More Civil War Curiosities: Fascinating Tales, Infamous Characters, and Strange Coincidences

by Webb B. Garrison

More Civil War Curiosities contains strange but true stories from the four-year conflict that raged across a one-thousand-mile battle front with more than three million men in uniform. Anything could and often did happen. Webb Garrison recounts instances of friendly fire casualties, the unperfected art of spying, banishments and deportings, grisly tales of missing limbs, name changes for both people and ships, disguises that worked (and some that did not), and many "firsts" and "lasts." Fragging, or purposely killing a fellow soldier, was the probable cause of the death of Thomas Wilson, a tyrannical Federal general. He died in action at the battle of Baton Rouge when, according to one account, he was seized by a group of his own men who held him in front of a cannon before it was fired at the enemy. When Confederate Gen. Jubal Early marched on Frederick, Maryland, he offered not to torch the town for a payment of $200,000. It took the townspeople a day to borrow the money?and 87 years to pay it back. When Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, failed to raise a ransom of $500,000, Early's subordinate, Gen. John McCausland, burned the town to the ground. The arm of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson was amputated when he was wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville. Following the operation, Jackson's corps chaplain gave the arm a respectful burial? complete with a gravestone ?in his family's cemetery. When the general died a week later, the rest of him was buried in Lexington, Virginia. Hiram Ulysses Grant was mistakenly listed as Ulysses Simpson Grant by the congressman appointing him to West Point. Grant did not protest, and the name stayed with him all the way to the presidency of the United States.

Genres: History, Civil War, Nonfiction, American Civil War, Historical, 19th Century, Military Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Webb Garrison, formerly associate dean of Emory University and president of McKendree College, wrote more than 55 books. Before his death in 2000, Garrison lived in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

Reviews

[Richard Dominguez]

Ok collection of civil war stories, but lacks luster, making for dull reading

[Charlie]

I enjoy Civil War history, and I enjoyed this book. As the title indicates, it talks about unusual things that took place during the Civil War. Some of the information I was familiar with but I also learned quite a bit. IT was well-researched and well-written. THis book will go into my library to be read again.

[Sandy Carmichael]

Very dry---lots of statics and facts.

[Aaron Horton]

This was an interesting collection of events during the Civil War. If you are into Civil War check this book out

[Josh Hatfield]

Dull collection of anecdotes that quickly become repetitive

[Ken Branham]

Many interesting antidotes and stories, but not very cohesive. And a couple of chapters basically just list facts, especially the financial information. But fun to read.

[Christie]

Apparently there are just not that many Civil War Curiosities to be found. Though there were a few new and interesting facts (lots of American citizens were deported during the war, including one person who was exiled from both the USA and CSA), but near the end of the book it seems like the author ran out of fascinating tales, infamous characters, and strange coincidences and just started spouting random facts about how much everything cost. It got a bit boring after awhile.

[Joey]

Again, a decent book with lots of little tid-bits/trivia about the civil war.

[Sheila Myers]

A great book for Civil War buffs who want to learn some of the lesser known facts of the war.

[Sally]

- more interesting than its predecessor -

[Eric]

An entertaining read. I found one inaccuracy but it was minor.