Civil War Oddities #25

The town of Winchester, Virginia, changed hands seventy six times during the war, as the armies surged to and fro in the Northern Shenandoah Valley.

Civil War Oddities #24

The Confederate General, Nathan Bedford Forrest, classed by some historians as the war’s most able cavalry commander, had twenty-nine horses shot from under him in the course of the war. He survived to become a founder of the Ku Klux Klan.

Civil War Oddities #23

The fearsome Confederate ironclad ram Arkansas dueled the Federal gunboat Carondelet at the mouth of the Yazoo River in July 1862. Northern courage and Southern ingenuity produced a drawn battle. Shells could not damage the ram, and the Federal boat, when shot through by cannon fire, drew alongside the Arkansas and sent a boarding party onto the decks of the ram.


Once there, the daring Yankees were at a loss, for the ram's crew merely retired below decks, slammed the iron hatches after them, and left no one to fight. A stalemate resulted.

Civil War Oddities #22

Early in the war, when Confederate invasion of Washington was threatened, field guns were placed in hallways of the Capitol and Treasury building.

The iron plate’s cast for the dome of the Capitol was raised on heavy timbers between columns of the building as breastworks. Statuary and pictures were shielded with heavy planking, and an army kitchen was set up in the basement.

Civil War Oddities #21

In the Confederate retreat as the battle of Shiloh ended, three gray-clad officers rode past Colonel A. K. Johnson, of the 28^th Illinois regiment. Johnson chased and fired at one rider. The victim slumped on his horse’s neck, but Johnson, thinking this a feint, rode nearer and seized the Confederate by the hair to drag him from the saddle. A tug brought his a trophy, a wig. The Confederate officer was dead, and soon toppled to the ground.

Civil War Oddities #20

Secretary of War Simon Cameron, a Pennsylvania politician in Lincoln’s Cabinet, opposed early orders for European rifles, saying that these should be bought at home, and that the North already had too many guns for the men at hand. One result: The Confederates were able to reach some markets first, and import arms they would otherwise have lost.

Civil War Oddities #19

Secretary of War Simon Cameron, a Pennsylvanian politician in Lincoln’s Cabinet, opposed early orders for European rifles, saying that these should be bought at home, and that the North already had too many guns for the men at hand. One result: The Confederates were able to reach some markets first, and import arms they would otherwise have lost.