Two percent of the population of the United States died in the U.S. Civil War, amounting to more than 620,000 casualties.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the costliest battle of the Civil War, with 51,112 casualties (23,049 Union and 28,063 Confederate). Gettysburg was a victory for the Union forces and is considered by many experts to have been the turning point in the Civil War.

Traveller weighed about eleven hundred pounds and stood nearly sixteen hands high. He outlived General Lee and, upon his death, was buried next to the Lee Chapel. Although Traveller was Lee's favorite horse, his stable also included four other horses: Richmond, Brown-Roan, Ajax, and Lucy Long.

On March 9, 1862, two American warships, the Monitor and the Merrimack, engaged in a four-hour close-range duel which finally resulted in a draw. The battle was remarkable because it was the first engagement between two ironclad warships and, thus, marked a revolution in naval warfare.

South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. South Carolina troops also fired the first shots of the Civil War in 1861 when they fired on Union troops in Fort Sumter. Ironically, South Carolina had also been the first state to ratify the original constitution of the United States on February 5, 1778.

Considered one of the greatest speeches ever written, Lincoln's Gettysburg address took less than two minutes to deliver.

Joseph Hooker is best remembered for his stunning defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.

The words "In God We Trust" first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864.

One of Jefferson Davis' own slaves, Mary Bowser served an important role in the Union spy ring organized by Elizabeth Van Lew. Although exactly what intelligence she gathered is unknown, the value of Van Lew's ring was noted by Generals Benjamin Butler, Ulysses S. Grant, and George H. Sharpe.

Some Native American tribes, such as the Creek and the Choctaw, were slaveholders and found a political and economic commonality with the Confederacy. When Confederate Brigadier General Albert Pike authorized the raising of Native American regiments during the fall of 1860, Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees responded with considerable enthusiasm. Their zeal for the Confederate cause, however, began to evaporate when they found that neither arms nor pay had been arranged for them.