Simple Tips on Civil War Essay Writing

Surprising Facts about Civil Wars

• • The soldiers of the Black Union gave up their salaries for 18 months in their protest against lower salaries comparing to white soldiers.

Back in early 1863, black soldiers who became members of the Union Army, were paid as little as $10 per month; meanwhile, white soldiers received $13 for the same period. Later, the soldiers of the Black Union were also charged $3 for clothing, resulting even in a lower pay of only $7. Therefore, the lowest-paid white soldiers’ salary was equal to that of the highest-paid black soldiers. Black soldiers eventually refused to accept lower salaries in organized protest against the inequality. Coupled with the pressure from the abolitionists, the efforts of the black soldiers eventually brought about positive changes and Congress agreed to transform the pay structure. A year after the beginning of the protests black soldiers finally received the pay they deserved. Being a meaningful historical change, higher pay also meant many black soldiers were now able to support their families at home.

• • During the Civil War, soldiers mostly died because of disease.

Killing more people than everything else combined (lethal wounds, artillery, accidents, malnutrition, drowning and suicide), disease became the major cause of death during the Civil War. Around 45,000 soldiers in the Union army and over 50,000 soldiers on the Confederate army died because of dysentery.
The dysentery and other highly contagious diseases spread among the members of both armies extremely fast because of poor sanitation and water contamination.

• • The Union Army mostly consisted of immigrants and African Americans, who comprised one-third and one-tenth of the army respectively.

The Union Army was comprised of the representatives of multiple nations. We can find records of Irish soldiers (approximately 7 percent of the force) and German soldiers (10 percent), who made up regiments like Steuben Volunteers. Other representatives of the army were immigrants from France, Italy, Poland, England, and Scotland. Statistically, one out of four regiments was comprised almost entirely of foreigners. In 1863, Black Americans were officially allowed to join the military forces, and some historians argue that this inflow of new soldiers turned the tide of the war.

• • Gender in Civil War

During the Civil War, many women disguised themselves as men to join the forces. More than 400 women succeeded and fought in the Union and Confederate armies hand-in-hand with male soldiers. This period in history may have played a role in gender equality as women began to discover the horizons beyond their homes. Thousands of women both in South and North became volunteer nurses in the brigades.

• • Nearly twenty years before Lincoln’s assassination, he was shot and almost killed.

One late August evening in 1863, Lincoln rode to his family residence at the Soldiers’ Home. A worker heard a shot near the gate and a moment later, Lincoln’s horse galloped into the yard with the bareheaded president clinging to his steed. Lincoln later explained that the shooter missed, sending the horse galloping so fast he lost his hat. When the hat was retrieved, there was a bullet hole in it. Lincoln did not want his wife Mary to be worried, so he asked the witnesses of the incident to keep it a secret.