Oddities of the War

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There is a tale that when a Felix von Salm-Salm informed Lincoln that he was a scion of one of the oldest and noblest families in Germany, the president replied, "Oh, never mind that, you will not find that to be n obstacle to your advancement."

Miss Sally L. Tompkins of Richmond was made a captain of cavalry, becoming the only woman ever to hold a commission in the Confederate Army, by Jefferson Davis on 9 September 1861 because a hospital which she had established after First Bull Run proved to have a remarkable recovery rate.

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On the eve of the war the United States Navy had 1,457 officers, warrant officers and midshipmen on duty, of whom 259 line officers and 73 other officers resigned, for a total of 332, or 22.7 percent of the naval officer Corps. The Marine Corps, which had 63 officers, lost 22 (34.9 percent) to the Confederacy, one of whom became a general. Of some 200 officers in the Revenue Marine, the precursor of the Coast Guard, and the Coast Survey, about 60 (30.0 percent) resigned, several of whom turn their ships over to the Confederacy, an act which no resigning naval officer emulated. Thus, of about 1,720 officers in the seagoing services, about 404 (23.4 percent) resigned, a figure significantly lower than that for army officers. Unfortunately it is not possible to analyze the regional origins of these officers.

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On the eve of the war there were approximately 15,000 enlisted men in the army, 7,600 in the navy plus 1,000 in the Marine Corps, and perhaps 1,200 more in the Revenue Marine and Coast Survey. While the regional origins of these men cannot be determined, it is reasonable to assume that a significant proportion of them were from the South, yet only 26 army enlisted men are known to have gone South, in contrast to the 313 officers.

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A badly chaffed heel forced Confederate Maj. Gen. James Longstreet to fight the battle of Antietam wearing a pair of "clumsy carpet slippers."

The 12,000 Union troops taken prisoner by Stonewall Jackson at Harper's Ferry on 15 September 1862 was the largest surrender of troops in the history of the United States Army until the Japanesse took 40,000 men on Bataan on 9 April 1942.

Thea,
Somehow going into battle wearing carpet slippers is am image that makes me smile.

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One day, finding that the entire Cabinet was opposed to a proposal which he had made, Lincoln smiled and said, "The measure passes by a majority of one."

The battle flag of a Confederate infantry regiment measure 48" by 48", while that of a Union regiment was 72" by 78".

Among the many prisoners taken when Confederate Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's troopers captured Holly Springs, Mississippi, on 20 December, 1862, was Julia Grant, the wife of Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who was shortly passed through the lines.

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When Ulysses S. Grant married Jula Dent on 22 August 1848, the best man was James Longstreet.

The first man killed in the WBTS was Pvt. Daniel Hough (Huff) of Company E, 1st Artillery, who died as a result of the premature discharge of a cannon being used to fire a salute during evacuation ceremonies after the surrender of Fort Sumter on 14 April 1861.

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During the West Virginia campaign in mid-1861, a company of green Illinois volunteers was wearily making its way down a road in execrable marching order until its captain shouted, "Close up, boys!
**** you, close up! If the enemy were to fire on you when you're straggling along that way, they couldn't hit a **** one of you! Close up!" Whereupon the troops closed up.

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Drill instructors were in such short supply at the onset of the war that 13-year-old cadets from places such as Virginia Military Institute were pressed into service to drill men old enough to be their fathers and grandfathers.

When a brave Texan road out to retrieve a flag which had fallen between the lines at the battle of Wilson's Creek (10 August 1861), the men of the Union 1st Iowa held their fire, calling out to the troops on either side to likewise honor a gallant enemy.

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One night late in 1861 pickets of the 3rd New York Artillery took into custody three men in a coach who were proceeding suspiciously through one of the army camps about Washington, only to discover to their dismay that they had arrested the president, the secretary of state and the commander of the Army of the Potomac.