What They Didn't Teach You About the Civil War

Instant coffee was invented during the Civil War for use by Union troops, who hated it; holding races between lice was a popular pastime for both Johnny Reb and Billy Yank; 13% of the Confederate Army deserted during the conflict. These are three of the hundreds of bits of knowledge that Mike Wright makes available in his informative and entertaining What They Didn't Teach You About the Civil War, which focuses on the lives and ways of ordinary soldiers and of those they left behind.

What They Didn't Teach You About the Civil War looks at the ordinary people who fought the war and the people they left behind. It is about Belle Starr and Johnny Clem, one the South's top female spy, the other a nine-year-old drummer boy who went on to serve 46 years in the U.S. Army. It is about the first shot fired at Fort Sumter (by a civilian who later committed suicide) and the final lowering of the Confederate flag (by a ship's captain in Liverpool, England). It is about death on the battlefields and in prison cells, about women fighting to be recognized for their accomplishments, and how people on both sides managed to survive the deadliest war this nation has seen. These are the emotions, passions, and stories that go far beyond History 101.