Facts about the Civil War

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Did you Know? List of Interesting Facts about the Civil War
Facts are statements which are held to be true and often contrasted with opinions and beliefs. Our unusual and interesting facts about the Civil War, trivia and information, including some useful statistics will fascinate everyone from kids and children to adults. Click here for a comprehensive Civil War Timeline.

Interesting Facts about the Civil War are as follows:

  • Fact 1 - Definition: What was the civil war? It was a war between factions in the same country. In the United States Civil War 11 Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States (called the Union) and formed the Confederate States of America, also known as "the Confederacy."

  • Fact 2 - The American Civil War is also known as the War Between the States
  • Fact 3 - The American Civil War occurred between 1861–1865 States
  • Fact 4 - The Confederacy was led by Jefferson Davis. Other leaders of the Confederacy included P.G.T. Beauregard, Joseph E. Johnston, Robert E. Lee and Stephen Mallory
  • Fact 5 - The Union was led by Abraham Lincoln. Other leaders of the Union included Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan, Henry Wager Halleck, Ulysses S. Grant and Gideon Welles
  • Fact 6 - The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. Union military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
  • Fact 7 - Causes of the American civil War included disputes between the North and the South about:
    • Taxes (or tariffs)
    • Increased political power in the North due to increased population
    • Sectionalism - The desire in the South to treat the nation as sections. Southern states wanted to secede, or break away from the United States of America union and govern themselves
    • Slavery - Slaves were a central part of the cotton industry of the South. Southern planters relied on slaves to work plantations making them highly profitable. The Northern abolitionists believed that slavery was uncivilized and should be abolished
    • State and Federal Laws - The Constitution of the United States guaranteed the right to own property and protected everyone against the seizure of property. A slave was viewed as property in the South
    • Expansion to the new Western territories - Disagreements as to whether slavery should be abolished in the new territories such as Missouri and Kansas
    • John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Federal armory hoping to use the captured weapons to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South
  • Fact 8 - Battles of the Civil War:  Major Battles of the Civil War included the following:
    • 1861 Civil War Battles at Fort Sumter, West Virginia, Bull Run and Missouri 
    • 1862 Civil War Battles at Ft Henry & Donelson, Battle of Pea Ridge, Roanoke Island, Monitor vs Virginia, Shiloh, Penininsular Campaign, New Orleans, Seven Days, 2nd Bull Run (Manasas), Antietam and Fredericksburg
    • 1863 Civil War Battles at Stone's River, Chancellorsville, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Draft Riots, Chickamauga and Chattanooga
    • 1864 Civil War Battles at Red River, Mobile Bay, Atlanta, Petersburg, the March Across Georgia and the Battle of Nashville
  • Fact 9 - In 1862, the U.S. Congress authorized the first paper currency, called "greenbacks."
  • Fact 10 - More than 620,000 died in the Civil War, many of disease
  • Fact 11 - Robert E. Lee declined command of the Union Army
  • Fact 12 - Andersonville Prison in southwest Georgia held 33,000 prisoners in 1864
  • Fact 13 - Carpetbaggers was a negative term Southerners gave to opportunistic and speculative Northerners who settled in the South during Reconstruction. The term came from luggage, made from recycled carpet, that newcomers tended to carry "carpet bags"
  • Fact 14 - Southerners were called Rebels and Northerners were called Yankees

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