101 Civil War Facts, Trivia, and History | FactRetriever
Civil War Facts
Civil War Facts

101 Interesting Civil War Facts

Karin Lehnardt
By Karin Lehnardt, Senior Writer
Published January 6, 2017Updated August 15, 2019
  • The Civil War was the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. During an average day during the war, approximately 600 people were killed. By the end of the war, over 618,000 people had died. This is more Americans than WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined.[2]
  • During the Civil War, 2% of the U.S. population died. This is equivalent to 6 million men today. While rifles were the deadliest weapons during the war, disease killed more men. Camps became breeding grounds for measles, chicken pox, and mumps. One million Union solders contracted malaria.[4]
  • One of every 65 Federals and 1 of every 45 Confederates were killed in action.[4]
  • A Civil War soldier’s chance of surviving the war was about 1 in 4.[5]
  • More Americans died at the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania, Virginia, in May 1864 than at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944.[4]
  • The most common operation performed on soldiers during the Civil War was amputation. The best surgeon could have a limb severed and discarded within five minutes. Civil War doctors were nicknamed “sawbones.” There were 60,000 partial or complete amputations during the war.[9]
  • Virginia experienced the most fighting during the Civil War—more than 2,100 events, followed by Tennessee (1,400) and Missouri (1,100).[4]
    • Interesting Civil War Soldier Fact
    The Civil War is also known as "The Boy's War"
  • The youngest soldier in the Civil War was a 9-year-old boy from Mississippi. The oldest was an 80-year-old from Iowa. More than 10,000 soldiers serving in the Union Army were under 18 years old.[7]
  • Daniel Emmett, the composer of “Dixie” was not only from the North, but he was also a loyal Unionist. He was disgusted by the song’s popularity in the South. Lincoln claimed that it was one of “the best tunes I ever heard.”[2]
  • The last Southern troops surrendered on May 26, 1865. Afterward, survivors began decorating the graves of those who had died. They repeated the ritual each year on “The Decoration Day”—which is now known as Memorial Day.[10]
  • An estimated 800 wounded men burned to death at the Battle of the Wilderness because they were unable to crawl away from advancing brush fires.[4]
  • Immediately after the war, 2 out of 3 men sentenced to state prisons in the North were Civil War veterans.[4]
  • The term “carpetbagger” was used pejoratively by Southerners to describe opportunistic Northerners who moved to the South during Reconstruction. These newcomers often carried bags made from used carpet, or carpetbags.[7]
  • In the 20 years after the Civil War, the national divorce rate increased 150%.[4]
  • Seven future U.S. presidents served in the Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Chester A. Arthur, and Andrew Johnson.[2]
  • The Civil War prison camp Elmira had two observation towers constructed for onlookers. Citizens paid 15 cents to look at the inmates. Concession stands by the towers sold peanuts, cakes, and lemonade while the men inside starved.[4]
  • Approximately 470,000 soldiers were held prisoner during the Civil War, which was more than the population of Arkansas at the time. About 56,000 died in prison camps.[4]
  • If the names of the Civil War dead were organized similar to the names on the Vietnam Memorial wall, the Civil War memorial would be over 10 times longer.[11]
    • War at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.

    - Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1864, Speech at Philadelphia

  • Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. About the same number of men died in the first 15 minutes at Grant’s assault at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864.[4]
  • From 1861 to 1865, the number of orphans in the U.S. more than doubled.[4]
  • The Twenty-Sixth North Carolina Infantry suffered the worst regimented losses in a single battle: 708 of 800 killed, wounded, or missing at Gettysburg.[4]
  • The average Civil War soldier was 5’8” tall and weighed 143 pounds. He was 23 years old.[10]
  • The oldest Civil War monument in existence is a monument to the Union’s Hazen Brigade inside Stones River National Cemetery. It was erected in 1863.[10]
  • In the North, more than 1/3 of all men of military age served in the war. For the South, it was nearly 2/3.[2]
  • In a single day, the 1 million Civil War horses would have peed enough urine to fill more than 12 standard swimming pools.[4]
  • Horses and other draft animals had about a 7-month life expectancy during the Civil War. As many as 300,000 horses died. More than 3,000 horses were killed at Gettysburg alone.[4]
  • Fighting took place on each day of the war, which lasted approximately 1,396 days, from 1861 to 1865. Nearly 10,455 military “events” took place during the war.[11]
  • During the Civil War, diarrhea (Greek, meaning “I flow away”) was the most common and deadly disease. More Civil War soldiers died from diarrhea than were killed in battle. About 1 in 40 cases was fatal. Death came from dehydration, exhaustion, or the rupture of the intestinal wall.[11]
  • Both the war’s bloodiest day (Antietam) and its bloodiest battle (Gettysburg) occurred in Union states. More than 5,000 soldiers died at Antietam, making September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day in U.S. military history.[4]
    • Random Civil War Fact
    The Battle of Antietam was the Civil War's deadliest one-day fight
  • Most Civil War soldiers marched 15 to 20 miles a day.[11]
  • The Civil War was the first war to be immediately reported in the press. The first photographs were taken at the Battle of Antietam.[2]
  • After the Southern states seceded, both the United States and the Confederacy instituted the first ever national income tax. Ever since the Civil War, Americans have lived with the IRS.[4]
  • The Civil War was the first time the national draft was used in American history (April 16, 1862).[2]
  • Ulysses S. Grant’s critics called him a “butcher” because of his high casualty rates in battle.[7]
  • The Civil War was known by more than 25 names, including “The Brothers War,” “The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance,” “The War for the Union,” and “The War of the Rebellion.”[7]
  • President Lincoln’s personal copy of the Emancipation Proclamation would be worth millions if it were still in existence. It was donated to the Chicago Historical Society in 1864, but destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871.[11]
  • Of the 3 million soldiers in the Civil War, 1% were regular army, 9% were draftees or substitutes, and the rest were volunteers.[4]
  • In the four years of the Civil War, the South lost a quarter of its military-age men, half of its wealth, and its position of political preeminence in the U.S. In contrast, the North emerged as an industrial powerhouse and the central government became the overriding power of the land.[11]
  • The amphibious landing of 110,000 at Iwo Jima cost 5,931 American lives and wounded 17,372 more. Roughly the same numbers and losses were involved in the Civil War battle at Chickamauga. Iwo Jima spanned 36 days. Chickamauga lasted 36 hours (September 19-20, 1863).[4]
  • Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought in North America. It’s victor, General Meade, was born in Spain.[4]
    • Interesting Facts about the Civil Wars
    Gen. Pickett's failed charge against the North on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg. When asked why his charge failed, Pickett replied: "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it"
  • The bullet (especially the Minie) accounted for more than 90% of battle fatalities. The soft, low-velocity bullets tumbled and spread apart inside the body, which caused excessive and irreparable tissue damage. Only 4% of Civil War battlefield casualties came from the muzzle of a canon.[4]
  • On average, of every 100 fatalities on the battlefield, five men died from limb wounds, 12 from punctures to the lower abdomen, 15 from damage to the heart or liver, and more than 50 from lacerations to the head or neck.[4]
  • Most Civil War dead were not returned home for interment. Many bodies were ground into the earth by horse hooves or wagon wheels and thousands drowned. Square hits from artillery shredded bodies. After several battles, soldiers recalled seeing bodies eaten by hogs. The U.S. Army did not start issuing dog tags until 1906.[4]
  • In Vietnam, 1 in 400 of the wounded died of their injuries. In the Korean War, 1 in 50 wounded American soldiers died. In the Civil War, 1 in 7 wounded Federals died and 1 in 5 wounded Confederates died—sometimes within minutes, sometimes after months of suffering.[4]
  • South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860.[10]
  • The four million slaves living in the South by 1860 had an estimated worth at the time of more than 2 billion dollars.[11]
  • Susie King Taylor, a runaway slave from Georgia and Civil War nurse, was one of the first African American nurses in United States history. She also taught soldiers to read and write.[11]
    • Amazing Civil War Fact
    Dr. Mary Edwards was the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor
  • Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was not only the first woman surgeon in U.S. Military history, but she was also the only woman in the Civil War to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest honor given to a citizen of the U.S. She is the only female recipient of the award to date.[11]
  • Amy Clarke wanted to fight near her husband during the Civil War and so disguised herself as “Richard Anderson” to join a Tennessee unit of the Confederacy. Although her husband died at Shiloh, she continued to fight until she was wounded and captured by Union soldiers. When they discovered she was a woman, she was sent back to the Confederate—in a dress.[11]
  • The Civil War was the first time a submarine ever sank an enemy ship when the submarine the Hunley sank the USS Housatonic. However, the Hunley was damaged in the attack, wandered seaward, and sank drowning all 8 hands. Only 5 of Housatonic’s 155 died. The Hunley was finally recovered 136 years later.[11]
  • During the battle of Chancellorsville, at least one Union soldier discovered he was the victim of corrupt government contractors when he found that his rifle cartridges were filled with dirt rather than gunpowder.[4]
  • In 2008, the body of a Union soldier was discovered in Antietam. His remains were laid to rest in the regimental home of New York State.[10]
  • When the Southern states seceded in 1860 and 1861, they did not leave in order of their geographic location, economic standing political qualities, or level of industrialization. They left in almost the exact order of their percentage of slaves.[4]
  • One of the most controversial campaigns of the Civil War was Union General William T. Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas. Sherman (1820-1891) actually lived in the South for a dozen years, owned slaves, and disapproved of abolitionists. He was also superintendent of a school that later would become Louisiana State University. Before he became a Union general, he was demoted for apparent insanity.[5]
  • Court martial records during the Civil War list over 100,000 incidents of sexual misconduct. An officer wrote to his wife, “You would think there was not a married man in the regiment.”[4]
  • Among Union white troops, surgeons treated over 73,000 soldiers for syphilis and over 109,00 for gonorrhea. African American soldiers had incidences of less than half than that of the white troops.[4]
  • Because of the epidemic of venereal diseases among soldiers, the Union army tried government-sanctioned prostitution in Nashville and Memphis from 1863 to1865. The incidence of venereal disease declined sharply.[4]
  • Nearly 1/3 of Union Army soldiers were immigrants (7.5% were Irish; 10% were German). Other immigrant soldiers were French, Italian, Polish, English, and Scottish. Approximately 1 in 10 were African American.[4]
  • African American soldiers were allowed to join the Union Army in 1863, but they were paid lower wages than white soldiers and were charged rent for their clothing. Some black Union soldiers refused their salary for 18 months as protest. In September 1864, they finally received equal pay.[6]
    • Interesting Gatling Gun Fact
    Richard J. Gatling said he invented the Gatling gun to show how futile war is
  • The Gatling gun was a Civil War invention. Richard Gatling hoped his rapid-fire gun (a precursor to the modern machine gun) would help the Union win.[7]
  • Harriet Tubman led raids to free slaves during the Civil War. She also taught freed slave women skills that could earn them wages with the Union Army.[6]
  • During the war, the Union confiscated Robert E. Lee’s estate and turned it into a cemetery so that he would be reminded of the carnage he caused. It later became Arlington National Cemetery.[5]
  • During the Civil War, generals usually led their solders into battle, a rare occurrence in modern wars. Because of this, generals were 50% more likely to die in combat than privates were.[4]
  • Although both the North and South did not allow women in the army, it is estimated that 250-400 women fought disguised as men.[6]
  • Ulysses Simpson Grant actually was named Hiram Ulysses Grant. His name was incorrectly recorded on his West Point application.[7]
  • “Quaker guns” (named for the pacifist religious group) were fake artillery that was used by both sides through the Civil War to cause confusion about troop location and strength.[7]
  • Though many key battles took place in Virginia and the state was home to the Confederacy’s capital, it actually had relatively few slaveholders: 2,184 out of more than 1 million Virginians.[4]
  • To prevent escape at Camp Douglas in Chicago, prisoners were not allowed to wear clothes. Even blankets were taken away. Many Confederates froze to death.[4]
  • While General Robert E. Lee opposed slavery and secession, he lead the Confederate Army out of loyalty to Virginia, his home state.[4]
  • Poet Walt Whitman was a nurse in the Civil War.[7]
  • Edward Everett, the main speaker at the Gettysburg dedication, spoke for 2 hours. President Abraham Lincoln, who was invited almost as an afterthought, spoke for 2 minutes. His speech went down in history.[7]
    • Interesting Abraham Lincoln Fact
    Lincoln was also the first major leader in the U.S. to feel that women should be allowed to vote
  • Most Southerners were not slaveholders. In fact, less than a quarter of “whites” had any direct connection to slavery. However, there were between 3 and 4 million African American slaves, which accounted for more than 1/3 of the total population in the South.[10]
  • In the North, African Americans were subject to the Union draft. In border states, slaves could be drafted and their slave owners paid for each slave who joined the army.[10]
  • At Fort Sumter, the war began with shots fired from Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia planter and slaveholder, and New York-born Abner Doubleday (who, debatably, invented the baseball). Both survived the war, but Ruffin committed suicide after Lee surrendered. No one was killed at Fort Sumter.[2]
  • The North expected to win because 1) they had more men to fight (22 million people in the North versus 7 million white people in the South), 2) there were more factories in the North to make guns and bullets, and 3) the North had more railroads for transporting guns and supplies.[2]
  • The South expected to win because 1) Northerners did not know their way around the South, where most of the fighting would take place, 2) Southern farmers were already skilled marksmen and riding horses, and 3) they were fighting to save a way of life.[2]
  • Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson got his nickname during the first Battle of Bull Run. During battle, his men noted he stood “like a stone wall.” He was later accidentally shot and killed by his own men.[2]
  • Stonewall Jackson received chloroform for the removal of his left arm. On his deathbed, he described being anesthetized as the “most delightful physical sensation I ever experienced.”[2]
    • Interesting Civil War POW Fact
    Andersonville Prison was commanded by Captain Henry Wirz, who was tried and executed after the war for war crimes
  • The Confederacy’s Andersonville is the most infamous of Civil War prison camps. About 33,000 soldiers were imprisoned there at some point in the war. More than 13,000 men died at this camp.[4]
  • At Gettysburg, the First Minnesota captured the battle flag of the Twenty-eight Virginia. In 2001, the state of Virginia requested that Minnesota return it. As of 2010, Minnesota still possessed the banner.[2]
  • The Union uniform was blue and the Confederate uniform was gray. But because clothes were scarce during the war, it was common for soldiers to wear “enemy” colors and mistakenly be fired upon by their own men.[2]
  • In March 1863, the government passed a law drafting men into the army. A man could avoid the draft by paying $300 to hire someone to take his place. Among those in the Union who hired substitutes were future president Grover Cleveland, J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and Lincoln’s personal secretary John Nicolay. Lincoln himself also hired a substitute—John Summerfield Staple—for $500.[5]
  • The first U.S. Medal of Honor was awarded during the Civil War on March 25, 1863. It was awarded to six 6 survivors of the April 1962 Andrew’s Raid. In all, 2,625 soldiers and sailors received the medal during the war. There were 433 awarded during WWII.[5]
  • After the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers had to lie in the mud for days. They noticed that their wounds glowed in the dark. In 2001, two Maryland teenagers discovered that the hypothermic men provided the ideal conditions of a bioluminescent bacterium called Photorhabdus luminescens.[1]
  • Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri remained in the Union even though they allowed slavery. Additionally, the western part of Virginia remained in the Union, while the eastern part seceded into the Confederacy.[2]
  • While white women in the South feared rape, the scant documentation available indicates that African American women, usually slaves or freed slaves, suffered the most rapes, sometimes in front of white women as a type of proxy rape.[12]
  • The first battle between ironclads occurred during the Civil War in March 1862, between the Confederate ship Merrimack and the Union Monitor. No winner was declared.[2]
    • Interesting Ironclad Facts
    Union ironclads on the Charleston Harbor
  • President Lincoln at one time had hoped to relocate the entire black population of the U.S. to Central America. He even talked with the British about providing land for them in British Honduras, or modern-day Belize. He noted that “I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races.”[3]
  • In 1860, two states had more slaves than free people: Mississippi and South Carolina.[11]
  • The Founding Fathers refused to include a reference to “Almighty God” into the U.S. Constitution. The Confederate Constitution, however, wanted to appear more evangelical and included the phrase. In fact, the national motto of the Confederacy was Deo Vindice: “God will avenge.”[4]
  • The Civil War lasted 48 months. The 13th Amendment consists of 48 words.[4]
  • The cure-all medicine for the Civil War was calomel, a mercury mixture of chalk, honey and sometimes licorice. It was used to treat everything from syphilis to headaches. When one Union army doctor, William Hammond, noted that mercury was poisonous, he was dismissed as a quack and removed from his post.[9]
  • Only two people were convicted of war crimes in the Civil War. The first was Confederate Capt. Henry Wirz. He was tried and executed after the war for murder and conspiracy associated with his command at Andersonville, an infamous prison camp. The second was Confederate guerilla Champ Ferguson.[4]
  • In the North, inflation rose 100% over the four years of the Civil War. In the South, the rate neared 100% every year of the war. Immediately after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, it took 1,200 Confederate dollars to buy 1 U.S. dollar.[4]
  • Before the Civil War, approximately 5,000 slaves attempted to escape per year. During the war, the number increased to 5,000 or more per month.[4]
  • There were around 200,000 Civil War desertions from the Union side and more than 120,000 from the Confederate ranks. An estimated 85,000 Union men fled to Canada. Of the 76,000 deserters who were caught, almost all were returned to duty. Officially, 141 were executed.[4]
    • Interesting Civil War Trivia
    Only about 1% of Civil War casualties were actually a result of a bayonet wound
  • The Industrial Revolution facilitated the mass production of weaponry, but the medical revolution and its use of antiseptics was still years away. Additionally, while rifled weapons and mini bullets increased the firing range threefold, soldiers still used traditional military methods, which depended on massed infantry at close range. All of this led to high mortality rates and excessively bloody battles. The Civil War became dubbed as the “first modern war.”[2]
  • Of the nearly 200,000 African Americans who fought for the North, more than 100,000 were runaway slaves. The number of African Americans who enlisted in the Union Army was larger than the number of soldiers in the entire Confederate Army in the final months of the war. Twenty-five African American soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Approximately 35,000 of the nearly 200,000 died during the war.[4]
  • During the Civil War, as many as 25,000 guerrilla fighters participated in “unconventional warfare.” Arson, scalping, and lynching were so prevalent along the Missouri-Kansas border, for example, that Union officials evacuated the residents of entire counties for the duration of the war.[2]
  • There is no one single cause of the Civil War, but historians commonly isolate at least five: 1) Economic and social differences between the North and the South, 2) State vs. federal rights, 3) Slavery, 4) Growing abolition movement, and 5) the election of Abraham Lincoln.[4]
  • There are more black men in prison today than there were black male slaves in 1850.[8]
    • U.S. Population, 1860[11]
    Free People27,489, 561
    Slaves3,953,760
    Civil War Deaths (1861-1865)620,000
    Top Ten Staples for the Average Civil War Soldier[4]
    1. Water
    2. Bread (hardtack)
    3. Salt pork
    4. Corn
    5. Beans
    6. Fresh mean (horses, mules, oxen, dogs, rats)
    7. Coffee
    8. Peas
    9. Salt Beef
    10. Fruit
    Top Ten States with the Highest Proportion of Slaves to Total Population[4]
    1. South Carolina (57.1%)
    2. Mississippi (55.1%)
    3. Georgia (48.2%)
    4. Louisiana (46.8%)
    5. Alabama (45.1%)
    6. Florida (43.9%)
    7. North Carolina (33.3%)
    8. Virginia (30.9%)
    9. Texas (30.2%)
    10. Arkansas (26.0%)
    Top Ten Similarities Between Lincoln and Davis[4]
    1. Both were born in Kentucky, less than one hundred miles and one year apart. They remain the only presidents born in Kentucky.
    2. Both served during the Black Hawk War (1832).
    3. Both suffered from depression.
    4. Both lost sons before and during their presidencies.
    5. Both served in the U.S. Congress.
    6. Neither regarded African Americans as equal to whites.
    7. Neither asked to be nominated as president. Neither man chose his vice-president
    8. Both condemned John Brown’s Raid.
    9. Both were political moderates.
    10. Both were accused of wearing dresses.
    Top Ten Weapons of the War[4]
    1. Rifled firearms (3.5 million)
    2. Bayonets (1.5 million)
    3. Swords (700,000)
    4. Pistols (650,000)
    5. Smoothbore muskets (600,000)
    6. Breech-loading carbines (230,000)
    7. Grenades (150,000)
    8. Artillery (15,000)
    9. Pikes and Lances (10,000)
    10. Mines, aka torpedoes (10,000)
    Top Tne Medicines and Tools During the Civil War[4]
    1. Mercury
    2. Alcohol (whiskey, brandy, wine)
    3. Plants, herbs, oils, barks
    4. Bandages
    5. Scalpel
    6. Suture thread (silk, cat gut, cotton thread, horsehair)
    7. Probes (skewers, hooks, tweezers—all a major source of infection, like scalpels)
    8. Tourniquet
    9. Bone saw
    10. Anesthetics (ether, chloroform)
    Top Ten Causes of Military Deaths (Not Including Accidents, Execution)[4]
    CauseConfederacyUnion
    1. Killed in action54,00067,000
    2. Dysentery/Diarrhea50,00045,000
    3. Wounds40,00043,700
    4. Typhoid30,00034,800
    5. Prison26,10031,200
    6. Pneumonia17,00020,000
    7. Malaria20,00010,000
    8. Smallpox8,0007,000
    9. Tuberculosis7,0007,000
    10. Measles6,0005,2000
    Top Ten Civil War Songs[4]
    1. “I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land” (“Dixie”)
    2. “John Brown’s Body” (“Battle Hymn of the Republic”)
    3. “Home Sweet Home”
    4. “Battle Cry of Freedom” (“Rally Round the Flag”)
    5. “Bonnie Blue Flag” (“We Are a Band of Brothers”)
    6. “Maryland, My Maryland”
    7. “Lorena”
    8. “We Are Coming, Father Abraham” (“300,000 More”)
    9. “Tenting on the Old Camp Ground”
    10. “All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight”
    Top Ten Commanding Generals  (Ranked According to Overall Strategy)[4]
    1. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson (C.S., Virginia 1824-63)
    2. William Tecumseh Sherman (U.S., Ohio, 1820-91)
    3. Robert E. Lee (C.S., Virginia, 1807-70)
    4. Ulysses S. Grant (U.S., Ohio, 1822-85)
    5. James Longstreet (C.S., South Carolina, 1821-1904)
    6. James Ewell Brown “Jeb” Stuart (C.S., Virginia, 1833-64)
    7. George H. Thomas (U.S., Virginia, 1816-70)
    8. Philip H. Sheridan (U.S., New York, 1831-88)
    9. Patrick Cleburne (C.S., Ireland 1828-64)
    10. Nathan Bedford Forrest (C.S., Tennessee, 1821-77)
    Popular Civil War Movies[4]
    1. Glory (1989)
    2. Gettysburg (1993)
    3. Red Badge of Courage (1951)
    4. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
    5. Gone with the Wind (1939)
    6. Andersonville (1996)
    7. Cold Mountain (2003)
    8. Shenandoah (1965)
    9. The General (1927)
    10. Gods and Generals (2003)
    Top Ten Deadliest Civil War Military Prisons[4]
    CampLocationCapacityPeakDeaths
    1. Anderson (C.S)Andersonville, GA10,00033,00013,363
    2. Camp Douglas (U.S)South Chicago, IL6,00012,0004,454
    3. Point Lookout (U.S)Point Lookout, MD10,00022,0003,584
    4. Salisbury (C.S.)Salisbury, NC2,00010,0003,479
    5. Elmira (U.S.)Elmira, NY5,0009,4002,993
    6. Florence (C.S.)Florence, SCUnknown15,0002,973
    7. Fort Delaware (U.S)Pea Patch Island, DE10,00012,6002,460
    8. Camp ChaseColumbus, OH4,0009,4002,260
    9. Rock Island (U.S.)Rock Island, IL10,0008,6001,960
    10. Camp Morton (U.S.)Indianapolis, IN2,0005,0001,763
    Top Ten Bloodiest Civil War Battles[4]
    Battle/Date/PlaceCommandersForces EngagedWinnerCasualties
    Gettysburg / July 1-3, 1863 / PARobert E. Lee (S)
    George G. Meade (N)    		75,000 (S)
    82,289 (N)    		NorthNorth: 23,049
    South: 28,063
    Total: 51,112
    Chickamauga / Sept. 19-20, 1863 / GABraxton Bragg (S)
    William S. Rosecrans (N)    		66,326 (S)
    58,222 (N)    		SouthNorth: 16,170
    South: 18,454
    Total: 34,624
    Chancellorsville / May 1-4,1863/VARobert E. Lee (S)
    Joseph Hooker (N)    		60,892 (S)
    133,868 (N)    		SouthNorth: 17,278
    South: 12,821
    Total: 30,099
    Spotsylvania / May 8-19 / VARobert E. Lee (S)
    Ulysses S. Grant (N)    		50,000 (S)
    83,000 (N)    		SouthNorth: 18,300
    South: 9,000
    Total: 27,399
    Antietam (Sharpsburg) / Sept. 17, 1862 / MDRobert E. Lee (S)
    George B. McClellan (N)    		51,844 (S)
    75,316 (N)    		DrawNorth: 12,410
    South: 13,724
    Total: 26,134
    Wilderness / May 5-7, 1864 / VATexRobert E. Lee (S)
    Ulysses S. Grant (N)    		61,025 (S)
    101,895 (N)    		DrawNorth: 17,666
    South: 7,750
    Total: 25,416
    Second Manassas (Second Bull Run) / Aug. 29-30, 1862 / VARobert E. Lee (S)
    John Pope (N)    		48,527 (S)
    75, 696 (N)    		SouthNorth: 16.054
    South: 9,197
    Total: 25,251
    Stone’s River (Murfreesboro) / Dec 31, 1862-Jan 3, 1863 / TNBraxton Bragg (S)
    William S. Rosecrans (N)    		37,739 (S)
    41,4000 (N)    		NorthNorth: 12,906
    South: 11,739
    Total: 24,645
    Shiloh / April 6-7, 1862 / TNJohnston/Beauregard (S) Ulysses S. Grant (N)40,335 (S)
    62,682 (N)    		NorthNorth: 13,047
    South: 10,694
    Total: 23,741
    Fort Donelson / Feb 13-16 / TNFloyd/Buckner (S)
    Ulysses S. Grant (N)    		21,000 (S)
    27,000 (N)    		NorthNorth: 2,832
    South: 16,623
    Total: 19,455
    Brief Civil War Timeline[10]
    1860November 6: Lincoln elected president of the U.S.
    December 20: South Carolina secedes from the Union
    1861February 22: Jefferson Davis inaugurated as president of the Confederacy
    March 4: Lincoln inaugurated president of the U.S.
    April 12: Confederate troops attack Fort Sumter, start of the Civil War
    May 21: Richmond, Virginia, chosen as the Confederate capital
    July 21: Confederate troops defeat Union troops at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
    1862March 9: First battle between ironclad ships
    September 22: Lincoln issues a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
    December 13: Union Army suffers one of its worst defeats at the Battle of Fredericksburg
    1863January 1: Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
    May 10: Stonewall Jackson dies from wounds suffered at Chancellorsville
    July 1-3: Battle of Gettysburg
    November 19: Gettysburg Address
    1864November 8: Lincoln re-elected president
    November 15: Sherman begins his march through Georgia and the Carolinas
    1865April 9: Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House
    April 14: Lincoln shot; dies the following the morning
    April 26: John Wilkes Booth shot and killed
    May 26: Last Confederate troops surrender
    July 7: Four Lincoln assassination conspirators hanged December 6: Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. ratified
    American Civil War Facts INFOGRAPHIC
    Civil War Infographic Thumbnail
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