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2. In August 1862, Union General Robert L. McCook, a veteran of campaigns in Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, was recovering from a wound when he was captured and EXECUTED by Confederate guerillas in Decherd, Tennessee.
3. Following his unsuccessful West Virginia campaign in September 1861, Confederate newspapers dubbed Robert E. Lee "Granny Lee." The name ceased to appear after his success in the Seven Days' Battles.
4. When the war began, Confederate General John B. Gordon, who would command troops at Seven Pines, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Petersburg, and other battles, had no military experience. He was in charge of a coal mine before the war.
5. Union General Philip H. Sheridan was known as "Little Phil" due to his small stature. He was 5'5" and weighed only 115 pounds.
6. Confederate General JEB Stuart's last words were: "I am going fast now. I am resigned; God's will be done."
7. The longest pontoon bridge of the Civil War was 2,200 feet long. It was constructed over the James River during the Petersburg campaign in 1864. The bridge used 101 pontoons and required 450 Union engineers to construct it.
8. Cold Harbor, Virginia was the sight of the bloodiest eight minutes of the Civil War. General Ulysses S. Grant ordered a massive charge against Robert E. Lee's deeply entrenched lines on
June 3, 1864. Grant's forces suffered 7,000 casualties to the Confederate's 1,500 in only eight minutes.
9. During Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee's troops charged across an open field one mile long against makeshift Federal works, supported by a massive artillery bombardment prior to the charge. At the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, General John Bell Hood ordered a charge across a TWO-mile long open field against a heavily fortified Federal position, unsupported by a massive artillery barrage.
10. The largest cannon of the Civil War was a 20-inch smoothbore gun designed by Thomas J. Rodman. The massive gun weighed 117,000 pounds and used 125 pounds of powder to fire a projectile weighing 1,080 pounds. Cast at Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh and mounted at Fort Hamilton in New York, the gun was fired in practice only four times during the war.
11. Less than 4 percent of all Civil War battle wounds were caused by bayonets or swords. 5 percent of reported wounds were caused by artillery fire. Bullets, which were responsible for over 90 percent of all battle wounds, were the major concern for Civil War soldiers.
12. Many modern weapons saw their introduction during the Civil War. Land mines, which were actually live artillery shells armed with detonating devices, saw their introduction in 1862. Confederate General Gabriel J. Rains, who experimented with explosives as a hobby (hmm?), ordered several of the devices planted around Yorktown, Virginia.
13. According to a report released by the U.S. Congress in 1863, the financial cost of the Civil War was $2.5 million a day.
14. By population, the three largest Union cities were New York (805,651), Philadelphia (562,529), and Brooklyn (266,661). The Confederacy's three largest cities, in comparison, were New Orleans (168,675), Charleston, SC (40,578), and Richmond (37,910).
15. Seventy-seven Confederate generals, or 18 percent, were killed or mortally wounded in action, while only 47 Union generals, or 8 percent, died in battle.
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