Strange and interesting facts about the Civil War.

~During the Civil War, including the times before and after, it was legal and socially acceptable for a man to beat his wife, provided that the instrument used in the beating was no thicker that his thumb? Thus we get the term: Rule of thumb.

~General Stonewall Jackson walked around with his right hand in the air to balance the blood flow in his body? Because he was right-handed, he thought that his right hand was getting more blood than his left, and so by raising his hand, he'd allow the excess blood to run into his left hand. He also never ate food that tasted good, because he assumed that anything that tasted good was completely unhealthy.

~The average man's salary was between twelve to fifteen dollars a week, and the average man in the North, especially Massachusetts, was employed as a shoemaker.

~Before and after the Civil War, doorways were built wide, so coffins could be passed through, with a pallbearer on either side. 

~Germs were unheard of during the Civil War, and men would drink out of water that thirty yards upstream, a man relieved himself in? Surgeons never washed their hands after an operation, because all blood was assumed to be the same, nor did he wash his instruments.

~When a woman mourned for her husband in the 1860's, she spent a minimum of two-and-a-half years in mourning? That meant little or no social activities: no parties, no outings, no visitors, and a wardrobe that consisted of nothing but black. The husband, when mourning for his wife, however, spent three months in a black suit.

 ~Not all battles of the Civil War were fought in the South? The Confederates actually managed to sneak all the way up to Vermont to fight, via Canada.

~Lincoln did not believe that whites and blacks could live together in peace. He had planned to relocate the entire black population of the United States to Central America. 

~President Lincoln’s favorite tune was “Dixie”. 

~During the Victorian era, the dead was a part of life, and the dead remained in the house up until they were buried. The tradition of flowers around the coffin comes from the Victorians trying to hide the scent of rotting flesh.

~When a child died in the Victorian era, a lot of pictures of sleeping children are actually of dead children. Parents would also pose with their deceased little ones in one last family picture.

~The average American in the 1860's could not afford to paint his house, and a painted house was a sign of affluence? In order to keep up appearances, they used cedar clapboards.

~The artillery barrage at the battle of Gettysburg during Pickett’s charge was heard over 100 miles away in Pittsburgh.

~There were more than 10,000 soldiers serving in the Union Army that were under the age of 18.

~During the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the only civilian to die was twenty-year-old Mary Virginia "Jennie" Wade, who was shot through the heart while making bread. 

~Union and Confederate forces stationed at Fredericksburg during the winter of 1862 traded items by constructing small boats and floating them back and forth across the Rappahannock River.

~Approximately 130,000 freed slaves became Union soldiers during the war.

~The first civilian killed by the abolitionist John Brown and his cohorts at Harper’s Ferry was a free black man. 

~General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate forces, traveled with a pet hen that laid one egg under his cot every morning.

~During the Civil war a person who had been drafted could hire a substitute. This bounty system was exploited by so called “bounty jumpers”. These men would hire out to more than one draftee and then make a hasty exit once they were paid.

~Black soldiers were paid $10 per month while serving in the Union army. This was $3 less than white soldiers. 

~Approximately 2,000 men served in the 26th North Carolina Regiment during the course of the Civil War.  With Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox courthouse, there were only 131 men left to receive their paroles.

~Sickness accounted for a full one-third of all casualties in the Civil War.  At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War.