The muzzle-loading rifle could be loaded at the rate of about three times a minute. Its maximum range was about 1000 yards.
There were 6,000,000 cases of disease in the Federal armies, which meant that, on an average, every man was sick at least twice.
According to the U. S. Census, the population of the United States in 1860 numbered 31,443,321 persons. Of these, approximately 23,000,000 were in the 22 Northern states and 9,000,000 in the 11 Southern states. Of the latter total, 3,500,000 were slaves.
The famous Confederate blockade - runner, the C.S.S. Alabama, never entered a Confederate port during the length of her service.
The first civilian killed by the abolitionist John Brown and his cohorts at Harper’s Ferry was a free black man.
In the Peninsular campaign in the spring of 1862, as many as 5000 wounded were brought into a hospital where there were only one medical man and five hospital stewards to care for them.
At one time or another, the Northern armies numbered 2,100,000 soldiers. The Southern armies were considerably smaller. The total dead on both sides was about 500,000.
Sickness accounted for a full one-third of all casualties in the Civil War. The 12th Connecticut Regiment entered the war with a compliment of 1,000 men. Before it entered its first engagement, sickness had reduced its strength to 600 able bodied soldiers.
There were more than 10,000 soldiers serving in the Union Army that were under the age of 18.
The principal weapon of the war and the one by which 80 percent of all wounds were produced was a single-shot, muzzle-loading rifle in the hands of foot soldiers.
The artillery barrage at the battle of Gettysburg during Pickett’s charge was heard over 100 miles away in Pittsburgh.
Union and Confederate forces stationed at Fredericksburg during the winter of 1862 traded items by constructing small boats and floating them back and forth across the Rappahannock river.
Approximately 2,000 men served in the 26th North Carolina Regiment during the course of the Civil War. With Lee’s surrender at the Appomattox courthouse, there were only 131 men left to receive their paroles.
The diseases most prevalent were dysentery, typhoid fever, malaria, pneumonia, arthritis, and the acute diseases of childhood, such as measles, mumps, and malnutrition.
The first organized ambulance corps were used in the Peninsular campaign and at Antietam.
