146 Fun Facts About American Civil War

Which president issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863?

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free.

What was the thick, nearly unbreakable flour-and-water cracker issued to Union soldiers called?

Hardtack, a three-inch square cracker of flour and water, kept for years but was so tough that soldiers soaked it in coffee and nicknamed it 'tooth dullers' and 'worm castles'.

Who served as president of the Confederate States of America?

Jefferson Davis served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 until the Confederacy's collapse in 1865.

What was the primary cause of the American Civil War?

While multiple factors contributed, most historians agree that slavery — particularly its expansion into new territories — was the primary cause of the Civil War.

What name did white Southerners give Northerners who moved South to take part in Reconstruction?

'Carpetbaggers' mocked Northerners who came South after 1865, supposedly with all they owned in a cheap carpet-cloth bag; white Southern Republicans were derided as 'scalawags'.

Which side did the state of Virginia primarily fight for during the Civil War?

Virginia voted to secede and join the Confederacy on April 17, 1861, two days after Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers; more major battles were fought on its soil than in any other state.

What was the bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War?

Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, produced roughly 22,700 casualties in a single day, more than any other one-day battle of the war.

Which 1870 amendment barred denying the vote 'on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude'?

The 15th Amendment, ratified on February 3, 1870, was the last of the three Reconstruction Amendments; Congress passed it in February 1869 and backed it with the Enforcement Acts of 1870-71.

Which city was the Confederate capital from February to late May 1861?

Montgomery, Alabama, hosted the provisional Confederate Congress, which adopted the provisional constitution there on February 8, 1861, and chose the 'Stars and Bars' flag there in March.

The Civil War lasted approximately how many years?

The Civil War lasted approximately four years, from April 1861 to April 1865.

Which Union officer, remembered for 'Damn the torpedoes', became the US Navy's first admiral?

David Farragut, who cried 'Damn the torpedoes' at Mobile Bay in August 1864, was made the Navy's first rear admiral in 1862 and its first full admiral in 1866.

Which famous Union general led a destructive 'March to the Sea' through Georgia in 1864?

William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea from Atlanta to Savannah in late 1864 employed total war tactics, destroying infrastructure and civilian property to break the Confederacy's will to fight.

What was the first state to secede from the Union before the Civil War?

South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860, following the election of Abraham Lincoln.

The Battle of Gettysburg took place in which state?

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1-3, 1863, took place in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and was the war's bloodiest battle overall.

What was the Union plan to blockade Southern ports and control the Mississippi called?

The Anaconda Plan, proposed by General Winfield Scott, aimed to squeeze the Confederacy by blockading Southern ports and controlling the Mississippi River, much like an anaconda constricts its prey.

Where was President Abraham Lincoln assassinated?

Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 14, 1865, while watching the play 'Our American Cousin', five days after Lee's surrender.

Which famous speech, delivered by Lincoln in November 1863, begins 'Four score and seven years ago'?

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, is one of the most famous speeches in American history.

During the Civil War, what killed more soldiers than combat?

Disease was responsible for approximately two-thirds of all Civil War deaths. Diarrhea, typhoid fever, dysentery, and other illnesses killed far more soldiers than battlefield wounds.

Who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln?

John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, and was hunted down and killed in Virginia twelve days later.

What was the significance of the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862?

The Battle of Hampton Roads was the first engagement between ironclad warships — the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly Merrimack) — revolutionizing naval warfare worldwide.

Which slave state stayed in the Union and, surrounding Washington, D.C., was a key strategic prize?

Maryland was a crucial border state — if it had seceded, Washington D.C. would have been surrounded by Confederate territory. Lincoln took extraordinary measures to keep it in the Union.

What was the name of the Union's all-Black regiment made famous in the assault on Fort Wagner?

The 54th Massachusetts Infantry, led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, became famous for their courageous assault on Fort Wagner in July 1863, as depicted in the film 'Glory.'

The Siege of Vicksburg gave the Union control of which major waterway?

The fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, gave the Union complete control of the Mississippi River, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two.

Which state was admitted to the Union in 1863 after breaking away from a Confederate state?

West Virginia was admitted to the Union in 1863 after its western counties broke away from Virginia, which had seceded to join the Confederacy.

Which Confederate general was accidentally shot by his own troops at the Battle of Chancellorsville?

Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own North Carolina pickets in the dark on May 2, 1863, after his flank attack at Chancellorsville, and died eight days later.

What term described Northerners who opposed the Civil War and wanted peace with the Confederacy?

Copperheads were Northern Democrats who opposed the war and advocated for an immediate peace settlement with the South. The name referenced the venomous snake.

What event in 1859 is often considered a catalyst that pushed the nation closer to civil war?

John Brown's failed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859 inflamed sectional tensions. Brown hoped to spark a slave uprising, and his execution made him a martyr in the North.

Which former Union general became the 18th President of the United States?

Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of the Union Army, was elected the 18th President in 1868 and served two terms until 1877.

What term did General Benjamin Butler apply to escaped slaves he refused to return in 1861?

Butler, commanding Fort Monroe in May 1861, declared three escaped slaves 'contraband' of war, enemy property he could seize, so he need not return them to their Confederate owner.

What was the notorious Confederate POW camp in Georgia where thousands of Union soldiers died?

Andersonville (officially Camp Sumter) in Georgia was the most infamous Civil War prison camp. Nearly 13,000 of its 45,000 Union prisoners died from disease, malnutrition, and exposure.

Which 1857 Supreme Court ruling declared enslaved people were not US citizens and could not sue in federal court?

The Dred Scott v. Sandford decision ruled that African Americans could not be citizens and that Congress had no power to ban slavery in U.S. territories, deepening the divide that led to war.

Which Confederate cavalry commander was known as 'the Gray Ghost' for his guerrilla raids?

Colonel John S. Mosby led the 43rd Battalion of Virginia Cavalry in daring raids throughout northern Virginia, earning him the nickname 'the Gray Ghost' for his ability to appear and vanish.

The July 1863 New York City draft riots turned into mob violence against which group?

The New York Draft Riots of July 1863 turned into a race riot against African Americans. Rioters burned the Colored Orphan Asylum and lynched Black men in the streets over five days of violence.

What name is given to the doomed Confederate infantry assault of about 12,000 men on the Union center on Gettysburg's third day?

Roughly half the men who stepped off became casualties: Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863 crossed open ground toward Cemetery Ridge and was shredded by Union rifle and artillery fire.

Which formerly enslaved Union spy and nurse was the first woman to lead an armed assault in the Civil War?

Harriet Tubman served as a Union spy and scout, and in June 1863 she led the Combahee River Raid in South Carolina, freeing more than 700 enslaved people — the first woman to lead an armed assault in the war.

Which 1868 constitutional change granted birthright citizenship and equal protection under the law?

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, established birthright citizenship and equal protection under the law, becoming one of the most significant constitutional amendments in American history.

Which organization, created by six Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee on Christmas Eve 1865, used terror to suppress Black political participation?

The Ku Klux Klan, founded in Pulaski on December 24, 1865, grew from a veterans' social club into a terror network that attacked Black voters and Republican officials until the Enforcement Acts of 1870-71 broke it up.

What was the name of the Confederacy's commerce raider that destroyed over 60 Union merchant ships before being sunk off the coast of France?

The CSS Alabama, captained by Raphael Semmes, was the most successful Confederate raider, capturing or destroying 65 Union vessels before being sunk by the USS Kearsarge near Cherbourg, France in 1864.

Whose house hosted the Appomattox surrender, after he had also witnessed the war's first major battle at home?

Wilmer McLean's home near Manassas was damaged during the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861. He moved to Appomattox Court House to escape the war — only to have Lee surrender in his parlor in 1865.

The first soldier to die in the Civil War, Union private Daniel Hough, was killed how?

Not a single man on either side was killed during the 34-hour bombardment itself; Hough died during the 100-gun salute to the flag after the surrender.

What 1862 law gave settlers 160 acres of western land if they farmed it for five years?

The Homestead Act of 1862 opened up settlement of western lands. With Southern states absent from Congress, the law passed easily and reshaped the American West for decades.

How were Black Union soldiers initially paid compared to their white counterparts?

Black soldiers received $10 per month (with $3 deducted for clothing) compared to $13 for white soldiers. Many Black troops refused unequal pay entirely until Congress equalized wages in 1864.

What informal bargain that made Rutherford B. Hayes president is regarded as the end of Reconstruction?

The Compromise of 1877 resolved the disputed 1876 presidential election by giving Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in exchange for withdrawing federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.

Which technology did the Union use to observe Confederate positions from the air?

Thaddeus Lowe's Union Army Balloon Corps flew hydrogen-filled observation balloons from 1861, spotting Confederate positions and relaying reports to the ground by telegraph.

The worst maritime disaster in U.S. history came in April 1865 when which steamboat exploded on the Mississippi?

The Sultana, licensed for 376 passengers, carried about 2,100 people, mostly paroled Union prisoners, when three of her four boilers burst near Memphis on April 27, 1865, killing an estimated 1,200 or more.

Which Confederate general's 'Lost Order', found wrapped around cigars, revealed his plan before Antietam?

Robert E. Lee's Special Order No. 191, detailing his plan to divide the Army of Northern Virginia, was found by Union soldiers wrapped around three cigars and delivered to General McClellan before Antietam.

What federal agency, set up in 1865, helped formerly enslaved people with jobs, education and land?

The Freedmen's Bureau (officially the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands) was set up in March 1865 to help formerly enslaved people, providing food, housing, medical aid, schools and legal assistance.

Which sitting president told Congress in 1860 that states could not secede but the government could not stop them?

James Buchanan's December 1860 annual message argued that secession was illegal but that the Constitution gave the federal government no power to coerce a state, and blamed Northern 'intemperate interference' with slavery.

Who served as the only vice president of the Confederate States?

He later governed the state he came from: Alexander H. Stephens was Confederate vice president from 1861 to 1865 and died in office as Georgia's governor in 1883.

Which Union general's distinctive facial hair gave English the word 'sideburns'?

Burnside was also a three-time governor of Rhode Island and an inventor; the word came from swapping the two syllables of his surname.

In which Texas city did General Gordon Granger announce emancipation on June 19, 1865?

At Galveston on June 19, 1865, Granger issued General Order No. 3 declaring all enslaved people in Texas free, the event commemorated as Juneteenth.

What name did the sunken farm road at the center of the Antietam battlefield earn?

Bloody Lane, a sunken road held by Confederates for about three hours on September 17, 1862, was finally overrun by Union troops at a cost of roughly 5,500 casualties on both sides.

What city served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for most of the Civil War?

Richmond, Virginia, became the Confederate capital in late May 1861 and held that role until Union troops entered the city on April 3, 1865.

Which September 1863 clash was the first major battle fought in Georgia?

Chickamauga, fought September 19-20, 1863, in northwest Georgia, cost about 34,600 casualties, the war's second-highest total after Gettysburg, and drove Rosecrans's Union army back into Chattanooga.

Which holiday did Lincoln proclaim as a national observance in October 1863?

Lincoln's proclamation of October 3, 1863, set the last Thursday of November as a national day of Thanksgiving, a cause pressed for years by editor Sarah Josepha Hale.

What was the secret network of routes and safe houses that helped enslaved people escape called?

The Underground Railroad used coded terms like 'stations' and 'conductors'; Harriet Tubman, its most famous conductor, guided about 70 people to freedom on roughly 13 trips before the war.

The Trent Affair of 1861 threatened to bring which European power into the war against the Union?

USS San Jacinto had stopped a British mail packet and removed two Confederate envoys, James Mason and John Slidell; the Lincoln administration released them after several tense weeks.

What was a common nickname for Confederate soldiers during the Civil War?

Confederate soldiers were often referred to as 'Johnny Reb,' a diminutive of 'rebel,' reflecting the Southern cause.

Union soldiers were often referred to by what nickname?

'Billy Yank' was the generic name for the Union soldier, from 'Yankee'; with his Confederate counterpart he became a stock figure in postwar cartoons and memorials.

Which addition to the U.S. Constitution officially abolished slavery?

Ratified in December 1865, the 13th Amendment formally abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

Which Union soldier fatally shot Lincoln's assassin as he hid in a burning barn in rural Virginia?

Sergeant Boston Corbett of the 16th New York Cavalry fired through a gap in the barn wall on April 26, 1865, despite orders to take the assassin alive, and was released unpunished.

Which 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe novel was the best-selling US novel of the 19th century?

Uncle Tom's Cabin sold about 300,000 copies in the United States in its first year, 1852, and became the century's best-selling American novel, second only to the Bible as a book.

Which April 1862 Tennessee battle took its name from a small church near Pittsburg Landing?

Shiloh, fought April 6-7, 1862, took its name from Shiloh Church near Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, where Grant's army was camped; it cost nearly 24,000 casualties.

Who was the nurse known as the 'Angel of the Battlefield' for her work during the Civil War?

Clara Barton earned the nickname 'Angel of the Battlefield' for her tireless efforts to provide aid and supplies to wounded soldiers on the front lines during the Civil War, and later founded the American Red Cross.

Which June-July 1862 fighting drove McClellan's army back from Richmond to the James River?

The Seven Days, June 25 to July 1, 1862, saw Lee, newly in command, attack McClellan repeatedly and push the Army of the Potomac back to Harrison's Landing on the James River.

Where did Joseph E. Johnston surrender the last major Confederate army in April 1865?

At Bennett Place, a farmhouse near Durham Station, North Carolina, Sherman first accepted political terms Washington rejected, then on April 26, 1865, signed a purely military surrender with Johnston.

What color were the uniforms of most Confederate soldiers?

Confederate regulations prescribed gray uniforms, though shortages meant many soldiers wore homespun 'butternut' brown; Union troops wore dark blue.

Who was the Union commander at the First Battle of Bull Run?

General Irvin McDowell commanded the Union forces at the First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas) in July 1861, which resulted in a Confederate victory and a disorganized Union retreat.

Who was Lincoln's wife, a Kentucky-born woman whose half-brothers fought for the Confederacy?

Mary Todd, born in Lexington, Kentucky, married Lincoln in 1842; several of her half-brothers served in the Confederate army, which fed wartime gossip about her loyalty.

What did the United States Sanitary Commission do during the Civil War?

A private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, it relied largely on volunteers to improve hygiene and supply Union hospitals.

Which of these Border States remained loyal to the Union despite allowing slavery?

Kentucky tried to stay neutral at first, then split between rival Unionist and Confederate governments before falling under Union occupation after 1862.

What act, passed in 1863, was the first genuine national conscription law in the United States?

The Enrollment Act of March 3, 1863, made male citizens aged 20 to 45 liable for the draft; its enforcement in New York City set off the draft riots of July 1863.

Which state was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, the second state added during the Civil War?

Nevada's constitution was telegraphed to Washington in October 1864 at a cost of $4,303.27, then the costliest telegram ever sent, so statehood could be proclaimed before the November election.

What was the purpose of the Crittenden Compromise, proposed in late 1860?

The Crittenden Compromise was a last-ditch effort proposed in December 1860 to prevent Southern states from seceding by offering constitutional amendments that would permanently protect slavery, but it ultimately failed.

Who was the only woman awarded the Medal of Honor for Civil War service?

Mary Edwards Walker, a surgeon with the Union army, was captured in April 1864 after crossing Confederate lines to treat civilians, held four months as a spy, and received the Medal of Honor in November 1865.

Union attacks at Fredericksburg were repulsed at a stone wall on which fortified ridge?

Union casualties were more than twice the Confederates'; a visitor called it a 'butchery' to Lincoln.

Which Illinois senator wrote the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, letting territories vote on slavery?

Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois drafted the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which let settlers in each territory decide on slavery and repealed the Missouri Compromise's 36°30' line.

Which battle do some historians describe as Lee's 'perfect battle'?

Chancellorsville, May 1-6, 1863: Lee, outnumbered roughly two to one by Joseph Hooker, split his army and sent Jackson on a flank march that routed the Union right.

What did Stonewall Jackson die of, eight days after being wounded in May 1863?

Jackson's left arm was amputated on May 3, 1863, and he seemed to rally, but pneumonia set in and he died on May 10 at Guinea Station, Virginia.

Which May 1864 battle opened Grant's Overland Campaign against Lee?

The Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864, fought in tangled second-growth forest west of Fredericksburg, cost nearly 29,000 casualties and opened Grant's six-week Overland Campaign against Lee.

Which June 1864 assault intensified criticism of Grant's indifference to heavy casualties?

Cold Harbor's frontal assault on June 3, 1864, cost the Union thousands of men in a single morning, an attack Grant later wrote in his memoirs he had always regretted ordering.

Colonel Henry Pleasants, who proposed the mine at the Crater, was what in civilian life?

Colonel Henry Pleasants, a mining engineer, proposed tunneling under Elliott's Salient at Petersburg.

Which 1862 victory earned Grant the nickname 'Unconditional Surrender' Grant?

The fort's fall opened an invasion route into the South and turned an obscure brigadier into a major general: Fort Donelson gave Grant both a promotion and his nickname.

Which November 1864 battle is sometimes called the 'Pickett's Charge of the West'?

Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864: Hood's frontal assault across two miles of open ground cost about 6,000 Confederate casualties, including six generals killed, among them Patrick Cleburne.

Which Union general routed John Bell Hood's army at Nashville in December 1864?

George H. Thomas attacked Hood outside Nashville on December 15-16, 1864, and drove the shattered Army of Tennessee in headlong retreat into Mississippi.

At Mobile Bay in 1864, what were the 'torpedoes' in the order 'Damn the torpedoes'?

The 'torpedoes' were naval mines, anchored contact explosives Confederates had sown across the Mobile Bay channel; on August 5, 1864, one sank the monitor USS Tecumseh just before the admiral's order.

Which 1862 battle ended the Confederacy's attempt to conquer the New Mexico Territory?

It was the westernmost operation of the war; the South lost when its supply train was destroyed.

The Battle of Pea Ridge, which secured Missouri for the Union, was fought in which state?

Also called Elkhorn Tavern, it saw Samuel Curtis defeat Earl Van Dorn in March 1862.

Which major battle had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides?

Stones River, fought December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863, near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, cost each side roughly a third of its engaged strength, the highest proportion of any major battle.

What was the Union supply route into besieged Chattanooga nicknamed?

The Cracker Line, opened in late October 1863 via Brown's Ferry on the Tennessee River, brought rations into besieged Chattanooga; the siege was broken in November 1863.

Which Union general won the Battle of Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga in 1863?

Joseph Hooker's troops took Lookout Mountain on November 24, 1863, in the fog-shrouded 'Battle Above the Clouds', while Sherman struck the northern end of Missionary Ridge.

Which Union general ran against Lincoln as the Democratic candidate in 1864?

George B. McClellan, the general Lincoln had removed in 1862, won the Democratic nomination in August 1864 and carried only New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky against Lincoln in November.

What was McClellan's spring 1862 campaign to take Richmond from the east called?

The Peninsula Campaign began in March 1862 with an amphibious landing at Fort Monroe from Chesapeake Bay and advanced up the Virginia Peninsula toward Richmond before stalling east of the city.

Gettysburg victor George Meade was born in which country?

George Meade was born in Cádiz, Spain, on December 31, 1815, to a Philadelphia merchant family; as an army engineer he later built lighthouses on the Florida coast.

Which Confederate general did Lee call his 'Old War Horse'?

Longstreet was Lee's principal subordinate and corps commander for most of the Eastern Theater battles.

At which 1864 battle was Confederate cavalry general Jeb Stuart mortally wounded?

Yellow Tavern, north of Richmond, on May 11, 1864: Stuart was shot during Sheridan's cavalry raid and died the next day, costing Lee the 'eyes and ears' of his army.

Which Confederate cavalry general later became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan?

Nathan Bedford Forrest, a prewar slave trader who rose from private to lieutenant general, was reputedly elected the Klan's first Grand Wizard at its Nashville convention in 1867.

Sheridan's 1864 destruction of the Shenandoah Valley's economy was known locally as what?

The Burning: in late September and October 1864, Sheridan's troops destroyed barns, mills and crops across the Shenandoah Valley, Lee's breadbasket, so Jubal Early's army could no longer live off it.

Which October 1864 battle inspired the poem 'Sheridan's Ride'?

Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864: Sheridan rode from Winchester to rally his routed army and turn Jubal Early's dawn surprise attack into a decisive Union victory, inspiring Thomas Buchanan Read's poem.

Lincoln's 1862 letter saying his 'paramount object' was to save the Union answered which editor?

Horace Greeley's New York Tribune editorial 'The Prayer of Twenty Millions' drew Lincoln's public reply of August 22, 1862: 'My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union.'

Which general commanded the Confederate forces that fired on Fort Sumter?

P. G. T. Beauregard, the Confederacy's first brigadier general, commanded at Charleston and ordered the bombardment of Fort Sumter that began at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861.

Which Confederate general, a North Carolinian turned Louisiana sugar planter, commanded the Army of Tennessee from June 1862 to December 1863?

His army started out as the Army of Mississippi and was renamed under him: Braxton Bragg held the command from June 1862 until December 1863, having left the US Army in 1856.

Which injury did John Bell Hood suffer at Gettysburg?

He later lost his right leg at Chickamauga and commanded the doomed Franklin assault.

Who was the first Jewish person to hold a Cabinet position in North America?

Judah P. Benjamin, a U.S. senator from Louisiana before secession, joined the Confederate cabinet as attorney general in February 1861.

Which Ohio antiwar congressman, banished to Confederate lines in 1863, ran for governor from Canada?

Clement Vallandigham was arrested in May 1863 for denouncing the war, banished by Lincoln to Confederate lines, and then campaigned for Ohio governor from Windsor, Canada, losing to John Brough.

Who served as Lincoln's secretary of war for most of the Civil War?

Edwin Stanton replaced Simon Cameron as secretary of war in January 1862 and ran the War Department with ferocious energy until 1868, also directing the manhunt for Lincoln's assassin.

Civil War photographer Mathew Brady studied under which inventor?

Morse pioneered the daguerreotype in America; Brady opened his New York studio in 1844.

From which town's hotel did spy Belle Boyd feed information to Stonewall Jackson?

From her family's hotel in Front Royal, Virginia, in May 1862, Belle Boyd gathered Union plans and ran through the lines to alert Jackson's advancing troops.

Which Richmond woman ran an extensive Union spy ring in the heart of the Confederacy?

Elizabeth Van Lew, a Richmond abolitionist, ran a Union spy ring that fed Grant intelligence and helped Union prisoners escape; she was made Richmond's postmaster in 1869.

Which Union warship did the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley sink in February 1864?

USS Housatonic, a sloop-of-war on blockade off Charleston, sank on February 17, 1864, after Hunley's spar torpedo exploded against her hull; the submarine was lost with all eight crew.

Richard Jordan Gatling, inventor of the 1861 rapid-fire gun, came from which state?

Richard Jordan Gatling was born in Hertford County, North Carolina, in 1818; his hand-cranked, multi-barrel gun of 1861 was a forerunner of the modern rotary cannon.

Which two rifled muskets, the war's most common weapons, fired the Minié ball?

The Springfield Model 1861 and the British Enfield Pattern 1853, rifled muskets of about .58 caliber, fired the hollow-based Minié ball, which inflicted far worse wounds than the old round ball.

Why were the Union's emergency paper notes called 'greenbacks'?

Demand Notes came first in 1861-62, then United States Notes from 1862-65.

What rate did the first US federal income tax, in the Revenue Act of 1861, impose?

The Revenue Act of August 5, 1861, levied a flat 3 percent tax on annual incomes above $800; it was never collected and was replaced by the graduated Revenue Act of 1862.

Roughly how many Black soldiers served in the United States Colored Troops?

More than 178,000 Black soldiers served in the United States Colored Troops, about a tenth of the Union army, organized in some 175 regiments after the Bureau of Colored Troops was created in May 1863.

Which Louisiana stronghold, the last Confederate bastion on the Mississippi, surrendered on July 9, 1863?

Port Hudson, Louisiana, surrendered on July 9, 1863, after a 48-day siege in which the Black regiments of the Louisiana Native Guards made one of the war's first assaults by Black troops.

Who was the last Confederate general to surrender?

Stand Watie, a Cherokee leader and the Confederacy's only Native American general, surrendered his Indian Territory troops at Doaksville on June 23, 1865, more than two months after Appomattox.

The commerce raider CSS Shenandoah mostly attacked which kind of Union vessel?

CSS Shenandoah preyed mainly on New Bedford whaling ships, burning most of the 38 vessels she took, the last of them whalers in the Bering Sea in late June 1865, weeks after the war had ended.

Julia Ward Howe sold the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' to The Atlantic for how much?

The Atlantic Monthly paid Julia Ward Howe $4 for the poem, printing it in February 1862; she had written it in November 1861 to the tune of 'John Brown's Body'.

Which Union general arranged the bugle call 'Taps' in July 1862?

Daniel Butterfield, with bugler Oliver Norton, arranged 'Taps' at Harrison's Landing, Virginia, in July 1862 as a gentler lights-out call; it was soon used at military funerals as well.

Who was the last Civil War veteran to serve as President of the United States?

William McKinley, who enlisted as a private in the 23rd Ohio in 1861 and left the army a brevet major, was the last Civil War veteran elected president, serving from 1897 to 1901.

Which Seneca officer on Grant's staff drafted the final Appomattox surrender terms?

Parker, an engineer, later became commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Where did Forrest's troops massacre surrendering Union soldiers in April 1864?

At Fort Pillow, Tennessee, on April 12, 1864, Forrest's men killed some 300 of the garrison, most of them Black soldiers, many after they had surrendered; Congress investigated it as a massacre.

Who was the first woman executed by the US federal government?

Mary Surratt, whose Washington boarding house hosted the assassination conspirators, was hanged with three others on July 7, 1865, the first woman executed by the federal government.

In which month of 1865 did the Grand Review of the Armies parade through Washington?

The Grand Review of the Armies marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on May 23 and 24, 1865, Meade's Army of the Potomac one day and Sherman's western armies the next.

Which enslaved pilot commandeered the Confederate ship Planter and fled to Union lines?

Smalls freed his crew and families and later served in the US House of Representatives.

Roughly how many men and boys died in Quantrill's 1863 raid on Lawrence?

Quantrill's some 400 guerrillas killed about 150 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas, on August 21, 1863, burning much of the town in revenge for Jayhawker raids into Missouri.

How much did Britain pay the US in 1872 to settle the Alabama Claims?

The Geneva arbitration tribunal awarded the United States $15.5 million in gold in September 1872 for damage done by Confederate commerce raiders that Britain had allowed to be built in its shipyards.

Roughly how many words long is the Gettysburg Address?

The Gettysburg Address runs to about 270 words, ten sentences that took Lincoln roughly two minutes to deliver on November 19, 1863.

Who gave the two-hour main oration at Gettysburg before Lincoln's brief remarks?

Edward Everett, a former Massachusetts senator and celebrated orator, spoke for about two hours at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863; he later told Lincoln the president had said more in two minutes.

For which branch of the US military was the Medal of Honor first created, in 1861?

The Navy's Medal of Honor was created by an act Lincoln signed on December 21, 1861; the Army's version followed on July 12, 1862.

Which merchant ship was fired on in January 1861 while trying to resupply Sumter?

The Star of the West, an unarmed civilian steamer chartered by the War Department, was hit by shore batteries on Morris Island on January 9, 1861, and turned back without reaching Sumter.

Which Union major commanded the garrison at Fort Sumter when it was bombarded?

Anderson had moved his men from Fort Moultrie to Sumter on December 26, 1860.

Which Union general accepted the formal Confederate stacking of arms at Appomattox?

Joshua Chamberlain, the Maine professor turned general, received the Confederate infantry's formal surrender of arms on April 12, 1865, ordering his men to salute as some 28,000 paroled soldiers stacked their weapons.

Which veterans' group proclaimed the first Decoration Day, later Memorial Day, in 1868?

The Grand Army of the Republic's commander-in-chief, John A. Logan, issued General Order No. 11 on May 5, 1868, setting May 30 to decorate the graves of the Union dead.

Which Ohio-born minstrel composer is usually credited with writing 'Dixie'?

Emmett claimed the copyright in 1860, but dozens of others later claimed the song.

A 2011 census-based recalculation put the Civil War soldier death toll at about how many?

Demographer J. David Hacker's 2011 analysis of census survival rates raised the estimated soldier death toll to about 750,000, a fifth higher than the traditional 620,000.

At which May 1862 battle was Joseph E. Johnston wounded, giving Lee command of the army?

Joseph E. Johnston was badly wounded at Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) on May 31, 1862; the next day Robert E. Lee was given command of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Which fort guarding Savannah fell in April 1862 after rifled cannon breached its brick walls?

Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island at the mouth of the Savannah River, surrendered on April 11, 1862, after Union rifled guns on Tybee Island breached its walls in about 30 hours, making masonry forts obsolete.

Near which Texas city was the Battle of Palmito Ranch, often called the war's final battle, fought in May 1865?

Palmito Ranch, about 12 miles east of Brownsville, was fought May 12-13, 1865, more than a month after Appomattox, and ended in a Confederate victory under John S. 'Rip' Ford.

Which Union general, beaten by Jubal Early at Monocacy in July 1864 yet delaying his raid on Washington, later wrote Ben-Hur?

Losing bought a day: Lew Wallace's defeat six miles from Frederick, Maryland was the northernmost Confederate victory of the war, but it slowed Early's raid on Washington.

At which fort on Washington's northern edge did Lincoln stand under Confederate fire in July 1864, as Early's raiders neared the capital?

A surgeon standing beside Lincoln was hit before an officer ordered the president down: Early's men got within four miles of the White House, and Lincoln watched from the Fort Stevens parapet.

The 1862 Morrill Act, passed during the war, funded colleges focused on agriculture and what else?

The Morrill Act, signed July 2, 1862, granted states federal land to endow colleges teaching agriculture and the mechanic arts, meaning mechanical studies, plus military tactics; Southern absence from Congress removed the earlier opposition.

Who served as Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy for the entire war?

Gideon Welles, a Connecticut newspaperman Lincoln nicknamed 'Father Neptune', ran the Navy Department from March 1861 to 1869, expanding the fleet from about 90 ships to nearly 700.

The February 1864 Battle of Olustee was the largest Civil War battle in which state?

Olustee, fought February 20, 1864, near Lake City, was Florida's largest battle: Truman Seymour's column, advancing west from Jacksonville against orders, was repulsed with about 1,860 casualties.

After the war, Confederate raider John S. Mosby became a Republican and served as US consul where?

John S. Mosby, shunned by fellow Virginians for campaigning for the Republicans in 1872, was appointed U.S. consul at Hong Kong in 1878 and served there until 1885.