Best Civil War Songs

The Civil War lasted for four long years, and during these years, numerous songs and ballads were composed. The songs sung during the war usually fit into specific categories. There were inspirational marching songs written to boost the spirits of soldiers. There were negro spirituals and other traditional slave songs. There were songs that soldiers sang when they were sad and thinking of home and there were songs that families sang at home when thinking of loved ones away at war. Here are my top five Civil War songs:

1. When Johnny Comes Marching Home

2. We Are Coming Father Abraham

3. I wish I was in Dixie Land

4. Battle Cry of Freedom

5. The Bonnie Blue Flag

Random Civil War 'Fun Facts'

A website called randomhistory.com has a list complete of 101 interesting facts about the civil war. I will list 10 of my favorites and if you're curious feel free to read the rest at  http://facts.randomhistory.com/civil-war-facts.html

Young boy fighting
in the Civil War 

    1. Soldiers during the war had a big age variety from 9 years old to 80 years! It's true! A nine year-old boy from Mississippi was fighting in one of the most gruesome battles in American history, in fact about 10,000 Union soldiers were under the age of 18.

    2. In a single day, the 1 million Civil War horses would have peed enough urine to fill more than 12 standard swimming pools.

    3.President Lincoln's personal copy of the Emancipation Proclamation was donated to the Chicago Historical Society in 1864, but it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871.

    4. 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. Reminds me of Mulan!

    5. When southern states succeeded in the early 1860s they left in almost the exact order of their percentage of slaves.

    6. Before William T. Sherman became a Union General he was demoted for apparent insanity.

    7.Although both the North and South did not allow women in the army, it is estimated that 250-400 women fought disguised as men. Again Mulan!

    8.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.

    9.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.

   10.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.

Civil War Short Film

A Walk With Death

I want to bring this powerful short film, made by Logan Fulton, to attention for its beautiful representation of the likely death looming over every single soldier on a battlefield. I encourage you to watch it.

I have also mentioned this video on my battles and significant events of the war page:

 http://civilwarnotebook1.blogspot.com/p/battles-and-significant-events-of-war.html