Civil War curiosities : [electronic resource] strange stories, oddities, events, and coincidences / Webb Garrison.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-269) and index.

Lincoln and Davis started out less than one hundred miles apart -- Famous--or soon to be -- Never say die -- Many wives did more than knit socks -- Clergymen "fought like hell" -- The role of hostages in the struggle for supremacy -- Horses kept the war alive -- Civil War critters -- In the heat of battle -- Black soldiers fell short of equality -- Sights and sounds of combat -- "The war is to be illuminated by burning cities and villages" -- Outmoded weapons made "sitting ducks" of many users -- Strange new weapons -- Officers were of many varieties, but only one color -- Ships, seas, and rivers -- "Rally round the flag, boys!" -- Analysis, prediction, and wishful thinking -- Providence, fate, or chance? -- Time doesn't always fly -- Of life and death -- No one called Lincoln handsome -- From the sublime to the ridiculous -- War makers as appraised by their contemporaries -- Atrocity, war fever, or journalistic hype? -- "Silent battles" defy explanation -- Abolition of slavery not the Union goal in 1861.