1. 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.
2. Sickness accounted for a full one-third of all casualties in the Civil War. The 12th Connecticut Regiment entered the war with a compliment of 1,000 men. Before it entered its first engagement, sickness had reduced its strength to 600 able bodied soldiers.
3. There were more than 10,000 soldiers serving in the Union Army that were under the age of 18.
4. 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.
5. General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate forces, traveled with a pet hen that laid one egg under his cot every morning.
6. Approximately 130,000 freed slaves became Union soldiers during the war.
7. The artillery barrage at the battle of Gettysburg during Pickett’s charge was heard over 100 miles away in Pittsburgh.
8. The famous Confederate blockade - runner, the C.S.S. Alabama, never entered a Confederate port during the length of her service.
9. The first civilian killed by the abolitionist John Brown and his cohorts at Harper’s Ferry was a free black man.
10. 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. The record for bounty –jumping was held by John O’Connor. He admitted to hiring himself out 32 times before being caught. He received a 4 year prison term.
11. Black soldiers were paid $10 per month while serving in the Union army. This was $3 less than white soldiers.
12. 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.
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