Tom McMahon

John S Mosby: Confederate Guerilla Raider, Post-War Republican Campaign Manager for President Grant, US Ambassador to Hong Kong, and Boyhood Playmate of World War II General George S. Patton

John S Mosby: Confederate Guerilla Raider, Post-War Republican Campaign Manager for President Grant, US Ambassador to Hong Kong, and Boyhood Playmate of World War II General George S. Patton

Interesting characters fall into two categories:

1. You read their biography and say "What an interesting character!"
2. You read the outline of their biography and say "What an interesting character!"

Mosby falls into the second category. From the absolutely terrific Son of the South website:

During George's childhood, one of the best friends of the Patton family was none-other-than Colonel John S. Mosby, the fabled "Grey Ghost" of J.E.B. Stuart's legendary cavalry. Patton grew up hearing tales of daring raids and stunning cavalry attacks from the Grey Ghost himself. During visits to the Patton Ranch in Southern California, Colonel Mosby would re-enact the Civil War with George; playing himself, he let George play the part of General Lee as they would recount the battles of the war, astride their horses.

These firsthand stories, and horseback re-enactments, directed by one of the greatest Guerilla fighters of all time no doubt had a huge influence on Patton.  Both his sense of bravery and duty, and his Guerilla like tactics were no doubt heavily influenced by his early exploits with John S. Mosby.

It's interesting to contemplate that with all his other accomplishments, Mosby's most lasting legacy might be those hours spent playing with a young boy. And it's as true today as it was back then: You Just Never Know. (H/T: My Brother Tim)

CSS Shenandoah: The Confederate Navy Ship That Circumnaviagated The Globe, Fought The Last Action Of The Civil War In The Bering Sea, Surrendered In Liverpool In November 1865, and Then Was Sold To The Sultan Of Zanzibar

CSS Shenandoah: The Confederate Navy Ship That Circumnaviagated The Globe, Fought The Last Action Of The Civil War In The Bering Sea, Surrendered In Liverpool In November 1865, and Then Was Sold To The Sultan Of Zanzibar

From the Naval Historical Center:

Waddell took his ship through the south Atlantic and into the Indian Ocean, capturing nine U.S. flag merchant vessels between late October and the end of 1864. All but two of these were sunk or burned. In late January 1865, Shenandoah arrived at Melbourne, Australia, where she was able to receive necessary repairs and provisions, as well as adding more than forty "stowaways" to her very short-handed crew. Following three weeks in port, the cruiser put to sea, initially planning to attack the American south Pacific whaling fleet.

However, discovering that his intended targets had been warned and dispersed, Waddell set off for the north Pacific. He stopped in the Eastern Carolines at the beginning of April, seizing four Union merchantmen there and using their supplies to stock up for further operations. While Shenandoah cruised northwards in April and May, the Confederacy collapsed, but this news would spread very slowly through the distant Pacific. Following a month in the Sea of Okhotsk that yielded one prize and considerable experience in ice navigation, she moved on to the Bering Sea. There, between 22 and 28 June 1865 the now-stateless warship captured two-dozen vessels, destroying all but a few. Soon afterwards, Waddell started a slow voyage towards San Francisco, California, which he believed would be weakly defended against his cruiser's guns.

Though Shenandoah's late June assault on the whaling fleet was accompanied by many rumors of the Civil War's end, she did not receive a firm report until 2 August 1865, when she encountered an English sailing ship that had left San Francisco less than two weeks before. Waddell then disarmed his ship and set sail for England. Shenandoah rounded Cape Horn in mid-September and arrived at Liverpool in early November, becoming the only Confederate Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe. There she hauled down the Confederate Ensign and was turned over to the Royal Navy. In 1866 the ship was sold to the Sultan of Zanzibar and renamed El Majidi. She was variously reported lost at sea in September 1872 or in 1879.

More at Wikipedia. There are three books about the Shenandoah: The Last Shot: The Incredible Story of the CSS Shenandoah and the True Conclusion of the Civil War, Sea of Gray: The Around-the-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah, and Last Flag Down: The Epic Story of the Last Confederate Warship .

Pro-Union Southerners In The Civil War

Excerpts from the World History Blog:

I was surprised to read about the 1st Alabama Cavalry today. This unit was from the deep south and it fought for the Union during the American Civil War. I had no idea that such a unit ever existed! Reading further, I discovered that large portions of Northern Alabama had been opposed to secession and remained loyal to the United States. Further, these areas were never under Confederate control and they raised several units which supported Union forces. The 1st Alabama Calvary even served as escorts for General Sherman on his infamous March to the Sea late in the war. ...

I would have expected that the black population of the south supported the Union. However, I was surprised that so many white southerners (some who were slave holders) refused to join the rebellion and openly fought to preserve the United States of America. The loyalist in the south were a major hindrance to the rebellion and they certainly tied up Confederate troops that were needed elsewhere.

And from the 1st Alabama Calvary site:

Indeed, a majority in the hills of Northwest Alabama, mostly poor yeomen dirt farmers, saw little value or reason in taking arms against the federal government. They recognized quite early that this was not their fight, but that it was the landed gentry. It was obvious to the hill folk that the plantation owners and their political spokesmen were fanning the war flames and talked the loudest about separation. With their money and property and political power, it was the planters who felt most threatened by the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. ...

But in the rugged landscape of northern Alabama, slaves were few and far between. The same was true in the mountains of East Tennessee and North Georgia and western North Carolina, and western Virginia, which would later become a state because of its overwhelming anti-confederate sentiment. Few slaves were owned in the upland South, simply because the land would not support a plantation economy. Those who did work the land in the mountain South were a fiercely independent breed, poor but proud, and of no mind to lend support to plantation owners who looked down upon them as uneducated and inferior.

1861 Slave Map vs 1990 Black Population Census Map

1861 Slave Map (left) vs 1990 Black Population Census Map (right)

From The Buck Stops Here, which has larger maps and links.

Topps 1961 Civil War News Trading Cards

Topps 1961 Civil War News Trading Cards

An excerpt from Bob Heffner's excellent site:

The United States Civil War Centennial Celebration was still going strong in 1962 when Topps produced a set of cards titled THE CIVIL WAR. The cards were the idea of Len Brown and Woody Gelman. Gelman recalled an earlier series of cards from the 1930's called HORRORS OF WAR that had made a large impact because of the graphic violence that was shown. They felt that boys would react strongly if they did a combination Civil War Chronicle with the feel of the old Horrors of War cards. Because of the title of the "newspaper-like journal" on the back the set has become known as the CIVIL WAR NEWS. The cards were graphic, bloody and extremely successful. This was the first of the the three "bloody" sets (including Battle and Mars Attacks) by famous 'pulp' artist Norm Saunders. CWN made a bundle and got Topps to invest some time and effort on the other two series.

The cards were even a hit in England. Here's creator Len Brown from a 1988 interview:

{Len} Yes....We worked with a company in England: A.B&C. Limited, I believe their name was. They found it more efficient to print the cards a little smaller. They reprinted many of our 1960's sets, only a little smaller. I remember seeing them do Mars Attacks that way too. I think they paid Topps a royalty plus a cost for the artwork. They had great success with Civil War cards we were told. That surprised Woody and myself because we wouldn't have thought that British children would give a hoot about our Civil War...But I guess blood and guts and good artwork will win every time.

Hey, that formula worked on my brother Tim and me  --- we bought a big bunch of these cards when we were kids. (Hey Tim, check out the French and Spanish sets, as well as these other links!)

A Question For Southern Baby Boomers: When Did Your State Begin To Celebrate Memorial Day?

The Yankee Memorial Day, that is. As I've written before, when our family moved from Chicago to Nashville in 1960 we were shocked to find out they celebrated Confederate Memorial Day and not (the regular) Memorial Day. We moved back North in 1962, and sometime between then and now Tennessee switched over from one holiday to the other. But when? And I imagine the other Southern states went through the same change, but at different times. I can't find any info on this on the internet. So, y'all, what do ya know on this?

Gettysburg

Gettysburg

US Grant: Four Days Left

US Grant: Four Days Left

From Boots & Sabers, the final picture of US Grant, taken four days before he died.

Joe Sherlock: Why Abe Lincoln Stopped Blogging

Joe Sherlock: It is a little-known fact that Abraham Lincoln was an early blogger, but gave it up because he found the feedback negative, unbalanced and dismaying. Some historians cite this as a reason for his oft-melancholy disposition. Here is a recently unearthed comments section from a page on his old blog:

Abe, I blame you for everything that is wrong with America. You got us into this stupid war. Typical Republican; all you care about is the Cotton Lobby. My aunt got a gangrenous boil because of you. Die. Die. Die.

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Fort Fisher Falls

Two excerpts from American Heritage:

A big break for the Union in the Civil War occurred 142 years ago today. On January 15, 1865, the U.S. Navy and Army finally took Fort Fisher, which guarded the entrance to the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. The capture deprived blockade-running merchant ships of access to Wilmington, the last major Southern seaport still in Confederate hands. Near the end of 1864, Gen. Robert E. Lee had written, “Hold Fort Fisher or I cannot subsist my army.” With provisions and matériel from abroad now completely cut off, the collapse of the Confederacy became not just inevitable but imminent. ...

Like many Civil War engagements, the Fort Fisher campaign was marked by great skill and bravery on both sides, and also by incompetence, recklessness, and venality. Victorious Union troops spent the night celebrating as the dead were removed and the wounded were cared for, and on the morning of January 16, a high-spirited group entered the fort’s main ammunition magazine, using torches to light their way. The resulting explosion may have killed as many as 200 men. And the next day a final pair of would-be blockade runners from Bermuda were captured. Their cargo, according to a history of the conflict, was “small arms, shoes, blankets, liquor, lace, silks, and the latest ladies’ hats from Paris.”

I served on the USS Fort Fisher (LSD 40) many years ago and I never knew anything about the fort for which my ship was named. But now I do. Never too late to learn, I suppose.

General Ulysses S. Grant: From Failure To Success And Back Again

General Ulysses S. Grant: From Failure To Success And Back Again

Via the American Presidents Blog, this is from the PBS Mexican-American War site:

After the U.S.-Mexican War, Grant served in a series of mundane assignments around the Great Lakes before being posted to California in 1853. Homesick and increasingly dependent on alcohol, he resigned from the army a year later.

The outbreak of the American Civil War produced the conditions by which Grant re-entered the army and, proving to be a good organizer, a fearless soldier, and a master of logistics, he advanced rapidly until ultimately commanding the entire army of the United States.

An interesting cycle of failure and success, that guy:

1. Failure: As a junior officer in the US Army
2. Success: As a General in the US Army
3. Failure: As President of the United States
4. Success: His autobiography, written as he was dying, done with the purpose of leaving his family some money to live on after his death. Wildly successful, it was the only investment Mark Twain ever made money on.

The Battle Of Shiloh: Now With Zoom!

The Battle Of Shiloh: Now With Zoom!

The Wildflower That Killed Lincoln's Mother

The Wildflower That Killed Lincoln's Mother

Excerpts from An Iowa Garden

Milk sickness, which was unknown in the rest of the world, and not recognized even in New England, was the leading cause of death in some small communities in the frontier, killing numerous infants, and many adults; supposedly one-half of the deaths in Dubois County, Indiana in the early 19th century were attributed to milk sickness. It was characterized by lethargy (thus it was also sometimes called "the slows"), vomiting, trembling, and then coma. Most famously, Abe Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died of it, on October 5th, 1818. Thomas Lincoln had moved his family to Little Pigeon Creek, Indiana two years before. The disease continued to ravage this little community for the next ten years after Nancy Hanks death, supposedly being the reason the surviving Lincolns later moved to Illinois. ...

It may well be that this modest woodland wildflower changed the course of U.S. history, as it caused the Lincoln family to move to Illinois, where Abe became involved in politics, and went on to become one of our most influential presidents.

What Lincoln Had In His Pockets At Ford's Theater

What Lincoln Had In His Pockets At Ford's Theater

When Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865, he was carrying two pairs of spectacles and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a linen handkerchief, and a brown leather wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate note and nine newspaper clippings, including several favorable to the president and his policies.

Carl Schurz: Wisconsin's German-American Revolutionary, Civil War General, And Mugwump

Carl Schurz: Wisconsin's German-American Revolutionary, Civil War General, And Mugwump

An excerpt from Answers.com:

Schurz, Carl, 1829–1906, American political leader, b. Germany. He studied at the Univ. of Bonn and participated in the revolutionary uprisings of 1848–49 in Germany. Compelled to flee to Zürich after the collapse of the movement, he finally emigrated (1852) to the United States, where he settled (1856) in Watertown, Wis. and became a strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln, who appointed him (1861) U.S. minister to Spain. Schurz resigned this position to serve in the Civil War. Promoted to major general in 1863, he fought in the battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga and served with Gen. William T. Sherman's army in North Carolina in 1865. Between 1865 and 1868, Schurz was Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune, editor of the Detroit Post, and joint editor and owner of the St. Louis Westliche Post. He was U.S. Senator (1869–75) from his adopted state of Missouri. Antagonized by the radical Republican Reconstruction program and opposed to the administration of President Grant, Schurz aided in forming (1872) the Liberal Republican party. In 1876, Schurz supported Rutherford B. Hayes, whose hard money views he approved, for the presidency. He served (1877–81) in Hayes's cabinet as Secretary of the Interior. He was an editor (1881–83) of the New York Evening Post and wrote editorials (1892–98) for Harper's Weekly. In 1884, convinced of James G. Blaine's unfitness for office, Schurz led the mugwumps in their opposition to Blaine's nomination and candidacy. Schurz supported the Democrat Grover Cleveland in that year and again in 1888 and 1892. He turned to William McKinley in 1896 because of William Jennings Bryan's currency views, but in 1900 he supported Bryan because of his anti-imperialist views.

That's Schurz and his wife Margaretta, who founded the first kindergarten in America in Watertown, Wisconsin, about halfway between Madison and Milwaukee. Another bit of trivia: Carl Schurz Park in New York City is the site of Gracie Mansion, the residence of the Mayor of New York since 1942.

And why were they called "mugwumps"? The late humorist Richard Armour said it was because they sat on the fence with their mugs on one side and their wumps on the other.

Grant and Lee At Appomattox

A short excerpt from Lieutenant Colonel Horace C. Porter, an eyewitness to the proceedings:

After a little general conversation had been indulged in by those present, the two letters were signed and delivered, and the parties prepared to separate. Lee before parting asked Grant to notify Meade of the surrender, fearing that fighting might break out on that front and lives be uselessly lost. This request was complied with, and two Union officers were sent through the enemy's lines as the shortest route to Meade--some of Lee's officers accompanying them to prevent their being interfered with. At a little before 4 o'clock General Lee shook hands with General Grant, bowed to the other officers, and with Colonel Marshall left the room. One after another we followed, and passed out to the porch. Lee signaled to his orderly to bring up his horse, and while the animal was being bridled the general stood on the lowest step and gazed sadly in the direction of the valley beyond where his army lay--now an army of prisoners. He smote his hands together a number of times in an absent sort of a way; seemed not to see the group of Union officers in the yard who rose respectfully at his approach, and appeared unconscious of everything about him. All appreciated the sadness that overwhelmed him, and he had the personal sympathy of every one who beheld him at this supreme moment of trial. The approach of his horse seemed to recall him from his reverie, and he at once mounted. General Grant now stepped down from the porch, and, moving toward him, saluted him by raising his hat. He was followed in this act of courtesy by all our officers present; Lee raised his hat respectfully, and rode off to break the sad news to the brave fellows who he had so long commanded....

What Lincoln Had In His Pockets At Ford's Theater

What Lincoln Had In His Pockets At Ford's Theater

When Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865, he was carrying two pairs of spectacles and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a linen handkerchief, and a brown leather wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate note and nine newspaper clippings, including several favorable to the president and his policies.

Many Years Later, A Southern Wife Remembers The End Of The Civil War

From Today in History:

We had nothing on which to begin life over again, but we were young and strong, and began it cheerily enough. We are prosperous now, …little grandchildren cluster about us and listen with interest to grandpapa's and grandmamma's tales of the days when they "fought and bled and died together." They can't understand how such nice people as the Yankees and ourselves ever could have fought each other. "It doesn't seem reasonable," says Nellie…who is engaged to a gentleman from Boston, where we sent her to cultivate her musical talents, but where she applied herself to other matters, 'it doesn't seem reasonable, grandmamma, when you could just as easily have settled it all comfortably without any fighting. How glad I am I wasn't living then! How thankful I am that 'Old Glory' floats alike over North and South, now!'

And so am I, my darling, so am I!

Confederate Army Timeline

Confederate Army Timeline

A 36 by 24 inch poster with incredible detail.

Judah P. Benjamin, The Jewish Attorney General of the Confederacy

Judah P. Benjamin, The Jewish Attorney General of the Confederacy

Classic Wisconsin Road Trip: Passion In Prairie du Chien

Passion In Prairie du Chien

From WisPolitics.com:

"I’ll be damned if another daughter of mine will marry into the army."

The concerned father who only wanted the best for his daughter, as quoted above, served as commander of Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien. Colonel Zachary Taylor would later become the nation’s 12th president at a time when secession was heating up, but in 1833 his primary concern was for his daughter. On the other hand, Sarah Taylor only wanted to be with the love of her life, the young Lt. Jefferson Davis, destined to serve as the president of the Confederate States of America.

Small world, eh? And this poignant story, which began in Prairie du Chien, takes more twists and turns than a melodramatic made-for-TV movie.

Taylor, a career military man, served as fort commander from 1832-37. Davis was no slouch either, having graduated from West Point in 1828. Problem was, as daughters of a career military man living in a God forsaken wilderness outpost, the Taylor girls had two available options -- date a soldier, or don’t date at all. But their father had made one thing clear, according to official White House history, “Knowing the hardships of a military wife, Taylor opposed his daughters' marrying career soldiers.”

The Sinking of the CSS Alabama

The Sinking of the CSS Alabama

From the CSS Alabama Association:

In June of 1864 ALABAMA entered the port of Cherbourg, France, to obtain major repairs to both hull and machinery. Her powder was deteriorating and unpredictable as to firing characteristics. France had not granted her access to repair facilities as the emperor was not in Paris. At that point, the cruiser USS KEARSARGE, Captain John A. Winslow, USN, commanding, entered the breakwater, and Semmes, realized that other federal ships would soon join the blockade. He then sent a note to Mr. Bonfils, the confederate agent in France, requesting him to inform Captain Winslow, KEARSARGE, through the United States consul, that if Winslow would wait until the ALABAMA was coaled, Semmes would come out and give him battle.

On Sunday June 19, 1864, ALABAMA sailed through the breakwater and made for the KEARSARGE, then about seven miles off the breakwater. In the first half-hour of the engagement the ALABAMA lodged a 100 pound shell near the sternpost of the KEARSARGE, a sure coupe de grace…but the shell failed to explode. After one hour and ten minutes of intense battle at distances as close as 500 yards the KEARSARGE delivered a mortal blow and the ALABAMA began to sink. Seeing the carnage on deck and the futility of further loss of life, Semmes struck his colors and fired a lee gun. The KEARSARGE fired five more times, and Semmes launched his only two surviving boats to the KEARSARGE with wounded and those who could not swim. Semmes was pulled from the water by the english yacht deerhound and taken to England.

And from last week in The Guardian:

The Confederate State Ship Alabama today lies where it sank under 198 feet of swirling currents about 7 nautical miles off the French town of Cherbourg. On Thursday, the Civil War Preservation Trust, an American nonprofit group, named this English Channel town a historic Civil War site - the first outside the United States. Officials dedicated a plaque commemorating the battle at the Cite de la Mer museum, which is exhibiting a cannon recovered from the Alabama.

Battle Flags of the Confederacy

Battle Flags of the Confederacy

Unframed $20.00 , Framed $120.00    They have a lot more Confederate artwork for all of you Art Contrarians out there.

Civil War Surgery

From eHistory.com:

Deciding upon an amputation, the surgeon would adminster chloroform to the patient. What is portrayed in "Hollywood" and in much "modern" conception of what surgery in the War was like during the war is false; anesthesia was in common and widespread use during the war.... it would make more complicated and longer operations possible as the era of antiseptic surgery was embarked upon (but too late for the poor Civil War soldier).

You'll learn a thing or two there, but it's not for the squeamish.

The First Lady of the Confederacy

An excerpt from The Life of Varina Howell Davis:

The last week of March 1865, against her wishes, Varina and her children left by train and headed for Charlotte, NC. Once there, she rented a house and waited daily for word from her husband. Richmond quickly fell and when Abraham Lincoln made his way into that city, he visited the Confederate Executive Mansion and sat at the desk of Jefferson Davis. After hearing of Lee’s surrender of his army, a worried Varina once again boarded a train with her children and headed for protection deeper into the South. Feeling vulnerable to capture on a train, she changed their method of transportation to wagons. For weeks, Jefferson tried to catch up to his wife, sometimes entering a town just hours after she’d departed.

Mathew Brady

Mathew Brady

From loc.gov :

Mathew Brady did not actually shoot many of the Civil War photographs attributed to him. More of a project manager, he spent most of his time supervising his corps of traveling photographers, preserving their negatives and buying others from private photographers freshly returned from the battlefield, so that his collection would be as comprehensive as possible. When photographs from his collection were published, whether printed by Brady or adapted as engravings in publications, they were credited "Photograph by Brady," although they were actually the work of many people.

After the Civil War, Brady found that war-weary Americans were no longer interested in purchasing photographs of the recent bloody conflict. Having risked his fortune on his Civil War enterprise, Brady lost the gamble and fell into bankruptcy. His negatives were neglected until 1875, when Congress purchased the entire archive for $25,000. Brady's debts swallowed the entire sum. He died in 1896, penniless and unappreciated.

Without the Civil War, There Would Be No Vernors Ginger Ale

Vernors

From the Vernors History Page:

Before the conflict began, James Vernor, a Detroit pharmacist, had concocted a new drink. It was a mix of 19 ingredients, including ginger, vanilla and natural flavorings.

When Vernor was called off to war in 1862, he stored the secret mixture in an oak cask in his pharmacy. After returning from battle four years later, he opened his secret keg and found the drink inside had been transformed by the aging process in the wood. It had taken on a zippy, zesty, gingery flavor. It was like nothing else he had ever tasted.

The 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg

eHistory.com on the 1913 gathering of both Northern and Southern Veterans on the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg:

On the fourth of July at high noon, a great silence fell over the battlefield, as the church bells began to toll. Buglers of the blue and gray prepared to play the mournful tune of Taps one last time. The guns of Gettysburg shook the ground, signaling the end of the weeklong event. And though many eloquent speeches were given, none expressed what these Veterans took away from this experience better than a scene witnessed at the train station:

"Nearly all of the men had said their good-byes and headed for home. On the station platform a former Union soldier from Oregon and a Louisiana Confederate were taking leave of each other. They shook hands and embraced, but neither seemed able to find the words to express his feelings. Then an idea seemed to strike both men at once. In a simple act, which seemed to say everything they felt the pair took off their uniforms and exchanged them. The Yankee went home in Rebel gray, the Confederate in Union blue."

John Wilkes Booth Escape Route

John Wilkes Booth Escape Route

Also, the Surratt Society sponsors bus tours each fall and spring along Booth's escape route. (via Grow-A-Brain)

Discovering the Lincoln Death Photograph

The Lincoln Death Photograph

From Abraham Lincoln Online:

More than 50 years ago a 14-year-old boy found a photograph of President Abraham Lincoln in his coffin taken on April 24, 1865, in New York City. The discovery startled historians, because Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, had ordered this photograph to be destroyed. Stranger yet, the one surviving print remained with Stanton, whose son preserved it. This is a first-person account of the discovery, as told by Dr. Ronald Rietveld, professor of history, California State University-Fullerton.

(via Grow-A-Brain)

The Development of Union Strategy in the American Civil War

From an article by Jerry Staub in eHistory.com:

When the South seceeded, Lincoln was faced with the prospect of fighting an offensive war in order to force the Confederacy back into the Union. This meant that he had to recruit more troops than the South in order to have superior numbers for invasion. In other words, he had to recruit, organize, train, feed, clothe, and arm about 3 to 4 men for every soldier the South mustered, roughly 1.5 to 2.5 million men – a daunting task for a country who only had a regular army of about 16,000 men at the time the war began! This situation was compounded by the fact that in order to win, the North had to mass enough men and resources to invade and conquer a territory that was almost the size of Western Europe. Secondly, from a political standpoint, Lincoln also had the daunting task of holding the Union together, in spite of all of the divisive forces prevalent at the time. He had to walk a proverbial tightrope between the Republicans and the Democrats, the abolitionists and the slavery proponents, and the Unionists and the secessionists. He also had to effectively manage the border states to prevent them from seceding from the Union, a task that required an iron fist as well as kid gloves, depending upon the state involved. Finally, Lincoln also had to worry about keeping other countries, such as England and France, out of the conflict, while he sought a strategy that achieved his aim of reuniting all states under one government.

The Most Decisive Draw: Monitor And Virginia At Hampton Roads, 1862

From eHistory.com:

The battle between USS Monitor and CSS Virginia around Hampton Roads in March of 1862, though tactically indecisive, had positive results for both sides, making it one of the most decisive draws in history. For the North, Monitor proved that the United States could build warships more powerful than nearly any other then afloat in a very short time, and could defend Northern interests against any interference by Europe into American affairs. For the South, Virginia represented sound and powerful harbor defense warship design that was at least equal to anything the Union could float, and that compelled the Union to take the threat of other, similar ships seriously. Further, her short career may have saved the Confederate capitol and lengthened the war by two years.

By March of 1862 the fortunes of the Confederacy were in decline. In Tennessee the Federals had taken Forts Henry and Donelson that January, forcing the evacuation of Nashville. In February an audacious naval operation had secured New Orleans. Surprising Army/Navy operations had secured Roanoke Island in Virginia and Port Royal in South Carolina, providing important bases for blockading ships.

The hopes of the Confederacy, a nation without a navy, rested in part on a new ship that then was being finished in Norfolk. The hull of USS Merrimac, one of the prewar US Navy's largest and most powerful steam cruisers, had been salvaged after she was burned at her moorings during the Union's hurried evacuation of the Gosport naval yards. The hull below the berth deck was practically intact, and her power plant was salvageable. Confederate authorities had approved the plans for the ship that would be dubbed Virginia.

The Last Laugh

Another fine one from Anecdotage.com:

On April 13, 1865, with the Civil War over, orders were given to end the draft. The following day, Lincoln visited the Ford theater to take in a performance of Our American Cousin. When the heroine, resting in her garden, called for a shawl to protect herself from the draft, Edward Sothern, acting opposite her, replied with the impromptu line: "You are mistaken, Miss Mary: the draft has already been stopped by order of the president!" Lincoln then joined the audience in what would prove to be, quite literally, his last laugh.

Something To Remember: Abe Lincoln Was Elected In A 4-Way Race

For 100 extra bonus points, do you remember the names of all four candidates? Here's the answer. The electoral college breakdown can be found here.

President Lincoln Enters Richmond, 1865

The capture of Richmond had been the goal of the Union Army since the beginning of the Civil War. The Confederate capital lay tantalizingly close to Washington - only 100 miles - but it took four years of hard battle before the city fell to Union troops on April 3, 1865. Upon hearing the news of the fall of the Confederate Capital, President Lincoln accompanied by his son Tad, boarded a boat and sailed to survey the scene himself.

Lincoln Letter Shows the Human Side of War

Harcourt: "As the Civil War was coming to an end, Abraham Lincoln released a Confederate soldier, John Alexander Stephens, from prison and sent him home. Lincoln sent along a letter to John's uncle, Alexander Stephens, as well as a photograph of himself. This is believed to be the only time President Lincoln wrote to a Confederate during the war. It was also one of the last letters he ever wrote. . . "

A Son Has a Civil War Story To Tell About His Dad

Jim Stingl: "People are always trying to correct Bill Upham. "You mean your grandfather fought in the Civil War," they insist. "It would seem more true if it was my grandfather. But it was my father," the Milwaukee man says right back. When you hear Bill Upham's story, the first thing you do is the math. His father, William Henry Upham Sr., was born in 1841. That was 162 years ago. The elder Mr. Upham - a Union soldier, successful businessman and for two years the governor of Wisconsin - lost his wife and married a much, much younger woman when he was 75. A year later, Bill showed up. And when William Upham was 80, he begot Frederick. Between the father and his sons, they have lived every second of American history save the country's first 65 years."