Fun Facts
Great Civil War Projects You Can Build Yourself

Civil War battlefield photographers would often re-arrange dead bodies on the battlefield to make their photographs look more dramatic.

The Monitor, the Union’s first ironclad battleship, was also the first ship in history to have flushing toilets

Slaves who escaped from the South by means of surrendering to Northern troops were called “contraband.”

The first women hired by the US Armed forces were escaped slaves hired on the USS Red Rover as chambermaids and laundresses.

The periscope was invented by Thomas Doughty, a Union naval officer, who needed a way to see where enemy soldiers were stationed on the high banks of the Red River, and he couldn’t risk going out on deck.

Trench lines at the Siege of Petersburg ran for 53 miles. The trenches were only three feet deep and six to eight feet wide.

The Civil War was the first war that used electronic communication devices on the battlefield: the telegraph was used by both sides to transmit troop information.

Union soldiers called Confederates “butternuts” because the dye used to make the southern uniforms was often uneven and turned a tan-gray color over time.

As food shortages became severe in the South, people would occasionally throw “starvation parties” where the only refreshment would be water.