Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War is an entertaining look at the Civil War stories that don't get told, and the misadventures you haven't read about in history books. Share in all the humorous and strange events that took place behind the scenes of some of the most famous Civil War moments. Picture a pedestal in a public park with no statue on top; Rowland's book explains that when the members of the New York Monument Commission went to hire a sculptor to finish the statue, they were shocked to discover that there was no money left in the agency's accounts to pay for the project. The money for the statue of Dan Sickles had been stolen?stolen by former monument committee chairman Dan Sickles!
Brig. Gen. Philip Kearny was the son of a New York tycoon who had helped found the New York Stock Exchange, and who groomed his boy to be a force on Wall Street. The younger Kearny decided his call was to be a force on the field of battle, so despite a law degree and an inheritance of better than $1 million, he joined the U.S. Army and studied cavalry tactics in France. His dashing figure in the saddle earned him the name of Kearny the Magnificent, probably because Kearny rode with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other while holding the horse's reins in his teeth. This habit proved useful after he lost his left arm in the Mexican War, because he was able to continue to wave his sword with all the menace to which he was accustomed while still guiding his horse.
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Zusammenfassung
A quirky journey through little-known trivia and true stories from the history of the American Civil War. The Civil War tore the United States apartbut with the drama and chaos of war as front-page news, some stories of the time were forgotten. They're the sort of bizarre, outrageous, funny, or entertaining tidbits that would have gone viral on social mediaif they'd had such a thing back then. Here, a newspaper columnist and a retired superintendent of the Antietam National Battlefield have collected a wide variety of tales from the time, including mistakes, misadventures and epic screw-ups you won't find in history books, including: * the monument to Union General Dan Sickles that was missing a statue because the funds for it had been stolenby Dan Sickles * the brutal equine cost of war: while over 600,000 men died, there was an even higher toll on horses * the legend of Brigadier General Philip Kearny who, after losing an arm, rode into battle with a sword in one hand and his horse's reins in his teeth From amazing stories of survival to incredible coincidences that ended up changing the course of history, Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War is a must-read for Civil War buffs, history fans, or anyone that enjoys odd historical trivia.