Curiosities of the Civil War, 150th Anniversary of the Civil War by Webb Garrison
Hardcover, 548 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Retail: $19.99 (or on Amazon)
This book is full of information about the Civil War. There are lesser known facts and tidbits about the people and events during the Civil War. Webb Garrison chose the submissions carefully based on their "interest, novelty, and brevity." And this definitely is not an exhaustive compilation. Fortunately for those who are interested in the Civil War or would like to know more, there is bibliography that will help to dig deeper into these curiosities.
I liked the fact that these are short. I love history and have a special interest in the Civil War. Unfortunately there is so much involved with the history of the Civil War it is difficult for me to study it in as much depth as I would like. This book gives me my fix.
An example of the format of this book:
"Men of the Richmond Howitzers chose as their mascot a very big crow, jet black. When their pet died, the soldiers called on their chaplain to conduct for it "a regular military funeral." Before the solemn salute was given by guns of the honor guard, the bird was eulogized in both English and Latin." pg. 94
Some entries are an entire page, others are only a few sentences, such as the above. Some of the little bits I've already been made aware of but some I am not sure that I would have encountered them in any other historical work. Garrison pointed out in the Introduction that many of these were only found in one record, and often difficult to find at that.
I like this book and it's definitely staying in my book collection! If you enjoy 'fact' books, history and/or the Civil War, I think you'll like this one.
