Interesting Facts:
- While he gave the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln had a mild form smallpox -- varioloid. He quipped, “Now I have something that I can give everybody.” while on the train back.
- Nine of 120 generals present at Gettysburg were killed or mortally wounded during the battle.
- Pickett’s Charge, though large and grand, was by no means the largest charge of the Civil War.
- Neither Lee nor Meade gave consent or knew the Battle of Gettysburg was to happen. It started out as a skirmish over shoes.
- At the battle of the Peach Orchard, Union General Sickles had his leg smashed by an artillery shell and a he was carried away, he lit a cigar and yelled at his men to take the day. He gave his amputated leg to the Army Medical Museum. After the war, it was put on display. Sickles would visit it once in awhile.
- During the Battle of Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee had a bad case of diarrhea, which may have altered his judgement during the war.
- Glasses with colored lenses were used to treat disorders and illnesses during the Civil War. The term, "To see the world through rose-colored glasses" came from the use of pink-trimmed glasses to treat depression. Yellow trimmed glasses were used to treat syphilis and blue trimmed glasses were used to treat insanity.
- Due to surgeons believing all of the blood was the same, they never washed their hands.