Seven Civil War Facts That Rarely Make It Into History Class

Most history courses teach the Civil War in terms of politics: battles and dates. That's the version that mostly doesn't contain the details that are important to the actual war on the ground. These are seven of the most important facts, from the documented history.

The Real Death Toll Was Higher Than What Textbooks Report

The established death toll had been 620,000 for more than 100 years but was arrived at by incomplete recordkeeping just after the end of the war. Historian J. David Hacker redid the numbers in 2011, using digitized census records to determine who truly did disappear from population records by 1870. His research brought the death toll to between 750,000 and 850,000, as it did not include unregistered fighters and soldiers who died on their way home from the war.

Disease Killed Far More Soldiers Than Combat

About 2/3 of soldiers who were killed in the war were killed by non-fire-related causes. Germ theory was not yet known as medical knowledge, and so many more died from dysentery, typhoid, and pneumonia than from battlefield wounds. Army camps would routinely set up latrines near sources of drinking water, and a soldier was far more likely to die from contaminated water than he was from gunfights.

Children As Young As Ten Fought In Combat

Union Army policy called for all soldiers to be at least 18, but enlistment was often based on the presence of the “right stuff." Children have been recorded as young as 12 years old fighting on the front line. The youngest case recorded was a man who called at age 9 to enlist, was refused, and then went on to enlist in the army and was officially enlisted at age 10. He served in the battles of Shiloh and Chickamauga and retired in 1916 as a major general.

A Confederate Submarine Achieved The First Successful Underwater Attack In History

In February 1864, the Confederate submarine HL Hunley, man-powered by eight crew members who cranked a shaft for propulsion, was able to successfully torpedo a Union warship in Charleston Harbor. This was the first time in the history of the submarines that they had destroyed an enemy ship successfully. The Hunley made no sign of returning to base, and all nine crew members were lost. It wasn't until 2000 that the wreck was retrieved, and the question of whether the crew was killed by the shockwave of their own explosive device remains unanswered.

At Least 250 Women Disguised Themselves As Men To Fight

At least 250 women fought as men, and there is no doubt that there were more than that; there were a lot more. Jenny Hodgers enlisted under the name Albert Cashier in 1862 and lived to fight in 40 battles with an Illinois regiment. Her name was never revealed until she was discovered in a car accident in 1911 after a medical examination.

The Deadliest Maritime Disaster in American History Happened

The steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis on April 27, 1865, and killed as many as 1,800 people—more than the Titanic was to lose decades later. When the boilers exploded, the vessel was in a legal state, carrying approximately 400 passengers but was carrying about 2,400 recently released Union prisoners of war bound for home. The disaster was not given much historical coverage because it took place the same week as the war's end and Lincoln's assassination.

The Confederacy's Own Vice President Stated Its Founding Purpose Directly

Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens gave a speech in March 1861 in Georgia that contains the explicit affirmation that racial inequality was the cornerstone of the Confederate cause and that slavery was its moral basis. The speech was released to the newspapers in large volumes on the day it was given. This official record runs counter to the later historical accounts, which portrayed the war as a conflict over states' rights and not slavery.

Why These Details Matter

The Civil War is usually presented in textbooks as a series of movements of troops and decisions of politicians, thus omitting the human suffering and the record of the reasons. These are seven facts from primary sources and peer-reviewed historical research that give a more comprehensive picture of what the war actually was and why it is the bloodiest war in American history in terms of casualties.