Civil War Oddities #15

A nameless German soldier with the Army of Northern Virginia lived like a hermit in every camp, and in winter hibernated like a primitive man in a hut of leaves and brush, living a life apart. His language was unintelligible, and he is said to have served through the war without exchanging an understandable word with his fellows.

Major Robert Anderson, the Union commander at Fort Sumter as the war opened, was a former slave-owner. He at first found himself at old Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, a spot where his father had served before him, in the Revolution.