Weird Facts

During the Battle of Chickamauga, the 21st Ohio felt much of the brunt of the Confederate assaults. They dealt out more than their share of punishment on the Rebs, thanks to their .45 Colt repeating rifles.

But as the afternoon progressed, and the 21st beat back repeated assaults but was running short of ammunition, the Ohio men were cracking under the strain. One normally mature and reliable soldier was found hiding behind a tree in the rear, proclaiming himself to be wounded. Lt. Vance demanded to know where he was wounded, and the soldier pointed to his forehead, where there was no evidence of trauma. Vance beat him with his sword until he returned to the firing line. Ten minutes later Vance saw the same soldier, lying on the ground stone dead – with a bullet hole right through the forehead. Vance later said he felt like a murderer, having consigned the man to his fate.
 
George Pickett was born in Virginia but went to Illinois to study law with a relative. At some point he decided he wanted to go to West Point but his relative was a bitter political rival of the sitting congressman, so he sought out the good offices of a mutual acquaintance to try and smooth things over. This mediator did and Pickett received the appointment to West Point that he desired, where he graduated last in his class. The mediator? He was a local lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.

There is some question as to the veracity of the story, but it's fun nevertheless.
 
James Longstreet and Dan Sickles became good friends after the war. At a reunion in Gettysburg, they were staying at different hotels and insisted on walking each other to their respective hotels. They were drunk, however, and neither could bear to see the other going home alone, so they went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth....
 
I heard that Lee's chicken was actually General "Stonewall" Jackson re-incarnated, and was following Lee to stop him from fighting at Gettysburg!!!
 
Thanks for the biology lesson.
WOAH! Uh, I really do not believe that is possible. Non-identical twins occur when a woman ovulates two eggs at the same time and they are both fertilized forming two different zygotes. Identical twins occur when a single egg is fertilized and while the zygote is dividing and multiplying some of the cells separate from the rest, causing each set of cells to continue to multiply and develop into two identical babies.

Therefore all identical twins will be the same gender as they both start off with the same pair of sexual chromosomes, either XX or XY.

There is an extremely rare case where identical twins may have different sexual phenotypes, but it would be because there is either an extra or missing chromosome or chromosomes and there is an uneven splitting of the sexual chromosomes during the split. However, that usually results in various birth defects if it goes full term but often is spontaneously aborted. The most common birth defect that goes full term in that sort of case is one form of Down syndrome. I seriously doubt Forrest was mentally retarded.
 
That only served to compound the grieving process. I wonder if any of these widows took their own lives during this imposed grieving process.
Did you know that when a woman mourned for her husband in the 1860’s, she spent a minimum of two-and-a-half years in mourning? That meant little or no social activities: no parties, , no outings, no visitors, and a wardrobe that consisted of nothing but black. (Shame on Scarlet O’Hara) The husband, when mourning for his wife, however, spent three months in a black suit.
You've come a long way baby!
 
That only served to compound the grieving process. I wonder if any of these widows took their own lives during this imposed grieving process.
Flora Stuart wore it for 59 years before dying in 1923. But she was a tough chick to begin with.
 
This is not weird but funny. During the battle of Antietam Robert E. Lee met a straggler who, in some fashion, had found and killed a pig which he was carrying to his camp. Straggling, in Lee's mind, was largely responsible for the plight of the army, and at the sight of the man, his wrath rose. He completely lost grip of himself for a moment and sternly ordered that the soldier be sent to Jackson with orders to have him shot as a warning to the army. He quickly relented and sent him back to his unit. The soldier was then known as the man who lost his pig but saved his bacon.
 
That only served to compound the grieving process. I wonder if any of these widows took their own lives during this imposed grieving process.

I'm not so sure it compounded it. May have made it easier. Since I'm a widow, I've learned how difficult it is to adjust when you don't have a set ritual to follow. Like some connection between the left brain and right brain is needed - structure from the left to help out emotion from the right. I'm still adrift more often than I like, nearly 4 years later.
 
My favourite story concerns Gen. W.T. Sherman's funeral, attended as a pallbearer by his old adversary Gen. Joseph Johnston CSA.
It was bitterly cold day and, as the cortege took its winding route, Johnston stood bare headed showing his respects - an old man in his eighties then as I recall - when he was asked 'General please put on your hat' in the punishingly cold weather, Johnston refused, famously replying 'if I were in his place and he were standing here in mine, he would not put on his hat."
He caught a chill that day, and died several weeks later
 
This thread is for weird facts; strange or unusual bits of trivia that may not be very significant, but are interesting.

1. Robert E. Lee owned cats, not dogs.


2. James Reed was one of the leaders of the ill fated Donner Party. He was from Springfield, Ill., and was in the same militia company as..you guessed it... Abraham Lincoln.

I thought he owned on dog, Spec and tow of the cats was his daughter Mildred's
 
Cass County, Georgia named for Lewis Cass was later named for Francis Stebbins Bartow this once county seat changed its name to Manassas after the battle where Bartow was killed. The city was called Cassville. The local newspaper was called the Casserole Standard and Gen real William Tatum Wofford was the editor. The Paper also changed for a time to the Manassas Standard. Cassville had paved sidewalks and the only city outside of Savannah, Georgia that had paved sidewalks at that time. You can still see the brick sidewalks today.
 
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My favourite story concerns Gen. W.T. Sherman's funeral, attended as a pallbearer by his old adversary Gen. Joseph Johnston CSA.
It was bitterly cold day and, as the cortege took its winding route, Johnston stood bare headed showing his respects - an old man in his eighties then as I recall - when he was asked 'General please put on your hat' in the punishingly cold weather, Johnston refused, famously replying 'if I were in his place and he were standing here in mine, he would not put on his hat."
He caught a chill that day, and died several weeks later

It is my fervent hope that General W. T. Sherman and General Joesph Johnston are met in heaven and resume their bonds of friendship.

M. E. Wolf
 
During the American Civil War all officers of the Confederate army were given copies of Victor Hugo's book "Les Miserables" to be carried at all times.
 
Confederate General David R. Jones's troops at the Battle of Antietam killed his brother-in-law, Colonel Henry Kingsbury of the 11th Connecticut at Burnside Bridge. Jones never got over it, and died of heart disease within a year.
 
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