Facts, Statistics & Trivia
Charts and Graphs from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
The war resulted in at least 1,030,000 casualties (3 percent of the population), including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease—and 50,000 civilians. Binghamton University historian J. David Hacker believes the number of soldier deaths was approximately 750,000, 20 percent higher than traditionally estimated, and possibly as high as 850,000. The war accounted for more American deaths than in all other U.S. wars combined until the Vietnam War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
Army Organization
COMPANY
A company was the basic unit in a Civil War army.
A company had approximately 100 men and was commanded by a captain.
Companies were named with the letters A–K
(J was not used because it looked too much like I.)
REGIMENT
A regiment usually contained ten companies.
A regiment had approximately 1,000 men and was commanded by a colonel.
If the unit had only four to eight companies, it was called a battalion rather than a regiment.
BRIGADE
A brigade contained an average of four regiments.
A brigade had approximately 4,000 men and was commanded by a brigadier general.
Union brigades were named with numbers, but Confederate brigades were often named after their current or former commanding officers.
DIVISION
A division contained three to five brigades.
A division had approximately 12,000 men and was commanded by a major general.
Confederate divisions tended to contain more brigades than their Union counterparts. Confederate divisions often had twice as many men as Union divisions had.
CORPS
A corps contained an average of three divisions.
A corps had approximately 36,000 men and was commanded by a major general (Union) or a lieutenant general (Confederate).
ARMY
An army comprised from one to eight corps.
An army was commanded by a general.
The Union often named its armies after rivers or waterways, i.e., Army of the Potomac. The Confederacy named its armies after states or regions, i.e., Army of Northern Virginia.
https://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/civil-war-army-organization-and-rank
Corps badges in the American Civil War were originally worn by soldiers of the Union Army on the top of their army forage cap (kepi), left side of the hat, or over their left breast. The idea is attributed to Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny, who ordered the men in his division to sew a two-inch square of red cloth on their hats to avoid confusion on the battlefield. This idea was adopted by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker after he assumed command of the Army of the Potomac, so any soldier could be identified at a distance.
Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, Hooker's chief of staff, was assigned the task of designing a distinctive shape for each corps badge. Butterfield also designated that each division in the corps should have a variation of the corps badge in a different color. Division badges were colored as follows:
Red — First division of corps
White — Second division of corps
Blue — Third division of corps
These were used in the United States' Army of the Potomac. For the most part, these rules were adopted by other Union Armies, however it was not universal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_Corps_Badges
The United States National Park Service uses the following figures in its official tally of war losses:
Union: 853,838
110,100 killed in action
224,580 disease deaths
275,154 wounded in action
211,411 captured (including 30,192 who died as POWs)
Confederate: 914,660
94,000 killed in action
164,000 disease deaths
194,026 wounded in action
462,634 captured (including 31,000 who died as POWs)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
The war began when the Confederates bombarded Union soldiers at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861. The war ended in Spring, 1865. Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The last battle was fought at Palmito Ranch, Texas, on May 13, 1865.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-facts
1860 Presidential Election Results
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, Republican Party: 39.8%
Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, Northern Democratic Party: 29.5%
John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, Southern Democratic Party: 18.1%
John Bell of Tennessee, Constitutional Union Party: 12.6%
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-facts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_presidential_election
The United States Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1868), determined that secession was unconstitutional. Chief Justice Salmon Chase wrote in his majority opinion that, "The ordinance of secession...and all the acts of legislature intended to give effect to that ordinance, were absolutely null. They were utterly without operation in law."
George Washington Custis Lee, also known as Custis Lee, was the eldest son of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee.
From 1850 to 1854, Lee attended West Point. Toward the end of his first year he was almost expelled, when alcohol was found in his room. At the beginning of his third year, his father became the Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy. Lee graduated first in his class of forty-six, in 1854. He resigned from the Army, in the spring of 1861 after Virginia seceded from the Union. He resigned about two weeks after his father had done the same. Lee then offered his services to his father's Virginia state forces.
After the war, Custis Lee sued in a case with assistance from Robert Lincoln that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court to regain title to the family mansion, Arlington House and plantation, which had become Arlington National Cemetery. Lee's case, United States v. Lee (106 U.S. 196), was decided in his favor by a 5–4 vote, in 1882. Lee won both the house and the 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) surrounding the mansion. In 1883, Lee sold Arlington House to the United States Government for $150,000.
Sydney Smith Lee , called Smith Lee in his lifetime, was an American naval officer who served as a captain in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the older brother of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.
Commander Lee served as commandant of the U.S. Naval Academy and Philadelphia Navy Yard. He resigned from the service on April 17, 1861, the day Virginia declared it had seceded, though the resignation was not accepted. After dismissal on April 22, 1861, he accepted a commission as commander in the Confederate States Navy.
Lee fought for the Confederacy reluctantly. As late as 1863 he denounced South Carolina for "getting us into this snarl" of secession, complaining that Robert and his family had persuaded him to act against his love of the U.S. Navy.
One of their sons was Confederate Major General Fitzhugh Lee who later became Governor of Virginia, diplomat and writer; and served as Major General of U.S. Volunteers during the Spanish–American War.
George Edward Pickett is best remembered for being one of the commanders at Pickett's Charge, the futile and bloody Confederate offensive on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg that bears his name. At the age of 17 he was appointed to the United States Military Academy. Legend has it that Pickett's appointment was secured for him by Abraham Lincoln, but this is largely believed to be a story circulated by his widow following his death. Pickett was actually appointed by Illinois Congressman John T. Stuart, a friend of Pickett's uncle and a law partner of Lincoln. Pickett's cousin Henry Heth graduated last in the Class of 1847.
Pickett graduated last out of 59 cadets in the United States Military Academy class of 1846.
John Tyler was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845 after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. President Harrison died just one month after taking office, and Tyler became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency without election. He served longer than any other president in U.S. history not elected to the office.
Whigs in the House of Representatives initiated that body's first impeachment proceedings against a president.
After his Presindency, Tyler took up farming in Virginia.
On June 14,1861, Tyler signed the Ordinance of Secession for Virginia, and one week later the convention unanimously elected him to the Provisional Confederate Congress. Tyler was seated in the Confederate Congress on August 1, 1861, and he served until just before his death in 1862.
The only former President to serve in the Confederacy.
Galusha Pennypacker is to this day the youngest person to hold the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army. At the age of 20, he remains the only general too young to vote for the president who appointed him.
https://www.usefultrivia.com/war_trivia/civil_war_trivia_index_ii.html
Some Native American tribes, such as the Creek and the Choctaw, were slaveholders and found a political and economic commonality with the Confederacy. When Confederate Brigadier General Albert Pike authorized the raising of Native American regiments during the fall of 1860, Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees responded with considerable enthusiasm. Their zeal for the Confederate cause, however, began to evaporate when they found that neither arms nor pay had been arranged for them.
https://www.usefultrivia.com/war_trivia/civil_war_trivia_index.html
Robert E. Lee finished second in the West Point Class of 1829. Only Charles Mason was ranked higher.
"Commanders of the Civil War Reconsider" by Alan Axelrod, Pg 67
Note: Mason resigned his commission in 1831, going on to be the 1st Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court and US Commissioner of Patents.
Robert E. Lee's son George W. Custis Lee finished first in the West Point Class of 1854. Brevet Colonel R.E Lee was Superintendent of Cadets at the time.
"Commanders of the Civil War Reconsider" by Alan Axelrod, Pg 71
Joseph E. Johnston was the only general officer of the United States Army to resign his commission and fight for the Confederacy.
He was Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army with the rank of Brigadier General.
"Commanders of the Civil War Reconsider" by Alan Axelrod, Pg 40
Simon B. Buckner was the commander of one third of the Confederate Army at Perryville. Buckner's son, Simon B. Buckner, Jr., a Lt. General in charge of American land forces on the island of Okinawa, was killed by Japanese artillery on June 18, 1945. Buckner was the most senior American military officer killed by enemy fire in World War Two.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-perryville
Perryville was the first battle for a young officer in the 24th Wisconsin. Arthur McArthur, who would later earn the Medal of Honor for his exploits at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, was the father of Douglas MacArthur who would go onto great fame in World War Two and Korea. Arthur and Douglas are still the only father-son combination to have both won the Medal of Honor.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-perryville
On May 22, 1849, Abraham Lincoln received Patent No. 6469 for a device to lift boats over shoals, an invention which was never manufactured. However, it eventually made him the only U.S. president to hold a patent.
Lincoln took the scale model with him to Washington and hired attorney Z. C. Robbins to apply for the patent. Part of his application read, "Be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, of Springfield, in the county of Sangamon, in the state of Illinois, have invented a new and improved manner of combining adjustable buoyant air chambers with a steam boat or other vessel for the purpose of enabling their draught of water to be readily lessened to enable them to pass over bars, or through shallow water, without discharging their cargoes..."
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/education/patent.htm
Robert Lincoln was once saved from possible serious injury or death by Edwin Booth, whose brother, John Wilkes Booth, was the assassin of Robert's father. The incident took place on a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. The exact date of the incident is uncertain, but it is believed to have taken place in late 1863 or early 1864, before John Wilkes Booth's assassination of President Lincoln (April 14, 1865). Robert Lincoln recalled the incident in a 1909 letter to Richard Watson Gilder, editor of The Century Magazine.
On December 9, 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 in Lee's favor in United States v. Lee, deciding that Arlington had been confiscated without due process. After that decision, Congress returned the estate to him, and on March 3, 1883, Custis Lee sold it back to the government for $150,000 (equal to $3,535,000 in 2022) at a signing ceremony with Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln. The land then became a military reservation.
On First Lieutenant Roger Jones ( a cousin of Robert E. Lee) with forty-two regular infantrymen was assigned to protect the Harper's Ferry arsenal in April, 1861. Armed Virginians were advancing on the arsenal and Lt Jones knew he could not defend it so set fire to the arsenal and armory before withdrawing.
"The Coming Fury", Bruce Catton, Loc 5889 Kindle
Mansfield Lovell (October 20, 1822 – June 1, 1884), the Confederate general responsible for the defense of New Orleans,
worked under the supervision of former Union general John Newton after the Civil War on a project to clear obstructions from the East River (NYC) at Hell Gate. Prior to the war he had served as deputy street commissioner in NYC reporting to Gustavus Woodson Smith, who also resigned to join the Confederate States Army. He died in New York City and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_Lovell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavus_Woodson_Smith
Southern Railroads (1860-1865)
Joseph K. Barnes was the 12th Surgeon General of the United States and was at the death bed of President Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated and attended Secretary of State William Seward following his attempted assassination, both in 1865. Barnes also attended President James Garfield after he was shot in 1881, but Garfield died after several weeks struggling to live.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Barnes_(American_physician)