Dennis Gaffney contributes “10 things you probably didn’t know about America’s most devastating domestic conflict” for the History Channel.
1. One-third of the soldiers who fought for the Union Army were immigrants, and nearly one in 10 was African American.
2. Black Union soldiers refused their salaries for 18 months to protest being paid lower wages than white soldiers.
3. Harriet Tubman led a raid to free slaves during the Civil War.
4. Lincoln was shot at—and almost killed— nearly two years before he was assassinated.
5. Before William Tecumseh Sherman became a great Union general, he was demoted for apparent insanity.
6. General Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t the bloodiest general of the war—Robert E. Lee was.
7. Both before and during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln pushed to send freed slaves abroad.
8. Robert E. Lee’s Virginia estate was confiscated by the Union and turned into a cemetery during the war.
9. Privates weren’t cannon fodder during the Civil War—generals were.
10. More men died in the Civil War than any other American conflict, and two-thirds of the dead perished from disease.
Links: Read Gaffney’s complete article at the History Channel, or find out more about Peter and Dennis Gaffney’s new book The Seven-Day Scholar: The Civil War.
1. One-third of the soldiers who fought for the Union Army were immigrants, and nearly one in 10 was African American.
2. Black Union soldiers refused their salaries for 18 months to protest being paid lower wages than white soldiers.
3. Harriet Tubman led a raid to free slaves during the Civil War.
4. Lincoln was shot at—and almost killed— nearly two years before he was assassinated.
5. Before William Tecumseh Sherman became a great Union general, he was demoted for apparent insanity.
6. General Ulysses S. Grant wasn’t the bloodiest general of the war—Robert E. Lee was.
7. Both before and during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln pushed to send freed slaves abroad.
8. Robert E. Lee’s Virginia estate was confiscated by the Union and turned into a cemetery during the war.
9. Privates weren’t cannon fodder during the Civil War—generals were.
10. More men died in the Civil War than any other American conflict, and two-thirds of the dead perished from disease.
Links: Read Gaffney’s complete article at the History Channel, or find out more about Peter and Dennis Gaffney’s new book The Seven-Day Scholar: The Civil War.
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