The Civil War

Interesting facts
Viktoriia Rybiak
 Who took part in it:
The American Civil War was fought between the United States of
America and the Confederate States of America, a collection of
eleven southern states that left the Union in 1860 and 1861.

Time Period: April 12, 1861 – April 9, 1865

The main reason:

The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences
between the free and slave states over the power of the national
government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not
yet become states
Interesting facts
1. One-third of the soldiers who
fought for the Union Army were
immigrants, and nearly one in
10 was African American
The Union Army was a multicultural force—
even a multinational one. We often hear about
Irish soldiers, but the Union’s ranks included
even more Germans. Other immigrant soldiers
were French, Italian, Polish, English and
Scottish.
Blacks were permitted to join the Union Army
in 1863, and some scholars believe this
infusion of soldiers may have turned the tide
of the war.
2. Black Union soldiers refused their salaries for 18
months to protest being paid lower wages than
white soldiers.
When black soldiers began signing up with the Union Army in
early 1863, they were paid $10 a month. White soldiers were paid
at least $13, with officers earning more. Blacks were further
insulted when only they were charged a $3 monthly fee for
clothing.As a result, the highest-paid black soldier earned about
half the lowest-paid white soldier’s salary.
To protest these conditions, black regiments refused to accept their
inferior wages.In September 1864, black soldiers finally received
equal pay. For many, this meant they finally had enough money to
send some home to their families.
3. Harriet Tubman led a raid to free slaves during the Civil War.
Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave arrived at the Union
camp at Port Royal, South Carolina, in the spring of 1862 to
support the Union cause. She began teaching freed slave
women skills. But soon she was gathering intelligence about
the countryside from the freed slaves and taking river
reconnaissance trips.
On June 1, 1863, Tubman and Union Colonel James
Montgomery steamed into the interior with 300 black Union
soldiers. The troops swept through nearby plantations, burning
homes. Slave men, women and children came streaming from
the countryside, reminding Tubman of “the children of Israel,
coming out of Egypt.” More than 720 slaves were shuttled to
freedom during the mission.
 4. Lincoln was shot at—and almost killed— nearly two years
before he was assassinated.
Late one August evening in 1863, after an exhausting day at
the White House, Lincoln rode alone by horse to the Soldiers’
Home, his family’s summer residence. A private at the gate
heard a shot ring out and, moments later, the horse galloped
into the compound, with a bareheaded Lincoln clinging to his
steed. Lincoln explained that a gunshot had gone off at the
foot of the hill, sending the horse galloping so fast it knocked
his hat off. Two soldiers retrieved Lincoln’s hat, which had a
bullet hole right through it. The president asked the guards to
keep the incident under wraps: He didn’t want to worry his
wife Mary.
5. Before William Tecumseh Sherman became a great
Union general, he was demoted for apparent insanity.
In October 1861, William Tecumseh Sherman, commander
of Union forces in Kentucky, told U.S. Secretary of War Simon
Cameron he needed 60,000 men to defend his territory and
200,000 to go on the offensive. Cameron called Sherman’s
request “insane” and removed the general from command. In a
letter to his brother, a devastated Sherman wrote, “I do not think
that I can again be trusted with command.” But in February 1862,
Sherman was reassigned under Ulysses S. Grant, who saw not
insanity but competence in the disgraced general.

Later in the war, when a civilian badmouthed Grant, Sherman defended his friend, saying,
“General Grant is a great general. He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him
when he was drunk; and now, sir, we stand by each other always.”
6. General Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t the bloodiest
general of the war—Robert E. Lee was.
Mary Lincoln called Grant a “butcher” for the horrific
losses sustained by his troops during the Overland
Campaign in the spring of 1864—twice the number of
casualties as Lee’s army. But if casualties are counted
proportionally, Lee’s army suffered the most
throughout the war. This is because Lee relished the
attack, a trait that won him key battles such as
Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg but cost him
heavy casualties—Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg is
an example—and eventually decimated the Army of
Northern Virginia.
7. Privates weren’t cannon fodder during the Civil War—generals were.
Robert E. Lee’s impulse to
At the Battle of the
personally lead a
Wilderness, Confederate
counterattack during the
General James Longstreet
Battle of the Wilderness in
took a bullet to his
May 1864 would not have
shoulder and throat,
surprised his men if he were a
though he would be one of
bit lower in rank. That’s
the lucky few: He returned
because many top officers,
to command and outlived
including generals, literally
many generals and
led their troops into battle.
privates, dying in 1904,
For this reason, generals were
just short of his 83rd
50 percent more likely to die
birthday.
in combat than privates.
Thank You for
listening!