Rose O'Neal Greenhow A prominent Washington, D.C., socialite and
Confederate sympathizer, Greenhow ran a spy ring that gathered intelligence
from Union officials. Her reports helped the Confederacy win the First Battle
of Bull Run. Imprisoned twice, she continued smuggling information even after
exile. Her espionage demonstrated how women could leverage social access for
military advantage.
Belle Boyd Nicknamed the "Siren of the Shenandoah," this
17-year-old Virginian became one of the Confederacy's most famous spies. She
provided key intelligence to Stonewall Jackson during the Shenandoah Valley
Campaign and was arrested multiple times. Her daring operations and charm made
her a celebrity on both sides, highlighting women's covert contributions to the
Southern cause.
Elizabeth Van Lew A wealthy Unionist in Confederate Richmond, Van Lew
operated one of the most effective spy networks of the war. She smuggled
information to Union generals (including Grant), aided prisoner escapes from
Libby Prison, and even planted a spy in Jefferson Davis's household. Her
efforts provided vital intelligence that shortened the war in Virginia.
General William TecumsehShermanstands as one of the most polarizing figures in American military
history. Celebrated for his ruthless “March to the Sea” during the Civil War,
which helped break the Confederacy’s will to fight, Sherman turned his
attention westward after 1865. As commanding general of the U.S. Army from 1869
to 1883, he directed the military campaigns that subdued the Plains Indian
tribes and opened the American West to railroads, settlers, and mining
interests. His application of total-war tactics—destroying an enemy’s resources
and capacity to resist—proved as effective against Native Americans as it had
against the South. By the time he retired, the once-dominant buffalo-hunting
cultures of the Great Plains had been shattered, and thousands of Indigenous
people were confined to reservations.
Born in 1820 in Ohio and
named after the Shawnee leader Tecumseh—an ironic detail given his later
career—Sherman graduated from West Point in 1840. He served in the
Mexican-American War, left the army for civilian life, and rejoined at the
outbreak of the Civil War. His friendship with Ulysses S. Grant propelled him
to prominence. When Grant became president in 1869, Sherman succeeded him as
commanding general, overseeing a vast territory between the Mississippi River
and the Rocky Mountains. With fewer than 25,000 troops scattered across
frontier posts, his primary mission was to protect the transcontinental
railroad and wagon trails while facilitating white settlement.
Initially, Sherman supported
diplomatic efforts. As a member of the Indian Peace Commission, he helped
negotiate the Medicine Lodge Treaty (1867) and the Treaty of Fort Laramie
(1868), which established reservations for southern Plains tribes and the
Sioux. He also arranged the return of Navajo people from the Bosque Redondo
reservation to their homelands in New Mexico. Yet Sherman viewed treaties as
temporary measures. When the Medicine Lodge agreements collapsed in 1868 and
raids continued, he authorized his subordinate, Major General Philip Sheridan,
to launch a winter campaign against the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa. The
resulting Battle of the Washita River in November 1868 destroyed a Cheyenne
village and set the tone for future operations. Sherman’s strategy was clear:
strike when tribes were vulnerable, in winter, when food and mobility were
limited.
Sherman’s private
correspondence revealed a harsh worldview. After the 1866 Fetterman Massacre,
in which 81 soldiers died in an ambush by Sioux warriors, he telegraphed Grant
urging “vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination,
men, women and children.” In 1867 he told Grant that the nation would not allow
“a few thieving, ragged Indians” to halt railroad progress. He believed Native
resistance obstructed civilization and that military force, not negotiation
alone, would decide the West’s future. Yet he also criticized corrupt Indian
agents and speculators who exploited reservation tribes.
The cornerstone of Sherman’s
campaign was economic warfare. He recognized that the buffalo—source of food,
clothing, shelter, and spiritual life for Plains Indians—was the foundation of
their independence. Rather than ordering soldiers to slaughter herds directly,
Sherman encouraged civilian hunters. In an 1868 letter to Sheridan, he
suggested inviting “all the sportsmen of England and America” for a “Grand
Buffalo hunt” to sweep the herds away. Professional hunters like William
“Buffalo Bill” Cody and hide merchants responded enthusiastically. By 1873,
vast stretches of the Plains were littered with rotting carcasses. Colonel
Richard Irving Dodge described the scene: where “myriads of buffalo” had roamed
the year before, now only “a dead, solitary, putrid desert” remained. Congress
attempted to protect the herds in 1874, but Sherman helped convince President
Grant to pocket-veto the bill. Within a decade, the buffalo were nearly extinct
in the wild—fewer than 325 remained by the early 20th century. Without their
primary food source, tribes faced starvation or surrender.
Sherman’s oversight extended
to major conflicts of the 1870s. He reorganized frontier forts and supported
operations during the Modoc War in California and Oregon, the Great Sioux War
of 1876 (which included the Battle of the Little Bighorn), and the Nez Perce
War. In 1871, after narrowly escaping the Warren Wagon Train raid by Kiowa and
Comanche warriors in Texas, he insisted that captured chiefs Satanta and Big
Tree be tried for murder in a civilian court—the first such trial of Native
leaders in U.S. history. These campaigns, though often led by subordinates like
George Custer, Ranald Mackenzie, and Nelson Miles, bore Sherman’s strategic
imprint: relentless pursuit, destruction of villages and supplies, and winter
attacks that exploited Native vulnerability.
By the late 1870s, the
free-roaming warrior societies of the Plains had been broken. The once-mighty
Sioux, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa were confined to reservations where they
depended on government rations. Historian David D. Smits noted that, with their
economic base destroyed, Indigenous people had “no choice but to accept a
servile fate on a reservation.” Sioux leader Sitting Bull later reflected that
“a cold wind blew across the prairie when the last buffalo fell—a death-wind
for my people.” Sherman retired on February 8, 1884, at the mandatory age of
64, having achieved the nation’s goal of securing the West for railroads and
settlement.
Sherman’s legacy in the
Indian Wars remains contentious. To many 19th-century Americans, he was a
pragmatic hero who tamed a “savage” frontier and enabled national expansion. To
Native Americans, his policies amounted to cultural destruction. He never
uttered the infamous line “The only good Indian is a dead Indian”—that phrase
is usually attributed to Sheridan—but his writings and actions reflected a
willingness to use extreme measures when resistance persisted. His middle name,
drawn from a Shawnee chief who once united tribes against American
encroachment, underscored the irony of his career.
In the end, Sherman’s western
campaigns completed the work begun in Georgia: the application of total war to
achieve political ends. The railroads he protected crisscrossed the Plains,
towns sprang up beside them, and the buffalo were gone. The Indian Wars under
his command marked the closing chapter of armed Indigenous resistance on the
continent and the triumph of industrial America over the nomadic cultures that
had thrived there for centuries. Sherman died in 1891, remembered primarily for
the Civil War, yet his quieter, more methodical conquest of the West reshaped
the nation just as profoundly.
Here are twelve of the most notable and frequently discussed Civil
War paintings (primarily from the 1860s–1880s era). They capture
battlefield action, camp life, emancipation, human cost, and symbolic
landscapes rather than just heroic charges.
Guerrilla
Warfare (Picket Duty in Virginia)by Albert Bierstadt(1862).
Bierstadt, known for grand landscapes, depicts Union soldiers ambushing
Confederates in a lush Virginia setting with a fallen soldier and distant
homestead. It highlights the irregular, personal nature of much of the fighting
and contrasts serene scenery with sudden violence.
Prisoners from the Front by Winslow Homer (1866). One of
Homer's masterpieces and often called one of the most telling paintings of the
war. It shows captured Confederate soldiers (a defiant young officer, an older
man, and others) confronting a poised Union general in a devastated landscape.
Painted post-war but based on Homer's frontline observations, it explores
class, defeat, resilience, and reconciliation without glorification.
A Ride for Liberty – The Fugitive Slaves by Eastman Johnson (1862). A
powerful, rare depiction of an enslaved Black family galloping toward Union
lines at dawn, seeking freedom amid the chaos. Johnson witnessed similar
scenes; the painting emphasizes agency and self-liberation rather than passive
waiting for emancipation, with the family looking in different directions
(future, past, present).
Home, Sweet Homeby Winslow Homer (1863). Two Union
soldiers in camp pause reflectively by a fire, evoking profound homesickness
through simple, intimate details. Homer, who served as an illustrator with the
Army of the Potomac, excelled at capturing the quiet emotional toll of war
rather than combat spectacle.
Defiance: Inviting a Shot before
Petersburgby Winslow
Homer (1864). A lone Confederate soldier stands boldly on a parapet, taunting
Union lines, while comrades (including a Black musician with a banjo) rest
below in the trenches. It conveys raw defiance, boredom, and the surreal mix of
danger and routine during the brutal siege of Petersburg.
The
Burial of Latané by William D. Washington (1864). A Confederate icon
depicting the funeral of the sole casualty from J.E.B. Stuart's 1862 ride
around McClellan. Women, children, and enslaved people gather in a pastoral
setting for the burial, accompanied by a poem. It became a symbol of Southern
chivalry, sacrifice, and loyalist tropes in Lost Cause mythology.
A
Coming Storm by Sanford Robinson Gifford (1863). A luminist landscape
showing dark clouds gathering over a serene lake and autumnal mountains.
Painted during the war (and once owned by Edwin Booth, brother of Lincoln's
assassin), it metaphorically captures the nation's gathering crisis and
uncertainty, blending beauty with impending doom.
At
the Front by George Cochran Lambdin (1866). A contemplative Union
officer reflects somberly, conveying the psychological weight and trauma of
combat experience. Post-war paintings like this shifted focus from action to
the inner costs of service.
The Girl I Left Behind Me by Eastman Johnson (1872). A young woman stands
on a promontory, gazing uncertainly as distant clouds (possibly battle smoke)
loom. Titled after a popular soldiers' ballad, it poignantly addresses
separation, waiting, and the home front's anxiety.
Skirmish in the Wilderness by Winslow Homer (1864). Homer's depiction of
chaotic close-quarters fighting in dense woods during the 1864 Overland
Campaign. It avoids romantic heroism, emphasizing confusion and the brutal,
tangled reality of battle.
Evening Gun, Fort Sumter by Conrad Wise Chapman (1864). Based
on Chapman's sketches as a Confederate soldier, this shows the battered fort at
twilight after bombardment—the site of the war's first shots. It captures
endurance and the war's origins through atmospheric, documentary-style detail.
Grant and His Generals by Ole Peter Hansen Balling (1865). A
formal group portrait of Union leaders (including Grant and Sherman) on
horseback, symbolizing command, unity, and impending victory as the war wound
down. It contrasts with more intimate works by celebrating leadership and
resolution.
Stalingrad, fought from 1942 to 1943, was one of the
deadliest battles in history and a major turning point on the Eastern Front.
German forces entered the city and fought brutal street-by-street combat, but
Soviet forces counterattacked and encircled the German 6th Army. Hitler refused
to allow a breakout, and the encircled army eventually surrendered.
Its importance was enormous. Stalingrad destroyed a major
German army, shattered the aura of German invincibility, and shifted the
strategic initiative toward the Soviet Union. After Stalingrad, the Red Army
increasingly drove the Axis westward.
The First Battle of the Marne was fought in September 1914,
early in World War I. German armies had advanced rapidly toward Paris, but
French and British forces counterattacked when the German right wing became
overstretched and exposed. The Germans withdrew, and the immediate bid to win
the war quickly failed.
This battle mattered because it stopped the German drive on
Paris and helped turn the war into a long trench stalemate. The “Miracle on the
Marne” became one of the first major signs that the war would not be short or easy.
Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 near present-day Belgium
and ended Napoleon’s return from exile. Wellington’s Anglo-allied army held
defensive ground against repeated French attacks until Prussian forces under
Blücher arrived and struck Napoleon’s flank. The French army collapsed, and
Napoleon’s rule was over.
The battle ended the Napoleonic era in Europe. It restored a
balance of power led by the major coalitions against France and became one of
the most consequential military defeats in European history. Waterloo also
fixed Napoleon’s image in history as both a genius commander and a fallen
emperor.
Here is a
widely accepted “top ten” list of famousU.S. naval battles, focusing on
historical impact and public recognition.
One: Battle
of Lake Erie (War of 1812, 1813)
Gave the U.S.
control of Lake Erie against the Royal Navy; Oliver Hazard Perry’s report, “We
have met the enemy and they are ours,” became iconic.
Two: Battle
of Manila Bay (Spanish‑American War, 1898)
Commodore
George Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron destroyed Spain’s Pacific fleet, signaling the
emergence of the U.S. as a major naval power.
Three: Attack
on Pearl Harbor (World War II, 1941)
Japanese
carrier strike that crippled much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, drew the United
States fully into World War II, and transformed naval warfare around carriers.
Four: Battle
of Coral Sea (World War II, 1942)
First battle
fought entirely by carrier‑launched aircraft with opposing fleets never in
visual range; a strategic U.S.–Allied victory that helped set up Midway.
Decisive U.S.
victory that sank four Japanese carriers, blunting Japan’s offensive capability
in the Pacific and shifting the balance of the war.
Six: Naval
Battles of Guadalcanal (World War II, 1942–1943)
Series of
fierce surface and carrier actions around the Solomon Islands that halted
Japanese expansion and began sustained U.S. offensive operations.
Seven: (World
War II, 1944)
Massive
carrier battle often called the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot,” which shattered
Japanese naval aviation and secured U.S. control of the central Pacific.
Eight: Battle
of Leyte Gulf (World War II, 1944)
Generally
considered the largest naval battle in history; U.S. and Allied forces
decisively defeated the Japanese fleet during the liberation of the Philippines.
Nine: Battle
of the Atlantic (World War II, 1939–1945, with major U.S. role from 1941)
Long campaign
rather than a single battle, but U.S. Navy and Allied navies’ anti‑submarine
warfare against German U‑boats was vital to keeping Britain supplied.
Saratoga was actually a campaign fought in two major actions
in 1777, Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights. British General John Burgoyne
advanced south from Canada but became overextended, short of supplies, and
unable to secure the support he expected. American forces under Horatio Gates,
with key battlefield leadership fromBenedict Arnold, held their ground and
eventually forced Burgoyne’s surrender.
Its importance was diplomatic as much as military. Saratoga convinced
France that the Americans had a real chance to win, helping bring French
support into the Revolutionary War. That alliance changed the war from a
colonial rebellion into a global struggle against Britain.
These battles matter for different reasons, but they share a
common pattern: each one changed the strategic balance far beyond the
battlefield itself. Some became cultural touchstones as much as military
events. Others directly changed the map of power in their eras.
Tours, fought in 732, pitted Frankish forces under Charles
Martel against an Umayyad raiding army in Gaul. Charles chose strong defensive
ground, which reduced the effectiveness of cavalry assaults by the Muslim
force. The Umayyad commander Abd al-Rahman was killed, and the raiding army
withdrew.
Its broader significance is debated, but the victory
certainly strengthened Frankish power and helped check further Umayyad
penetration into western Europe. It also fed the later image of Charles Martel
as the defender of Christian Europe. The battle became more famous in later
memory than it was in immediate medieval politics.
Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between William of
Normandy and King Harold II of England. Harold had just forced back another
invasion in the north and then marched rapidly south to face William, leaving
his army tired and perhaps understrength. After hours of fighting, Norman
tactics, including feigned retreats, helped break the English line, and Harold
was killed.
The consequences were transformative. Norman victory
replaced the Anglo-Saxon ruling elite with a new aristocracy, reshaped
landholding patterns, and deeply altered English political culture and
language. Hastings is one of the clearest examples of a battle that changed the
course of a national history.
These battles matter for different reasons, but they share a common pattern: each one changed the strategic balance far beyond the battlefield itself. Some became cultural touchstones as much as military events. Others directly changed the map of power in their eras.
Fought in 490 BC on the plain of Marathon, this battle was
part of the first Persian invasion of Greece. Athens faced a much larger
Persian force sent by Darius I. The Athenians, led in practice by Miltiades,
used disciplined hoplite infantry to attack and defeat the Persians, preventing
a direct move on Athens itself.
Its importance was both military and symbolic. The victory
showed that Persian forces could be beaten in open battle by Greek heavy
infantry, and it gave Athens a powerful sense of civic confidence. It also
became a foundational story for later Greek identity and resistance to empire.
Thermopylae took place in 480 BC during Xerxes’ massive
invasion of Greece. A small Greek force, led by King Leonidas and his Spartans,
held a narrow mountain pass against the Persians, using the terrain to
neutralize Persian numbers. The Greeks resisted for several days before flanked
by the Persians.
Militarily, the battle was a defeat, but strategically it
mattered a great deal. It delayed Xerxes’ advance and gave other Greek states
time to prepare, while the Spartan stand became a lasting emblem of sacrifice,
discipline, and duty. The story of the “300” outlived the battlefield itself
and became one of antiquity’s most enduring symbols of heroic resistance.
Three: Battle of
Gaugamela
Gaugamela was fought in 331 BC between Alexander the Great
and Darius III of Persia. Alexander’s army was smaller, but it was highly
mobile and tightly coordinated, while the Persians tried to use their numerical
advantage on open ground. Alexander maneuvered to stretch the Persian line,
then struck at a vulnerable point with his elite cavalry, causing the Persian
center to collapse and Darius to flee.
The result was decisive. Gaugamela effectively ended Persia
as a major independent imperial power and opened the Near East to Macedonian
rule. It also confirmed Alexander’s reputation as one of history’s great
battlefield commanders.
These battles matter for different reasons, but they share a
common pattern: each one changed the strategic balance far beyond the
battlefield itself. Some became cultural touchstones as much as military
events. Others directly changed the map of power in their eras.
Cannae was fought in 216 BC during the Second Punic War,
when Hannibal met a far larger Roman army in southern Italy. Hannibal used a
classic double-envelopment plan: his center gradually yielded, the Romans
pushed forward, and his cavalry and infantry closed in from the sides and rear.
The Roman army was trapped and destroyed in one of history’s most famous
encirclements.
The battle is still studied because it demonstrates how a
commander can use terrain, discipline, timing, and deception to defeat a
numerically superior enemy. Rome survived, but Cannae was a catastrophic shock
that reshaped Roman military thinking.
Siege of Alesia
Alesia, in 52 BC, was the climactic showdown of Caesar’s
Gallic Wars. The Gauls withdrew into a fortified hilltop settlement.Caesar chose not to storm it directly and
instead built siege lines around the town to trap the defenders. When a large
Gallic relief army arrived, Caesar added an outer defensive line so he could
fight both the trapped garrison and the relieving force at once.
Caesar’s victory was strategically huge. It broke the main
organized Gallic resistance and cemented Roman dominance in Gaul. Politically,
it also enhanced Caesar’s prestige enormously, helping set the stage for his
rise in Rome.
In AD 9, Germanic tribes led by Arminius ambushed the Roman
legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus in the Teutoburg Forest. The Romans were
drawn into broken terrain and stretched out in bad weather, which made their
formation vulnerable to repeated attacks. Over several days, three Roman
legions were destroyed and Varus killed.
The defeat had major consequences. Rome abandoned plans for
expansion deep into Germania east of the Rhine, and the river became a
long-term frontier between Roman and Germanic worlds. In Roman memory, the
disaster was a trauma comparable to the worst defeats of the Republic and early
Empire.
Historians
debate rankings, but these ten battles are very commonly cited as the most
famous sea battles in world history.
One: The Battle of Salamis(480 BCE)
Greek city-state fleet defeated a much larger Persian force near Athens,
halting Persian expansion in Greece and shaping the future of Western
civilization.
Two: Battle of Actium (31 BCE)
Octavian’s fleet beat the combined forces of Antony and Cleopatra off western
Greece, paving the way for Octavian to become Augustus and establish the Roman
Empire.
Three: Battle
of Red Cliffs (Chibi) (208–209 CE)
Allied southern Chinese warlords used fire attacks and river tactics on the
Yangtze to stop Cao Cao’s massive fleet, ensuring China remained politically
divided and inspiring one of its most famous historical epics.
Four: Battle
of Yamen (1279)
The Mongol Yuan fleet crushed the last Song loyalist navy off southern China,
ending the Song dynasty and completing Mongol conquest of China.
Five: Battle
of Lepanto (1571)
A Christian “Holy League” fleet decisively defeated the Ottoman navy in the
Gulf of Patras; it was the last great battle of large Mediterranean oar-powered
galleys and a major check on Ottoman sea power.
Six: Defeat
of the Spanish Armada / Gravelines (1588)
English and allied ships disrupted and broke the Spanish Armada in the Channel
and off Gravelines, thwarting Philip II’s invasion plan and marking a turning
point in Atlantic power politics.
Seven: Battle
of Trafalgar (1805)
Nelson’s British fleet shattered the combined French–Spanish line off Cape
Trafalgar, eliminating Napoleon’s realistic hope of invading Britain and
confirming British naval dominance for the 19th century.
Eight: Battle
of Tsushima (1905)
The Japanese fleet annihilated the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Tsushima Strait,
the first time an Asian power defeated a major European navy, with huge
consequences for imperial politics and pre–First World War balances.
Nine: Battle
of Jutland (1916)
Only full-scale battleship fleet clash of the First World War; tactically
inconclusive but strategically preserved British control of the North Sea and
the blockade that helped wear down Germany.
Ten: Battle of Midway(1942) Decisive U.S. victory that sank four Japanese carriers,
blunting Japan’s offensive capability in the Pacific and shifting the balance
of the war.
Nathan Bedford Forrest, the
daring Confederate cavalry general, surrendered his forces in May 1865 near
Gainesville, Alabama. Returning to Memphis penniless, he engaged in various
business ventures, including lumber merchandising and planting, but faced
financial ruin from failed investments. From 1866 to 1869, Forrest served as
president of the Selma, Marion and Memphis Railroad, attempting to rebuild the
South's infrastructure. In his later years, he leased land on President's
Island, managing an 800-acre farm using convict labor, which critics likened to
slavery due to harsh conditions like bloodhounds and corporal punishment.
Forrest was instrumental in founding
the Ku Klux Klan, becoming its first Grand Wizard by 1867.The Klan led violent campaigns against Black
voters and Republicans. Forrest publicly ordered the KKK's dissolution in 1869,
citing its excesses. His declaration had
little effect, and few Klansmen destroyed their robes and hoods.
On July 5, 1875, Forrest addressed a Black civic
organization in Memphis, praising Black advancement, calling for racial
harmony, and even accepting a bouquet from a young Black woman and kissing her
on the cheek. Contemporary newspapers described the speech as “friendly,” and
Forrest explicitly encouraged peace between Black and white Southerners.
This moment is often cited as
a dramatic departure from his earlier life as a slave trader, Confederate
general responsible for the Fort Pillow massacre, and first Grand Wizard of the
Ku Klux Klan.Forrest appears to have
undergone a personal softening in his final years, including a strong turn
toward religion.The depth of this
transformation is uncertain, and historians disagree on whether it reflected
genuine repentance, political calculation, or a mix of both.
Forrest died on October 29,
1877, at age 56 in Memphis from diabetes complications.
America's patriotism is
steeped in quirky history, from revolutionary quirks to modern symbols. Here
are ten odd facts that highlight the nation's eccentric spirit.
One: In 1917, the government briefly
tried to rename hamburgers “liberty
sandwiches” to avoid the German association.
Two: The back of the Declaration bears
an upside-down message: "Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th
July 1776."
Three: Three U.S. presidents—John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe—died on July 4th, adding eerie
coincidence to the holiday.
Four: The Liberty Bell hasn't rung
since 1846, but it's symbolically tapped 13 times each Independence Day to
honor the original colonies.
Five: The Liberty Bell is one of the most famous cracked objects in
history—yet the crack people recognize today was actually a repair attempt that failed, leaving
the bell permanently silent.
Six: The 50-star American flag was
designed by 17-year-old Robert Heft for a school project, earning him a B-
until it was adopted.
Seven: Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration on a "laptop"—a portable writing desk that fit over the
lap.
Eight: Americans devour about 150
million hot dogs on July 4th, making it the biggest hot dog day of the year.
Nine: Six U.S. flags stand on the moon
from Apollo missions, proving patriotism reaches extraterrestrial heights.
Ten:
Benjamin Franklin preferred the turkey over the bald eagle as the national bird, arguing the
turkey was more respectable and less prone to stealing.
The Confederate Army, vastly
outnumbered and chronically short of supplies, fought with desperate ingenuity,
deception, and eccentricity for four brutal years. Its soldiers blended
old-world grit with makeshift innovation. Here are ten of the oddest things
about the Confederate army:
One: Silk-Dress Sky Spies: Southern ladies donated silk dresses
so the fabric could be sewn into observation balloons for scouting Union
positions.
Two: Camel Pack Train: Captured U.S. Army camels, hauled
supplies across the arid Southwest.
Three: Lemon-Sucking Stonewall: General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson
constantly carried and sucked lemons, convinced they cured his dyspepsia and
restored bodily balance.
Four: Quaker Guns: Painted wooden logs mounted on fake
carriages mimicked real cannons, fooling Union scouts at Centreville, Port
Hudson, and elsewhere.
Five: Secret Sisters: Hundreds of women cut their hair,
bound their chests, and enlisted as men, fighting undetected until wounded or
discovered.
Six: Boy and Graybeard Army: Conscription swept in boys as young
as 14 and gray-haired men over 50, especially in the war’s desperate final
years.
Seven: Twenty Negro Law: Owners of 20 or more enslaved people
could exempt one white overseer from the draft—sparking bitter cries of “rich
man’s war, poor man’s fight.”
Eight: Worthless Wages: Soldiers’ pay in Confederate scrip
inflated so wildly that a month’s wages bought almost nothing; many went unpaid
for months.
Nine: Deadly Torpedoes: The Confederacy pioneered buried
explosive land mines (“torpedoes”) that terrorized advancing Union infantry.
Ten: Native Warriors: Cherokee, Choctaw, and other tribal
regiments served; Brigadier General Stand Watie, a Cherokee leader, became the
last Confederate general to surrender.
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