Curiosities of the Civil War
Strange Stories, Infamous Characters and Bizarre Events
By Webb Garrison
Review by Brenda
Just like the subtitle suggests, this book is full of little know facts about the Civil War and that time period. There are many personal details about Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. They were similar in many ways. There are stories about different women that didn’t want to be left home and came along with their husbands, brothers and fathers. One, Mrs. Turchin, refused to leave her husband when he was made colonel of the Nineteenth Illinois Regiment. She followed him wherever he went. Later, when he was about to go before a court-martial, she personally went to Lincoln and secured his pardon with her account of the incident of which he was accused. Months later, when her husband was ill, she was said to have taken over command of his unit and once even led in battle. (p.41) Another woman, left on board the F. P. Ellicott, got the crew drunk and took the ship back over from the Confederates that thought they had captured it.
There are also stories about how clergymen fought on both sides, how animals were used and taken as pets during the war. There is a story on page 88 about a dog belonging to Captain Werner Von Bachelle from the Union army. His dog learned “to perform military salutes and many other remarkable things.” At the end of the Battle of Antietam the Captain’s body was found guarded by the dog alone.
This book is not a book to sit down and read for hours at a time, but it is very interesting to read a chapter at a time to learn new things about the Civil War. You will find things that you didn’t know about it in this book.
-thedeaLteen, and mother
