idyllic condition depicted in the movie Gone With the Wind), punished for the least infraction, could be sold at the Master’s whim, killed, and, basically condemned to a life of hard work.

There were slaves who were freed, a process called manumission, but there were restrictions on even that, a Freeman could not vote, hold public office, usually had poor jobs at little pay, and had to deal with the racial prejudices of neighbors, even in the North.

There was also the issue of political power as far as slavery was concerned. The South was leery of Northerners getting more power in Congress. Of course the North was wary of the opposite happening. There was a compromise that came out of the Northwest Ordinance, for one state that allowed slavery to enter the Union, that had to be followed by one state that did not allow the practice, and vice versa.

Example: 1803: Ohio entered the US as a Free State.
1812: Louisiana entered the US as a Slave State.

Now there were other methods being considered to tackle the question of slavery, in 1816, the American Colonization Society was formed with the aim of sending freed slaves to Africa. There was one problem with that, most of these persons were probably second and third generation African-Americans who probably never heard of Africa, but facts sometimes fail to trump good intentions. The first boat load of “colonists” landed on the coast of Africa. The colony was called Liberia and its capital was called Monrovia, after President James Monroe. This colony, which became a republic in 1847, was the only independent nation on the African continent at the time, the rest of Africa having been carved up into European possessions.

The first half of the 19th Century became very combative; groups were organizing in the North to press for a political solution, meaning abolition while the South tried to expand the practice westward, especially into new lands such as Texas. The Southern view was reinforced by revolts such as Denmark Vesey’s in 1822, or the Nat Turner revolt in 1831. The Northern view was reinforced by people like William Lloyd Garrison publishing the Liberator and the New England Anti-Slavery Society forming in Boston, MA.

There was much political discourse, but there was also much violence, as there were riots in places as diverse as Charleston, SC and Boston, where Garrison was abducted and led around the city with a noose around his neck. In New York, an anti-slavery rally was broken up by those who did not want to see Blacks and Whites mingling. In Georgia, it became a death penalty offence to advocate abolition, or in their minds, “inciting a slave insurrection.”

The political discourse were not much better, in 1837, Congress passed a Gag Rule, prohibiting and discussion, resolutions, or petitions mentioning slavery until 1844! The following year, it was lifted; the North pounced with an anti-slavery petition while the South presented a resolution calling for the disbanding of the United States. A stricter Gag Rule was then put into place. This prevented former President John Quincy Adams from offering 350 petitions calling for the abolishment of slavery. Adams would go on to represent a group of slaves who captured the Spanish slave ship Amistad. He would win the case and the would-be slaves were returned to Africa.

Even as the Congress, and the nation, was embroiled in the Mexican War, there was an attempt to limit the spread of slavery, David Wilmot, Representative from Pennsylvania, introduces a proviso to prohibit any land taken as a result of the war to allow slavery. Not only was that shot down, but Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina put forward the provision that Congress had no right to limit the spread of slavery.

In response to that was the idea of “popular sovereignty,” that is let the states themselves decide whether or not to have slavery. This would bypass Congress entirely, but would open up more troubles.

Congress did try to establish a balance on the issue with the Compromise of 1850, allowing California to enter the union as a Free State, establishing the New Mexico and Utah Territories, set the borders of Texas, strengthening the Fugitive Slave Act, and finally abolishing the slave trade (but not slavery) in the District of Columbia.

In several Southern states, it was resolved to hold the North to a very high standard concerning the Compromise of 1850, or else secession would be on the table.

The public was split concerning the whole slavery issue all together, with action coming in the form of the Underground Railroad, a system of safe houses that runaway slaves could go to in order to get food, medical attention, and protection on their journey north. This was done at great risk to those running the operation, prison under Federal law or death under State law. Harriet Tubman, a runaway slave herself, became to most famous of the “conductors.”

Another method of activism was the written word. There were several anti-slavery publications, but a series of stories began to appear in the National Era under the title, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Life Among the Lowly.” These stories, soon published as a novel, caused cheers in the North, where it became a best-seller, and a firestorm in the South, where it was banned. It’s author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wife of abolitionist Henry Beecher, became both a celebrity and a villain overnight.

Then came Kansas.

There was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which opened areas west of Missouri to settlement. Both pro and anti-slavery forces rush people to the area in order to influence a future on allowing slavery into the territory. These settlers were usually well armed and bringing more arms so that the other side could be intimidated.

In 1855, Kansas voted to allow slavery and expelled dissenting opinion from the new Kansas Legislature. Anti-slavery elements met in Lawrence and declared their own Legislature, setting the stage for armed conflict.
On the political front, a new party was emerging; the remains of the old Whig Party, plus smaller parties such as the Know-Nothings and the Wide-Awakes, joined together to become the Republican Party. They soon became the anti-slavery party.

In 1856 the Republicans attempted to win the White House with the explorer John Fremont, but lost to the Democrat Franklin Buchanan.

1857 saw a momentous decision from the US Supreme Court: Dred Scott vs. United States.

Dred Scott was a slave owned by a US Army officer, who took him to Minnesota during his career. After the officer died, his widow planned to sell Scott. He made an attempt to sue for his freedom, citing his recent residence in Minnesota, a Free State. The Court ruled that as a slave, he had no right to sue in Federal courts, neither was he (and by extension all African-Americans) afforded the fights of any citizen. Another ruling was that the Federal Government could not deprive citizens of their property rights, including slaves.

In the Mid-Term Election of 1858, a one-time Congressman and self-taught lawyer named Abraham Lincoln won the Republican nomination for the Illinois Senate seat held by Democrat Stephen Douglas. They both embark on a series of debates from 21 August to 15 October. Lincoln takes an anti-slavery position while Douglas pressed for popular sovereignty. Douglas wins the election.


A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
---Abraham Lincoln before the Illinois Republican Party convention, June 1858


Throughout the nation, the strains of the slavery issue were stretching to the breaking point. There were conventions calling for secession, court cases either upholding current laws, or calling then unconstitutional, depending on what side one was on.

Then came Harper's Ferry.

October, 1859: Abolitionist John Brown led a group of Blacks and Whites and seized the Federal Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, VA. The plan was to seize the arms and give them to slaves in order to ferment a revolt. They ended up blockaded in the main building and were overcome by a force of US Marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart. Brown was tried for treason by the State of Virginia and sentenced to be hanged. On 2 December, as he was led to the gallows, he declared that only blood could wash the stain of slavery away.

1860: the Presidential Election was in full swing, the Republicans, after several ballots, nominated Abraham Lincoln. The Democrats, however, were another matter; their party was split along regional lines, with the Northern faction selecting Stephen Douglas, and the Southern faction selecting John Breckenridge, Buchanan’s Vice-President. As the campaign progressed, several Southern states declared that if Lincoln was elected, Articles of Secession would be considered.

6 November, 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected President.
20 December, 1860: South Carolina voted to secede.

The nation was now running down the road to war.

Slavery would die, first by the Union victory, then by the 13th Amendment, outlawing the practice. Everything beyond that would take further.

States’ Rights

The second most mentioned issue was States’ Rights. The premise here was that a state can better decide what to do within their borders than the Federal Government. Prior to the Civil War, a US citizen though of themselves as of their state first, then of the nation. For example; Robert E. Lee was a Colonel in the US Army at the beginning of 1861. When he was offered command of the entire Union war effort, he had to decide between the nation and his state. When Virginia seceded, Lee felt he had no choice but to resign his commission and go with his state. He was expressing a common attitude at the time.

It was the same as far as the relationship between the State and Federal Governments were concerned. The USA started out with the Articles of Confederation, creating a weak central government and strong state governments. This created problems in matters such as defense and taxation. Finally, the Constitution was written, granting exact powers to a central, or Federal, government, such as, defense, taxation, interstate commerce, and relations with other countries. The 10th Amendment spelled out that any powers not granted to the Federal Government were reserved to the States.
Herein was the conflict. When Congress passed a law, usually the states went along with it. Sometimes, the states were not happy when the Federal Government did something that they did not agree with.

For example:

December 1814 to January 1815: A convention of New England Federalists met at Hartford, CT to consider secession over the War of 1812. Nothing came out of this meeting.

19 May, 1828: Congress passed a tariff on imported goods from Europe, making those imports more expensive then US made goods. This “Tariff of Abominations” was greeted with anger in the agricultural South, who needed such imports. John C. Calhoun, at the time Vice-President in the Andrew Jackson Administration, wrote an article blasting the tariff as unconstitutional and called on his home state, South Carolina, to nullify, or refuse to enforce, the tariff. Calhoun ended up resigning the Vice-Presidency in 1832 over the issue and would be at odds with President Jackson.

January 1830: Senator Daniel Webster asserted in a series of debates that the states derived their power from the Constitution and that the Federal Government was the final authority. That did not sit well with most Southerners.

24 November, 1832: Congress passed another Tariff Act. South Carolina responded by issuing an Ordinance of Nullification against it. President Jackson threatened to order 50,000 troops to Charleston in order to enforce the law. The Governor of South Carolina called for 10,000 militia to repel what was being called a “Federal invasion.” Calhoun, at this point a Senator, met with Senator Henry Clay and the two hammered out an agreement which managed to avoid a civil war. The following year, the Compromise Tariff of 1833 was passed, which reduces tariffs, and South Carolina followed suit and repealed their nullification ordinance.

In the North, many citizens, and some politicians, had a beef with the Fugitive Slave Law, which gave the Federal Government power to assist in catching runaway slaves. Many citizens organized to impede those efforts, hiding runaways and blocking slavecatchers and bailiffs from carrying out their duties, at risk of jail time themselves.

I will not obey it, by God!
---Ralph Waldo Emerson on the Fugitive Slave Act.

In the South, many people saw the conflict over slavery as a Federal intrusion into their lives. Many politicians believed that it was State business to decided id slavery was to exist (pity they did not want Missouri and Kansas to have that choice), not the Federal Government. During the 1850s, as the Republican Party was on the ascendant (and adopting an anti-slavery platform), people in the South believed that they would be forced to give up their slaves at the point of a bayonet. Almost all of the Deep South states resolved to secede if a Republican was elected President, which did happen in 1860.

As the South began to secede, President Franklin Buchanan felt that even though the states could not leave the Union, the Constitution did not address what the Federal Government could do about it. He was right, the addition of new states was provided for (there were 36 states at the time) but nothing on what it a state wanted to express their rights and leave.

Because of a perceived violation of their “rights,” the Southern States began to break
away.

Union:

Oliver Wendell Holmes—Captain in a Massachusetts Regiment. (Holmes is known for two things, yelling at President Lincoln to get down, and for the majority opinion in Schenck vs. US in which is was declared that the First Amendment was not absolute, especially in wartime.)

John M. Harlan—Colonel in a Kentucky Regiment

William B. Woods—Lieutenant Colonel, 76th Ohio. Left service as a Brevet Major General.

Stanley Matthews—Lieutenant Colonel, 23rd Ohio


Confederate:

Edward D. White—Possibly a Lieutenant in a Louisiana Regiment, but details are sketchy. (He was the 9th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.)

Horace H. Lurton—Sergeant-Major, 5th Tennessee, 2nd Kentucky, and 3rd Kentucky Cavalry.

Lucius Q. C. Lamar—Colonel, 19th Mississippi. (Before his Supreme Court appointment, he was Secretary of the Interior.)

Tucson, New Mexico (soon to be Arizona) Territory, was briefly occupied by the Arizona Rangers (CSA) under John R. Baylor. They pulled out when a strong Union force under James H. Carleton came out of California. Carleton became the first governor of the newly created Arizona Territory.

There was a 1st California Regiment at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, VA.

Colorado Territory formed four infantry regiments and one brigade of light artillery. Their only Civil War engagement was at Glorieta Pass.

Dakota Territory (present-day North and South Dakota) formed two cavalry companies but neither saw action in the war. They were created to replace Regular Cavalry who were brought East. The mission in the area was to guard against raids by Lakota tribes.

Delaware was a Slave state. It took the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to abolish the practice there.

Washington, D.C. was the most heavily fortified city in the world at the time.

In what would be the State of Oklahoma, there was a civil war within a civil war as the Five Civilized Tribes (Choctaw, Creek Cherokee, Seminole, and Chickasaw) split over their tribal leaders pledge to join the Confederacy. Some of these tribes actually owned slaves. The Cherokees switched loyalties and freed their slaves in 1864.

There was a 1st Nebraska Regiment at the Battle of Shiloh.

A Confederate flag flew briefly over Virginia City, Nevada. The silver out of the Comstock Lode, however, went into the Federal Treasury. As in Dakota Territory, Nevada formed units to replace Regular troops who were pulled to serve in the East.
Nevada became a state on 31 October, 1864.

The New England states were actually the first region to at least talk about secession. They were responding to the War of 1812, which they were against.

Oregon created ten cavalry companies of cavalry, but was only used in the state, and even that was supported by California troops.

Utah Territory’s involvement was limited to protecting the Overland Mail route and telegraph lines.

Washington Territory had to worry more about Shoshoni raids than any possible Confederate incursion.

The nation westward mail was served by the Pony Express from 1860 to 1861.

One of the largest news agencies that would report on the Civil War, the Associated Press, had already been in existence since 1848.

One of the two greatest naval battles of the Civil War did not take place in US waters, but in the English Channel. (USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama)

Jefferson Davis emptied his own pockets in order to quell the Richmond Bread Riots. He was backed up by militia who were also aiming muskets at the crowd.

One of the greatest stories of the Civil War, The Red Badge of Courage, was written by Stephen Crane, who was born after the war.

The Gettysburg Address was written on an envelope during the train ride to Gettysburg.

The nation’s tax system had its genesis in the Internal Revenue Act of 1864. The income tax died after the war, but was revived thanks to the 16th Amendment in 1913. On top of a 3% tax on income, there were taxes on liquor, cigars, pipe tobacco, jewelry, licenses, and even inheritances.

“In God we Trust” was stamped on coins starting in late 1864.

At Irwinville, GA on 10 May, 1865, a party of Federal cavalry entered the camp of former CS President Jefferson Davis. As he was urged to escape by his wife, Varina, a shawl was thrown over him. This led to cartoons as well as a display at P.T. Barnum’s Showhouse depicting him in a dress.