When you think of the civil rights movement, names like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers instantly spring to mind. Yet the tapestry of sacrifice includes many more heroes—10 forgotten martyrs whose courage helped reshape America. Their stories deserve to be told and their legacies honored.

Remembering 10 Forgotten Martyrs of the Civil Rights Era

10 Jimmie Lee Jackson

Jimmie Lee Jackson, an Army veteran from Alabama, became the emblematic figure whose tragic death helped ignite the Voting Rights Act. Like countless black Alabamians, he was repeatedly stymied by absurd barriers whenever he tried to register to vote. After numerous failed attempts, he joined a gathering of 400 people on February 18, 1965, at a Marion church where they sang, prayed, and exchanged stories from Selma’s beleaguered voters.

When the congregation left the sanctuary to march toward the jail, state troopers in riot gear descended upon them. Photographers were forcibly repelled, their cameras smashed, erasing any visual record of the night’s brutality. In the chaos, Jackson, his mother, and his elderly grandfather sought refuge in a nearby store. A trooper shoved his mother to the floor; when Jackson moved to protect her, the trooper drew a pistol and shot him twice at point‑blank range, striking his abdomen. He lingered for several days before succumbing to his wounds.

Just four days later, the same crowd reconvened for the historic Selma‑to‑Montgomery march that would become known as Bloody Sunday—this time captured by the press. Nationwide outrage surged, prompting President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in August. The trooper responsible for Jackson’s death was finally tried in 2010, receiving a six‑month sentence for second‑degree manslaughter and being released early.

9 Clyde Kennard

Clyde Kennard, a Korean War veteran, left the University of Chicago in 1955 to return to his hometown of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to care for his mother. Determined to finish his education, he set his sights on the all‑white Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi). Despite multiple formal applications and personal appeals, school officials erected endless obstacles, and the secretive Mississippi Sovereignty Commission launched a campaign to discredit him.

Undeterred by the campaign, Kennard’s impeccable record could not be tarnished—until officials fabricated a felony charge of stealing $25 worth of chicken feed. An all‑white jury, after a mere ten‑minute deliberation, sentenced him to the maximum seven years of hard labor. While incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit, Kennard fell gravely ill with intestinal cancer. Prison officials refused treatment, and he endured brutal labor until protests forced his early release. He died six months later, never bitter, and two years after his death the first black students were finally admitted to the college he had fought to join.

8 Juliette Hampton Morgan

Juliette Hampton Morgan, a well‑educated white Southern belle, seemed to have every advantage—wealth, prestige, and a respectable position as a librarian in Montgomery. Yet her inability to drive forced her onto city buses, where she witnessed the appalling treatment of black passengers. Incensed, she began penning letters to the local newspaper, demanding fair treatment for black riders.

Her outspoken advocacy made her a target: she endured taunts at work, mockery from bus drivers and white passengers, and public humiliation. The hostility escalated when a cross was burned onto her lawn. Undeterred, she kept writing, but death threats and attempts to have her dismissed piled up. Overwhelmed, she resigned on July 15, 1957, and was found dead the following morning from an intentional overdose of pills. Martin Luther King Jr. later praised her in his book, noting she was the first to draw parallels between the movement and Gandhi. In 2005, she was posthumously inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame.

7 Rev. James Reeb

Rev. James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister serving a poor black neighborhood in Boston, answered Dr. King’s call for clergy to join the Selma march. At 38, he was a father of four and wholly committed to civil‑rights activism. While in Selma, he and two fellow white ministers left a diner and were set upon by three white men. Reeb was brutally clubbed, slipped into a coma, and died the next day.

Reeb’s murder, alongside those of Jimmie Lee Jackson and Viola Liuzzo, shone an unforgiving light on Southern violence. The evening of his memorial service, President Johnson made a heartfelt plea to Congress to advance the Voting Rights Act, which was subsequently passed that summer.

6 Jonathan Myrick Daniels

Jonathan Myrick Daniels, a seminary student at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, answered Dr. King’s invitation to support the Selma‑to‑Montgomery march. After a demonstration at Fort Deposit, Alabama, Daniels and 22 others were arrested and transferred to a county jail in Hayneville. Released on August 20, he accompanied Catholic priest Richard Morrisroe and two black teenage girls—recently jailed for protesting—to a nearby store.

On the store’s porch, a construction worker who also served as a part‑time deputy brandished a shotgun at 17‑year‑old Ruby Sales. Daniels threw himself over Sales, taking the bullet and saving her life, while the priest was seriously wounded. Dr. King later hailed Daniels’ act as “one of the most heroic Christian deeds” he had ever heard. Ruby Sales went on to become a nationally recognized activist, founding the Spirit House, an organization that blends social, economic, and racial justice with spiritual principles.

5 Viola Gregg Liuzzo

Viola Gregg Liuzzo, a Detroit mother of five and a dedicated NAACP member, earned the somber distinction of being the only white woman murdered during the civil‑rights era. She traveled to Alabama to assist the Selma‑to‑Montgomery march, ferrying supporters between the two cities. On the evening of March 21, 1965, while driving a black teenager named Leroy Moton to Selma, a vehicle pulled alongside them on Highway 80 and opened fire, killing Liuzzo instantly. Moton survived by playing dead.

Over 300 mourners, including Dr. King, U.S. Attorney Lawrence Gubow, labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, and UAW President, attended her funeral. Her death spurred President Johnson to launch a federal investigation into the Ku Klux Klan’s activities.

4 Vernon Dahmer

Born in 1908, Vernon Dahmer was a businessman in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, owning a sawmill, a grocery store, and several other ventures. As president of the local NAACP chapter, he championed voter registration for black citizens. In January 1966, he announced on a local radio station that he would accept poll‑tax payments at his store, sparing people the long trek to the courthouse, even offering to pay the $2 tax for those who could not afford it.

The following night, three carloads of Klansmen descended on his home, shooting and dousing a dozen one‑gallon gasoline containers with fire. The blaze ignited, killing Dahmer twelve hours later. His wife, youngest children, and elderly aunt escaped, though his daughter suffered severe burns. Four of his eldest sons were serving in the U.S. military at the time. While four men received sentences of less than ten years, nine escaped punishment. The mastermind remained free until his fifth trial in 1998, when he finally received a life sentence and died in prison in 2006.

3 Oneal Moore

On June 2, 1965, Oneal Moore celebrated his one‑year anniversary as the first African‑American police officer in Washington Parish, Louisiana. He and his fellow black officer, Creed Rogers, were heading to Moore’s home for dinner after their shift when a pickup truck full of three men approached. Gunfire erupted; a bullet struck Moore in the head, killing him instantly, while another wounded Rogers, blinding him.

No one has ever been formally charged. The case was reopened three times by the FBI, yet the prime suspect died in 2003. Moore’s widow continues to live in Hattiesburg, sharing the home they built together, and he left behind four daughters ranging from nine years old to an infant. In 2013, a memorial was planned to honor Moore and all fallen police officers from the area.

2 Rev. George Lee

Rev. George Lee, born in Mississippi, served as a pastor in the town of Belzoni during the 1930s. He was an active NAACP member, using his pulpit to urge his black congregation to register to vote and even operating a printing press to spread the message. White officials offered him protection on the condition that he remove his name from voter rolls and cease encouraging others to register. He refused.

On May 7, 1955, Lee died under suspicious circumstances. Witnesses reported seeing several white men fire a shotgun into his car, leaving pellet‑laced damage in the tires and his face. The sheriff dismissed the pellets as mere dental fillings, despite lead never being used in fillings. The governor refused further investigation, and Lee’s death was officially recorded as an accident. No one was ever charged.

1 Harry And Harriette Moore

Harry and Harriette Moore stand alone as the only married couple murdered during the civil‑rights movement. On Christmas Day 1955, a firebomb placed directly beneath their bedroom detonated with such force that their bed was thrown through the rafters of their Mims, Florida home. Both were educators deeply involved in the NAACP, focusing on equal pay for black and white teachers and fighting segregation. Harry later turned his advocacy toward the more perilous issues of police brutality and lynchings.

The blast killed Harry instantly; Harriette succumbed to her injuries nine days later. The couple left behind two daughters. Though the explosion was initially dubbed “the bomb heard round the world,” their legacy faded over time, with no one ever charged for the murders.

Katlyn Joy is a freelance writer based in Denver, Colorado. She tutors students in history and language arts and is a mother of seven children. Her passion lies in helping others remember the heroes of the movement whose stories risk being lost to history.

Some controversies still linger about the American Civil War, but after 150 years, the basics are clear, right? Well, not really. We have forgotten a lot over a century and a half. The fighting also lasted so long and occurred over such a wide geographical area that it’s impossible to include all the important details in a classroom textbook. Some important facts about the Civil War might surprise you. In fact, here are 10 misconceptions you probably still hold.

10 Misconceptions You Should Rethink

10. Grant Wasn’t Always Considered A Hero

Grant’s bosses nearly arrested him in 1862.

On April 16, 1861, just four days after Fort Sumter was attacked, Ulysses S. Grant volunteered for the army and quickly became a general under General Henry Halleck. These two men had very different leadership styles. As a result, Halleck frequently complained that Grant was insubordinate.

Grant won important battles in February 1862, but General Halleck used a communications breakdown to complain about Grant to his boss, General George McClellan in Washington. McClellan wrote back, “The future success of our cause demands that proceedings such as Grant’s should at once be checked … do not hesitate to arrest him.”

Luckily for everybody but the Confederacy, Halleck had cooled down by the time McClellan’s note reached him. He just removed Grant from command and kept him out of the loop until Halleck himself went to Washington to replace McClellan. Grant’s rise to the top began soon afterward, when President Lincoln told those who were asking him to fire Grant, “I can’t spare this man—he fights.”

9. The Glory Battle Wasn’t The First Time African-American Troops Went Into Battle

Glory is about the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first African-American military unit to be raised in the North. It formed in 1863, the same year as the Battle of Fort Wagner. However, in October 1862—before either the Emancipation Proclamation or the Louisiana Native Guard’s charge at Port Hudson in 1863—the First Kansas Colored Volunteers fought and repelled Confederate cavalry at Island Mound, Missouri.

The First Kansas unit was organized by local Union officials in August 1862, even though the US Army still refused to accept African-American troops. In late October, about 240 troops were sent to Bates County, Missouri, to break up a band of Confederate guerrillas. The First Kansas, outnumbered, took over a local farm and renamed it Fort Africa. After two days of fighting, they were reinforced, and the Confederates withdrew.

The engagement was a minor one, but it received national attention and helped pave the way for African-American units like the 54th Massachusetts.

8. The First Civil War Land Battle Wasn’t At Manassas (Bull Run)

The Civil War opened on April 12, 1861, when Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor was bombarded. You might think the first battle fought on land was First Manassas (or Bull Run), when the citizens of Washington came out for a picnic in July and ended up running for their lives, along with US troops, in what the Southern press called the “Great Skedaddle.” You would be wrong.

In June 1861, Union troops caught Confederate soldiers by surprise in Philippi, Virginia (now West Virginia). The Northern press called the undignified Confederate retreat the “Races at Philippi.”

It was a small engagement with no fatalities, but it did have some interesting consequences. The US victory helped support the movement for secession in western Virginia. It also propelled George McClellan toward the coveted position of top general in Washington. Finally, a Confederate soldier named J. E. Hanger—an engineering student who lost a leg at Philippi—invented the world’s first realistic and flexible amputee prosthesis and went on to found today’s Hanger Prosthetics and Orthotics.

7. The War Didn’t End At Appomattox

On April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox. However, fighting continued elsewhere. General Joseph Johnston then surrendered the Army of Tennessee, the second-largest effective Confederate army, to General Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina, on April 26. There were still soldiers in the field.

On May 4, General Richard Taylor surrendered the 12,000 men serving in the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. Then, on May 12‑13, more than a month after Appomattox, the last battle of the Civil War took place at Palmito Ranch, Texas. General Kirby Smith, head of the Confederate Trans‑Mississippi Department, wanted to keep fighting afterward, but General Simon B. Buckner surrendered for him on May 26.

On June 23, the last Confederate general, Stand Watie, surrendered in Indian Territory to US Colonel Asa C. Matthews. However, the war at sea went on until November, when the last Confederate commerce raider surrendered.

6. The Civil War Wasn’t Restricted To US Territory

Confederate privateers (quasi‑legal pirates) and commerce raiders on the high seas made life miserable for US shippers. Privateers and blockade runners kept Union blockaders busy in waters around Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Cuba. Big commerce raiders, powered by steam as well as sails, ranged all over the world, seizing US ships and ransoming their crews.

The Union tried to stop them. For example, the USS Wachusett attacked the CSS Florida in Bahia Harbor, Brazil, causing an international incident. The USS Wyoming chased the CSS Alabama throughout the Far East but never caught it, although the Wyoming did engage Japanese forces in a side battle.

The CSS Shenandoah started patrolling the sea routes between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia in October 1964, terrorizing the US Pacific whaling fleet. The ship continued operating long after the land armies had surrendered, taking 21 more US ships, including 11 in just seven hours in the Pacific near the Arctic Circle. The Shenandoah’s captain and crew finally surrendered in Liverpool, England, on November 6, 1865.

5. Soldiers Saw Combat Only About One Day A Month

Back in the 19th century, thanks to dirt roads and lack of all‑weather gear, armies had to plan their movements around the seasons. For most of the Civil War, at least up until the last desperate months of late 1864 and early 1865, weather factors divided the year into campaigning season—late spring, summer, and fall—and winter quarters. That’s why the average Civil War soldier only saw combat about one day out of 30 each year. The rest of the time he was marching, drilling, or just hanging around camp, where his life was still at risk.

Primitive field conditions and lack of medical knowledge guaranteed that every soldier stood a one‑in‑four chance of not surviving the war, even without seeing combat. Less than a third of more than 360,000 Union deaths were combat‑related; everyone else died of disease, mostly dysentery. Records for Johnny Reb aren’t as complete, but the percentage of non‑combat‑related deaths was roughly the same—almost two‑thirds.

4. The North Had A Hard Time Funding The War

We know the South had severe financial problems during the war, but so did the North. War is not only Hell—it’s expensive!

The Union wasn’t prepared to fund a war. Lincoln’s election in 1860 had sparked turmoil on Wall Street. Worse, in the 1830s, President Andrew Jackson had done away with centralized banking, calling it “subversive of the rights of the States, and dangerous to the liberties of the people.” There was no quick and easy way for the US government to finance its military buildup, especially not with over 10,000 different kinds of paper currency in circulation.

With the help of Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase, Lincoln finally straightened out the mess enough to wage war, although Federal troops, particularly African Americans, sometimes went without pay for months at a time. One result of this was the first US federal income tax, which was passed in 1862. The Confederacy imposed its own government income tax in 1863.

3. The War Was Fought With Basic Modern Weapons As Well As Firearms And Artillery

War today wouldn’t be possible without electricity and rockets. Chemical and biological weapons, while banned, are also used sometimes. Believe it or not, all of these combat technologies were also employed during the American Civil War.

Floating containers filled with explosives, designed to sink ships, had been around since the American Revolution, but Confederates took it to the next level by adding electric detonators. They established what was probably the world’s first combat electric mine station in the Mississippi River. Electric mines had wires connected to the shore, which were used to detonate them. These weapons were also used in the Eastern Theater, where one sank the USS Commodore Jones in Virginia’s James River in May 1864.

Rockets, which were gunpowder‑propelled incendiaries, had been used during the Mexican‑American War in the 1840s, and both sides also used them in the Civil War. The Union even had a 160‑man rocket battalion. As we’ve already pointed out, incendiaries named after Greek fire—a chemical weapon—were used by both sides. The South also attempted biological warfare by infecting clothes with yellow fever (unsuccessful) and smallpox (limited success), as well as by poisoning water supplies with animal carcasses during a retreat.

2. Some Slave Owners Fought For The Union

John Six‑Killer was a Cherokee who served in the First Kansas Colored Volunteers. He fought and died in the aforementioned Battle of Island Mound. Ironically, he also was a slave owner and actually brought his slaves into battle with him. Slavery of African Americans was a common practice in the Cherokee Nation.

The border states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri also contributed men from slave‑owning families to US military forces. Kentucky was especially important. Almost a quarter of Kentuckian families owned slaves at the beginning of the war, yet the state would send a total of 90 battle units to fight for the Union.

That was why Abraham Lincoln only addressed the Confederacy’s slaves in his Emancipation Proclamation. The embattled US president knew that if he alienated Kentucky, he’d lose the rest of the border states and may as well have had to accept the Southern states as a new nation.

1. Presidents Lincoln And Davis Didn’t Always Lead From The Rear

Today we tend to think of the US and CS presidents as valuable king pieces in a giant chess game. In fact, both men were present during battles. In 1862, for example, Jefferson Davis watched the bloody, inconclusive Battle of Seven Pines (or Fair Oaks) and gave Robert E. Lee command of the Confederate army afterward, as the two men rode back to Richmond.

Abraham Lincoln visited Fort Stevens, outside of Washington, in 1864 and came under enemy fire. Confederate General Jubal Early said after the fight, “We didn’t take Washington, but we scared Abe Lincoln like Hell.” If so, it didn’t take.

Lincoln visited General Grant’s headquarters on March 24, 1865, at a key point in the siege of Richmond. The president stayed there on a ship, close enough to the front to hear the gunfire, until Grant took Richmond. Then Lincoln went into town, entered the Confederate president’s office (Davis and his cabinet had fled), and sat down in Jefferson Davis’s chair.

Honest Abe knew how to make a point.

10 intriguing stories of everyday Americans illuminate the gritty, personal side of the Civil War that textbooks often overlook. While historians catalog strategies and politics, we’re diving into ten unvarnished accounts of how the conflict reshaped the lives of ordinary men, women, and children who were simply trying to get through each day.

10 Intriguing Stories of Ordinary People

1. The Gambler

During the turmoil of the Civil War, Robert Webster—still legally a slave—rose to become one of Atlanta’s wealthiest individuals. After his owner, Benjamin Yancey, found his fortunes shattered by the conflict, Webster extended a loan substantial enough to rebuild Yancey’s credit and enterprises, with an informal agreement that he could draw on additional funds whenever the former master required.

Robert Webster entered the world in 1820, born into bondage at Washington, D.C.’s National Hotel. He consistently asserted that his father was the famed Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster, though records show he was sold in his early twenties to a South Carolina plantation. It was there that he crossed paths with Benjamin Yancey, an affluent lawyer and planter, who quickly grew impressed by the young man’s cleverness, integrity, and personable nature.

Through persistent persuasion, Webster persuaded Yancey to purchase both him and his wife, effectively granting them a degree of autonomy. Later, when Yancey received a diplomatic posting in Argentina, he entrusted his former slave with a barbershop in Atlanta, stipulating a modest monthly rent. Seizing the opportunity, Webster multiplied the operation into two establishments, employing seven barbers, yet his true profit stemmed from acting as a loan shark to the frequent gamblers who congregated at his shop.

Upon Yancey’s return from Argentina, both men settled back in Atlanta, a city rapidly swelling into a chaotic boomtown amid the war. Webster recognized the incessant arrival of refugees and soldiers as a lucrative opening, engaging in speculative trades of gold and foreign currency. The capital amassed from these ventures funded the acquisition of merchandise, which he then bartered for even larger returns.

Occasionally, Webster risked his own safety to aid Union soldiers seeking refuge. His boldest feat involved coordinating a network of fellow slaves to ferry hundreds of gravely wounded Union troops from an Atlanta battlefield to a nearby hospital, ultimately securing their survival.

When Union forces finally captured Atlanta, soldiers looted Webster’s warehouses, seizing a substantial portion of his supplies to sustain their campaign. Yet the astute businessman had concealed portions of his wealth, allowing him to retain a fraction of his assets.

In the immediate post‑war years, Webster enjoyed renewed prosperity, but an escalating dependence on alcohol eventually undermined his ventures. Facing financial ruin in 1880, he appealed once more to Yancey for assistance. Remembering Webster’s vital support after the conflict, Yancey obliged, overseeing the welfare of Webster’s household. The generosity persisted beyond Webster’s death in 1883, as Yancey continued to support his widow and daughter.

2. Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel

In 1850, eleven‑year‑old Barbara Dosh and her brothers and sisters were left parentless, prompting the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Louisville, Kentucky, to assume their guardianship. Barbara quickly formed a deep affection for the nuns, who were renowned for their charitable deeds throughout the community.

Although the order later enrolled her at St. Vincent’s Academy to study music, Barbara blended her burgeoning musical talents with a devout faith, emerging as Sister Mary Lucy Dosh of the Nazareth Sisters. In 1861, she journeyed to Paducah, Kentucky, to accept a position as a music instructor at St. Mary’s Academy.

The outbreak of the Civil War abruptly altered her vocation. While Paducah largely sympathized with the Confederacy, Union forces seized the town in September 1861, converting local churches into makeshift hospitals to tend to troops plagued by dysentery, malaria, and yellow fever. Faced with a dire shortage of caregivers, Sister Mary Lucy abandoned her teaching duties to serve the wounded at Paducah Baptist Church. There, she soothed both Union and Confederate patients with gentle hymns, reminding them of loved ones at home. To stretch scarce resources, she deliberately reduced her own meals, a sacrifice that eventually left her debilitated. Contracting typhoid fever, she passed away on December 29, 1861. Grieving soldiers honored her with a military funeral, ferrying her coffin aboard the gunboat Peacock under a flag of truce, before laying her to rest in the cemetery of St. Vincent’s Academy in Union County. In a poignant gesture of respect, both Union and Confederate officers released one another, temporarily halting hostilities in that region to pay tribute to the young nun’s selfless service.

3. The End Of Innocence

Born and raised in Vermont, the nineteen‑year‑old William Hopson ventured southward in 1855, settling in Macon, Georgia, where he pursued a career as a cotton merchant. When Georgia seceded in early 1861, William embraced the cause with fervor, penning a vehement letter to his sister back home in which he denounced any deserter as a ‘dastardly coward.’

Just eight days after hostilities erupted, William enlisted in the Confederate ranks, coinciding with his twenty‑fifth birthday. He remained largely undocumented until the autumn of 1864, when a severe wound at the Battle of Boydton Plank Road—also known as Burgess Mill—left him incapacitated. The Union’s failed attempt to seize the Southside Railroad forced a retreat, and William, now medically unfit, was granted furlough and sent back to Georgia, where he stayed through the war’s conclusion in 1865.

The conflict inflicted further sorrow on his family. His younger brother Edward, fighting for the Union, fell at the Battle of Cedar Creek mere days before William’s own injury. Their other brother George later retrieved Edward’s remains from Virginia and reinterred them in Vermont. In a poignant December 1865 letter to his sister, William described the war’s aftermath as a ‘hideous dream,’ recalling the scorched forests, choking smoke, and the relentless roar of artillery that seemed to eclipse his once‑peaceful childhood. He lamented that the land had transformed into a chaotic ruin, its air thick with the stench of death and its nights illuminated by eerie fires. He concluded with a solemn hope that this ‘wild experience’ might be his last, a wish that proved prophetic when, at thirty‑seven, he succumbed to inflammation of the brain and bowels in New York.

4. Home, Sweet Home!

Although John Howard Payne had been dead for nearly a decade when the Civil War erupted, his 1822 composition ‘Home, Sweet Home!’ reverberated through both Union and Confederate camps, offering a soothing reminder of domestic comfort. The sentimental ballad, originally part of the operetta Clari, quickly became a staple for brass bands on both sides of the battlefield. Folk historian Tom Jolin notes that soldiers often whistled or played the tune on harmonicas around campfires, and anecdotes abound of opposing troops sharing the melody across enemy lines before or after engagements. Even President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln found solace in the song after the tragic loss of their twelve‑year‑old son, Willie. So beloved was the piece that Union authorities eventually prohibited regimental bands from performing it, fearing it would incite excessive homesickness. Decades later, during the Spanish‑American War, the tune reportedly caused sailors to abandon ship after hearing jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden’s rendition at the dock, underscoring its enduring emotional power.

5. Can This Be Real?

Mary Henry, then a thirty‑year‑old daughter of the Smithsonian Institution’s secretary, meticulously chronicled her privileged life in Washington, D.C., throughout the Civil War. Her journal recorded everything from troop movements to her volunteer work in hospitals and her social encounters with generals who supplied vivid eyewitness accounts of the battles.

Following a July 10, 1864 church service, Mary learned that Confederate forces were marching toward the capital. While rumors inflated the enemy’s strength to as many as fifty thousand soldiers, the actual contingent numbered roughly fourteen thousand. The Confederacy, under General Jubal Early, hoped a successful strike on Washington would cripple Union resources, possibly sway the November 1864 presidential election in favor of General George McClellan, who was open to negotiating a settlement that might preserve the Confederacy. President Lincoln, however, rebuffed any such overtures.

Exhaustion ultimately thwarted the Confederate advance; despite nearing the city, the rebel troops failed to press forward, and Washington remained secure. On the afternoon of July 13, Mary ventured out with her family to survey the surrounding countryside, documenting the devastation she witnessed. In her entries she recounted a woman whose husband fought for the Union; Confederate soldiers had ransacked her home, tearing clothing and burning possessions in retaliation, then looted food and threatened to set the house ablaze. Later, the same woman told Mary that a Union soldier demanded kerosene, a wick, and cotton cloth, chillingly replying, ‘Burn your house, madam.’ The woman’s desperate attempts to protect her belongings proved futile as the fire consumed almost everything.

6. That Smell

Photographs may capture a thousand scenes, yet they cannot fully convey the olfactory horrors that pervaded Civil War battlefields. The acrid scent of gunpowder—reminiscent of rotten eggs—saturated the air like a relentless garbage dump, while the stench of death lingered ominously.

Twenty‑three‑year‑old nurse Cornelia Hancock, who tended the wounded at Gettysburg, described the overwhelming odor in a letter to her relatives: ‘A sickening, overpowering, awful stench announced the presence of the unburied dead, the July sun mercilessly illuminating them, and at each step the air grew heavier, denser, as if one could cut it with a knife.’ She believed that the foul atmosphere could itself be lethal to the injured lying among the corpses, noting that the combination of decaying bodies and choking fumes robbed the battlefield of any heroic sheen, denying survivors their victory and depriving the wounded of any chance of life.

Modern armed forces echo Hancock’s observations. The U.S. Marine Corps and Army now train soldiers using simulated odors—ranging from decomposing flesh to melting plastic—to inoculate them against sensory overload in combat. Recruits also learn to interpret smells as tactical cues; for instance, the faint scent of cigarette smoke near an apparently empty structure may signal concealed enemy presence.

7. Anxiety’s Moment

In the mid‑19th century, Isaac Leeser edited and published The Occident, a monthly periodical championing traditional Jewish practice. Though not an ordained rabbi, Leeser functioned as a chazzan, delivering sermons to a Philadelphia congregation while advocating his community’s religious perspectives.

Approximately one month into the Civil War, a reader identified only as R.A.L. penned a letter to Leeser, proposing an unconventional method to end the bloodshed. He implored Leeser to write to President Lincoln, urging the President to employ his reasoning to cease the conflict. R.A.L. suggested that if the war could not be resolved except by the bayonet, a duel between champions from each side could decide the outcome, thereby sparing countless lives for the sacrifice of just one or two individuals.

Leeser, however, opted to maintain a stance of neutrality throughout the war and never acted upon R.A.L.’s proposal.

8. Born To Run

The 16th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry earned a reputation as perhaps the most ill‑fated Union regiment of the war. Barely a month after its formation, the unit was thrust into its inaugural combat at Antietam on September 17, 1862—America’s bloodiest single‑day battle. Within four harrowing hours, roughly twenty‑three thousand soldiers from both sides were killed, wounded, or went missing, representing the deadliest day in U.S. military history. The Union suffered a 25 % casualty rate, while the Confederates lost 31 %.

Devoid of battlefield experience and having only loaded their rifles a day earlier, the 16th Connecticut suffered catastrophic losses, with fifty‑two percent of its men either killed or deserting during the chaotic engagement. Lieutenant Bernard Blakeslee recounted the barrage: ‘Hundreds of cannon … aimed at us; grapeshot, canister, marbles, and railroad iron rained down like a storm.’ He further described a battery’s brief advance that was swiftly repelled, costing every officer, seven enlisted men, and five horses, a sight he termed ‘fearful.’

Among those who abandoned the regiment was eighteen‑year‑old Dixon Tucker, who escaped to England. The son of a prominent minister—his maternal grandfather, Nathan Fellows Dixon, had served as Rhode Island’s first senator—Tucker spent the remainder of his life across the Atlantic, marrying Agnes Lawson Finley in 1873 and fathering nine children. His great‑grandson, Bob Ballan of Surrey, only uncovered this lineage while researching his ancestry. Had Tucker remained, he likely would have endured the regiment’s eventual surrender at Plymouth, North Carolina, in 1864, followed by imprisonment at the notorious Andersonville prison in Georgia, where roughly one‑third of the captives perished.

9. Man Of The Hour

For years, President Abraham Lincoln unknowingly bore a concealed message about the Civil War tucked inside his pocket watch. He never met the individual who inscribed it, nor was he aware of its existence.

Despite his famously unkempt appearance, Lincoln possessed the era’s hallmark status symbol: a gold pocket watch. On April 13, 1861, the timepiece was sent to M.W. Galt and Co. Jewelers in Washington, D.C., for routine maintenance. While jeweler Jonathan Dillon was working on it, news broke that Confederate artillery had fired upon Fort Sumter just a day earlier, signaling the war’s commencement.

Decades later, in the early 1900s, Dillon recounted to the New York Times his wartime act: ‘I was in the middle of tightening the dial when Mr. Galt announced the news. I unscrewed the dial and, using a sharp tool, etched onto the metal beneath: “The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try.”’

It was not until 2009 that researchers could verify—or dispute—Dillon’s claim. His great‑great‑grandson, Douglas Stiles, persuaded a Smithsonian National Museum of American History curator to have a jeweler carefully open the watch. Photographers captured the moment Stiles read the interior engraving: “Jonathan Dillon April 13–1861 Fort Sumpter [sic] was attacked by the rebels on the above date J Dillon April 13–1861 Washington thank God we have a government Jonth Dillon.” While Dillon’s recollection proved partially inaccurate, additional graffiti surfaced: beside his note, another hand inscribed “LE Grofs Sept 1864 Wash DC.” The identity of this writer remains unknown, though a Confederate sympathizer may have added “Jeff Davis” on a brass lever. The watch thus became a silent repository of layered wartime messages, alongside other clandestine carriers such as a brass acorn reportedly used by a Confederate soldier to smuggle communications, as recounted by a Virginia woman in 2009.

10. Mama Told Me Not To Come

During the Civil War, a surprising number of enlistees were barely teenagers. In March 1862, sixteen‑year‑old twins John and William Moore signed up with the Confederate Army in Richmond, Virginia. As their regiment prepared for the Second Battle of Manassas, both their mother, Maria Moore, and the family physician petitioned the regiment’s surgeon, asserting the boys were ‘very sickly and delicately constituted.’ The doctor, who had served Mrs. Moore for eight years, wrote, ‘I am convinced they are unable to perform active service.’ Consequently, in October 1862 the twins were discharged on the grounds of age rather than health.

Two years later, William, now eighteen, re‑enlisted. His mother could no longer legally prevent his service. William distinguished himself quickly, rising to captain of Company I in the 15th Virginia Infantry. He led his unit into the Petersburg engagements but was captured shortly thereafter. After three days, on April 6, 1864, he secured his release by signing a written oath of allegiance to the United States.

George Wingate Weeks’ experience proved less fortunate. In October 1862, at fourteen, he joined the Union’s eighth Maine Infantry as a drummer boy, though both he and his father falsified his age as sixteen on the enlistment papers. When his regiment joined the Army of the James, his mother, Abigail Weeks, wrote to the regiment’s chaplain requesting his discharge due to his youth. The appeal was denied. In July 1864, George suffered a gunshot wound to his foot at Petersburg, Virginia, and later wrote to his mother lamenting the poor quality of hardtack and beef supplied to the troops. Despite his injuries, he remained eager to serve, finally mustering out in October 1865 after completing his three‑year term. His wounded foot eventually left him unable to stand or walk, and by 1869 his mother received an $8‑per‑month pension after his death at age twenty‑one.

When the Civil War erupted, three distinct types of militias sprang up—partisan rangers, guerrillas, and bushwhackers. Partisan rangers were officially sanctioned groups, guerrillas defended local families and communities, and bushwhackers were often extremists who treated violence as sport or a path to profit. By war’s end, most militias had devolved into bushwhackers, even those that began with noble intentions. The following 10 militias waged guerrilla warfare with remarkable organization and impact.

10 Militias Waged in Guerrilla Warfare

10. Nancy Harts

Any woman in LaGrange, Georgia, could join the Nancy Harts, a militia named after the Revolutionary War heroine. These women served as nurses in military hospitals, and because LaGrange sat midway between Atlanta and Montgomery—the Confederacy’s first capital—it was a likely Union target. The Nancy Harts trained weekly throughout the war, practicing marches and target shooting with whatever weapons they could muster, ready to defend their homes and community at a moment’s notice.

When the Union army moved into western Georgia in mid‑April 1865, Brigadier General R.C. Tyler and 300 Confederate troops held off 3,000 Union soldiers for over eight hours. The Confederate general and many of his men were killed, and the remaining troops fled. All 40 members of the Nancy Harts refused to hide in their houses as the soldiers begged them to do; instead, they took up positions to defend the town.

On April 17, the militia marched to LaGrange’s edge to meet the enemy. Though General Lee had surrendered to Grant on April 9, a truce was eventually negotiated, and the militia peacefully surrendered the town. The Union army destroyed facilities that aided the Confederate war effort but spared homes and property. Before departing, Union soldiers enjoyed a meal prepared by the Nancy Harts, then marched to Macon, where they learned the war was officially over.

9. McNeill Rangers

John McNeill was commissioned by pro‑Confederate Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson to form a militia. He left home with his three sons and led the group in several battles. After losing one son in combat and escaping from prison, McNeill returned to Virginia and created a cavalry unit called the “McNeill Rangers.” An act passed by the Confederate Congress gave him authority to organize a band of partisan rangers to cooperate with the Confederate Army. He assumed the rank of captain and appointed his son as lieutenant.

The McNeill Rangers sowed chaos among Union troops, disrupted railroad traffic and communications, and became the top supplier of beef cattle in the Shenandoah Valley. Their effectiveness earned repeated praise from General Lee. In a typical exploit, 23 Rangers ambushed a supply train guarded by 150 men, capturing 27 wagons, 72 prisoners, 106 horses, and all equipment after startling the guards with their distinctive rebel yell. Captain McNeill was mortally wounded in a 1864 raid, accidentally shot by one of his own men, and lingered for more than a month before dying.

8. Privateers

The Confederacy could not hope to overpower the Union Navy, which boasted superior supplies, officers, and industrial capacity. Knowing they could not control the Atlantic, they focused on defending key ports and rivers while attacking Union commerce at sea. In addition to official navy operations, the Confederacy commissioned privateers—civilian captains who seized enemy vessels, kept the ships and cargo, and shared profits with their crews and ship owners.

The Union blockade proved effective, making it difficult for privateers to return home to sell cargo or repair their ships. They also struggled with handling prisoners and finding foreign ports, as most nations refused to take sides. Nevertheless, by sailing worldwide, privateers raised international awareness of the American Civil War. Over time, privateering proved an unprofitable profession and faded in popularity.

7. Home Guard

Older men and boys too young for regular service comprised the home guard in both the North and South. At the war’s outset, they organized to defend their communities if the enemy struck first, often supplementing local police forces as many officers left to fight. Though unpaid, the home guard worked alongside the army.

As the conflict dragged on, they performed duties such as escorting civilians through rugged terrain, guarding mail routes and rail lines, and overseeing prisoners of war. They also tracked down deserters, draft dodgers, and criminals. By mid‑war, wounded soldiers joined their ranks. In the South, a critical role was guarding plantations while slave owners were away. Most Southern home guard units disbanded after the Union occupied much of the South.

6. Moccasin Rangers

West Virginia hosted numerous guerrilla units at the war’s start, but by 1862 many of their captains had fallen. One such leader was Captain Perry Connolly, who headed the Moccasin Rangers. Their members were not outlaws; many were affluent community figures with land, money, and political influence. Despite this, the Confederate bushwhacker unit was notorious for robbing seven families and murdering two individuals.

Union sympathizers in West Virginia formed a counter‑group called the “Snake Hunters,” a play on their rivals’ name. The Union Army, desperate to curb rebel activity, granted the Snake Hunters authority to arrest Moccasin Rangers members. The Confederacy, displeased with the Rangers’ tactics, attempted to legitimize them by enrolling them as Company A of the 19th Virginia Cavalry, a move that failed to curb their lawlessness. The Moccasin Rangers continued looting homes and farms until Union forces occupied the area in force.

5. Native American Raiders

Both the Confederacy and the Union vied for the allegiance of Native American tribes. Tribal chiefs were divided, with some leaning toward the Confederacy, others remaining neutral, and a few aligning with the Union. In the war’s early years, the Union made little effort to win tribal support, allowing several tribes to sign treaties with the Confederacy. Confederates believed Native fighters would excel at guerrilla warfare, but their expectations fell short, especially in the western territories where tribes had few ties to either side.

Approximately 20,000 Native Americans served honorably on both sides, yet some seized the chaos to conduct raids for personal gain. These raiders operated much like white guerrilla units—sometimes aiming for destruction, other times staging surprise attacks to steal livestock and supplies. Their raids increased wealth and occasionally served as retaliation for grievances against white settlers.

4. Mosby’s Rangers

John Mosby, nicknamed “the Gray Ghost,” commanded the 43rd Battalion, 1st Virginia Cavalry, better known as Mosby’s Rangers. Mosby would disguise himself, scout a target, and then his unit would strike. Renowned for rapid raids and the ability to vanish among local farmers and townspeople, they earned fame after capturing Union Brigadier General Edwin Stoughton, several officers, and many horses during a raid on Fairfax Court House. President Lincoln reportedly lamented the loss of the horses more than the general, quipping, “I can make a much better brigadier in five minutes, but the horses cost $125 apiece.”

Mosby’s Rangers disrupted Union supply lines, seized couriers, and supplied intelligence to the Confederate Army. Operating with near‑impunity, they looted public and private property. After the war, Mosby switched allegiance, becoming a Republican, serving as a Representative for President Grant, and later acting as the American consul in Hong Kong and an official in the Department of the Interior.

3. Quantrill’s Raiders

William Quantrill briefly taught school before turning to gambling and horse theft, eventually fleeing Missouri after a murder charge. When the war began, his band numbered only 12 men. The unit executed numerous hit‑and‑run attacks against Union forces, operating from Missouri into Kansas and profiting from these raids.

In retaliation, Union troops imprisoned the female relatives of the raiders; a prison building collapsed, killing several women. Later, Quantrill’s Raiders, now 450 strong, assaulted the pro‑Union town of Lawrence in the infamous Lawrence Massacre, burning and looting the town and murdering at least 150 men, many of whom offered no resistance.

Quantrill was killed during a raid in Kentucky in 1865. Four members of his Raiders later became notorious outlaws, turning their wartime skills into a criminal career that produced infamous names such as Frank and Jesse James and the Younger brothers.

2. Jayhawkers

Before the war, pro‑Union Kansas Jayhawkers clashed with pro‑slavery “Border Ruffians” from Missouri. The Border War, or Bleeding Kansas, saw violent attacks along the Kansas‑Missouri border from 1854 to 1861. The Jayhawkers continued fighting throughout the Civil War, recognized by the Union as the 7th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry.

They opposed Quantrill’s Raiders, whose attacks spanned from Kansas into Missouri. After the Lawrence Massacre, the Union forced residents of four Missouri border counties onto the open prairie. The Jayhawkers burned and looted everything they left behind.

Colonel Charles Jennison led the Jayhawkers; Daniel Anthony, brother of Susan B. Anthony, served as lieutenant colonel. Their ranks included John Brown Jr. and Buffalo Bill Cody. They fought Confederate forces, plundered the countryside, and wreaked havoc on the Confederacy. The Jayhawkers sustained themselves by stealing from Missourians, even those loyal to the Union, earning a reputation for pillaging and burning entire towns.

1. Bloody Bill Anderson

After joining the Confederacy in retaliation for Union destruction of property in four Missouri counties—a response to the Lawrence Massacre—William Quantrill fled to Texas. Quantrill’s Raiders fractured into smaller units, one led by lieutenant Bill Anderson. His ruthless group of about 80 men spread terror throughout Missouri, targeting Union soldiers and pro‑Union civilians alike.

Bloody Bill Anderson, son of horse thieves, displayed sociopathic tendencies. He delighted in torturing and killing, cutting ears off prisoners, mutilating bodies, and even decapitating victims to swap heads. He wore a necklace of Yankee scalps into battle.

The 1864 Centralia Massacre marked the beginning of the end for Anderson. First, his men stripped and slaughtered 22 unarmed Union soldiers on furlough. Then they ambushed 150 Union troops sent to pursue them, murdering them in cold blood—crushing faces, disemboweling corpses, taking scalps, and cutting off noses. A month later, a Union ambush killed Anderson; his body was displayed at a local courthouse.

While some militias contributed positively to the war effort, others were driven by greed or vengeance. Both the Union and Confederacy often ignored the rules of warfare, leading to chaos and needless suffering that would echo for generations.

When we talk about the 10 notable struggles of the Russian Civil War, most people picture the classic Red versus White showdown. Yet the reality was a tangled web of factions, foreign interventions, and shocking episodes that few ever hear about. Below we unpack each of these lesser‑known clashes, from lightning‑fast German offensives to anarchist cavalry raids, giving you the full, gritty picture of a war that was anything but simple.

10 Notable Struggles of the Russian Civil War

10 Operation Faustschlag

When the Soviets seized power in 1917, Vladimir Lenin immediately announced that Russia was withdrawing from World War I and entered into talks with Germany in the Polish town of Brest Litovsk, quickly arranging an armistice for the eastern front. Heading the Russian delegation, Leon Trotsky tried to play for time, believing that a revolution in Germany was imminent. Instead, the Soviets were shocked by the German demands for indemnities and land concessions.

Trotsky pursued a policy of “no war, no peace.” Two days before the armistice expired, he told the stunned German negotiators that Russia considered the war over. This wasn’t good enough for the Germans, who wanted something on paper so they could move troops to the west. They responded by making a separate peace with Ukraine and warning the Russians that Germany would resume offensive military operations in Russia.

Operation Faustschlag (meaning “fist punch”) began on February 18, 1918. The Germans encountered little to no Russian resistance, advancing 240 kilometers (150 mi) in one week, with the only major impediments being bad weather and substandard communications. After seizing the cities of Pskov and Narva, they moved toward Smolensk. At the same time, Turkish forces in the Caucasus reached Baku. With the Germans within 160 kilometers (100 mi) of Petrograd, the Soviets were forced to move their capital to Moscow.

Although most of the Soviet leadership wanted to continue fighting, most of the army had been destroyed or disbanded by the Bolsheviks. So the Russians were forced to make peace. Lenin assured the leadership that it was only a temporary measure to preserve Bolshevik control of Russia. The Treaty of Brest Litovsk was signed, ending Operation Faustschlag. But German operations continued for a time in the Caucasus and Crimea. The Germans later captured Helsinki and occupied Finland.

9 Baron Roman von Ungern‑Sternberg

Born in the Austro‑Hungarian Empire but raised in Estonia, Baron Roman von Ungern‑Sternberg served in the Russian navy as a cadet and then volunteered to fight in the Russo‑Japanese war. He was demoted for violent behavior but permitted to stay due to his aristocratic connections.

Convinced that Russia and Japan would come to blows again, von Ungern‑Sternberg sought to position himself in the Far East to participate. After a quick expulsion for drunkenness from the Argun Division of the Trans‑Baikal Cossack force, he joined the Amur Division, becoming enamored of the cultures of Dauria and Xinjiang as well as Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhism.

When World War I erupted, von Ungern‑Sternberg rode 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi) from Dauria to Blagoveshchensk to fight in Prussia, later joining the Whites after the revolution. Defeated by the Reds, he fled east, becoming governor of the Dauria region under the command of Japanese‑supported Cossack Ataman Semenov.

Von Ungern‑Sternberg ruled with terror, slaughtering Jews and Bolsheviks in a period known as the “Atamanschina” (the “time of the Atamans”). He eventually turned on Semenov and raised a private army of Russians, Mongols, and Buryats to conquer Mongolia. There, he expelled the Chinese, captured the capital, Urga (now Ulaanbaatar), restored Bogd Khan to the throne, and made himself the dictator.

Von Ungern‑Sternberg dreamed of restoring the Russian monarchy and building a Eurasian empire under his own command that stretched as far south as India. He was known for the bloody executions of Jews, communists, and others, including beheadings, immolation, dismemberment, disembowelment, naked exposure on ice, wild animal attacks, dragging people with a noose behind a car, forcing victims to climb a tree until the person fell out and was shot, and tying people to tree branches which were bent back by his men so the victim would be ripped apart when released. He became known as the “Bloody White Baron.”

This bizarre regime forced the Soviets to send troops to help the Mongolians defeat him. The Soviets had previously ignored Mongolia to concentrate on securing their holdings in Siberia and the Far East but were forced to deal with this highly destabilizing influence on their flank. Von Ungern‑Sternberg was captured and executed by the Soviets in 1921.

This intervention may have helped the rise of the Soviet‑supported Mongolian People’s Republic, which retained independence despite a 1924 Sino‑Soviet treaty which recognized Chinese sovereignty over Mongolia.

8 Czechoslovak Legion

The 60,000 men of the Czechoslovak Legion fought for Russia in World War I in the hope of freeing their homelands from Austro‑Hungarian rule. They had begun as four foreign volunteer rifle regiments of Czechs and Slovaks who either lived in the Ukraine or had defected from the Central Powers and were now fighting for Imperial Russia. Thomas Masaryk asked to assemble a full Czechoslovak army, a request which was granted by the provisional government when Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in 1917.

But the Bolsheviks soon seized power and made peace with the Central Powers, who viewed the Czechoslovak Legion as traitors to be executed. Hoping to join Allied Forces in the west and with German forces closing in on their bases in the Ukraine, the legion decided that the safest way to reach Flanders was through the Pacific. Within a few days, they commandeered trains to take the legion east.

After resisting a Soviet attempt to disarm them at Chelyabinsk, the legion converted railcars into barracks, bakeries, workshops, and hospitals, moving slowly along the Trans‑Siberian Railway, capturing cities and telegraph stations along the way.

They allied with the White Russian forces and soon controlled an area stretching from the Volga to the Pacific. In June 1918, the legion captured the port of Vladivostok, declaring it an Allied protectorate. Lauded by President Woodrow Wilson, the legion was soon supported by American, Canadian, British, French, Italian, and Japanese troops.

However, as the White Russian forces collapsed, the Czechoslovak Legion was trapped by encroaching Bolshevik troops. A deal was struck: In exchange for tsarist gold captured by the legion at Kazan, the Bolsheviks would give the legion time to be evacuated by the Allies.

The legion was transported to Europe via the Indian Ocean, the US, and the Panama Canal. Their contribution in the fight against the Bolsheviks likely influenced the decision of the US government to recognize Czechoslovakia as an independent country.

7 Yudenich’s March On Petrograd

In 1919, the Whites captured a number of cities in the Baltic region. The Imperial General Nikolai Yudenich wished to press on to capture the capital of Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) from the Soviets. He enjoyed the advantage of six tanks manned by British crews as well as the support of the British navy in the Gulf of Finland. Moving quickly, he seized Pskov, Jamburg, Krasnoe Selo, and Gatchina and was seemingly poised to capture Petrograd.

The leaders in Petrograd warned Lenin that Yudenich had an advantage in automatic rifles, planes, tanks, and British naval support. They urged the abandonment of the city. Lenin thought the White moves in the north were a distraction from the more serious conflict in the south. But Trotsky argued that the city could be held, so he was put in charge of its defense.

Ultimately, Trotsky was proven right. Yudenich depended too much on his British tanks and naval support. His army numbered only 25,000 men. The Soviets were able to field a much larger army, which attacked Yudenich’s forces as they neared the city. The White Army was routed when Trotsky launched a counter‑attack.

The survivors fled to Estonia, where they were disarmed by the Estonian government, which hoped to secure peace with the Soviet government. The city of Petrograd was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and a Revolutionary Red Banner of Honor.

6 Makhno’s Black Army

During the Russian Civil War, Ukraine had many competing factions: Bolsheviks, Whites, Nationalists, Cossacks, Polish invaders, peasant insurgents, deserters, bandits, and warlords. But perhaps the most notorious force was Nestor Makhno’s anarchist Black Army.

Born in 1889 in the Ukrainian city of Guliai Pole, Makhno became involved in the failed 1905 revolution that rocked Russia after its defeat by Japan. Arrested in 1908 for being a member of a revolutionary cell, he spent eight years in a Moscow prison before his release under a political prisoner pardon by the provisional government. He returned to Guliai Pole to organize peasant unions to oppose the land‑owning kulak class, which consisted mostly of German Mennonites resented by the Ukrainians.

After the Treaty of Brest Litovsk was signed, former cavalry officer Pavlo Skoropadsky became hetman of a new Ukrainian‑German vassal state, which lost most of its control after the collapse of the Central Powers in 1918. Makhno raised the black flags of his Revolutionary Insurrectionist Army, defeating a much larger army of kulak militiamen at Dibrivki Forest.

With a Ukrainian Socialist Republic declared, the Bolsheviks preparing to invade, the White Army under Anton Denikin occupying the country, and Polish forces under nationalist Jozef Pilsuduski invading the western regions, Ukraine was in chaos. Makhno used the madness to turn his Black Army against the kulaks, burning and looting estates, farms, and country houses. Makhno had no reservations about committing atrocities against the German Mennonites and tsarists, leading the usually pacifist Mennonites to form an armed force called the “Selbstschutz” in self‑defense.

The anarchists showed surprising military discipline and developed an astounding proficiency for modern horseback warfare. They developed a horse‑drawn mobile weapons platform called the tachanka, which was later copied by the Soviets. The Black Army was instrumental in defeating the Whites in the Ukraine, occasionally becoming allies with the Reds to accomplish this goal.

But the Bolsheviks had little gratitude. As the Red Army pushed south, they turned towns held by the Makhnovists into soviets and hanged the anarchist partisans. Disease and constant Bolshevik attack decimated the anarchist forces. The Soviets laid the blame for many of the atrocities in the Ukraine squarely at the feet of the Black Army, although they had been committed by all sides. Forced to flee the country, Makhno died in Paris in 1934.

5 Kokand Autonomy

After the Soviets had invaded Central Asia and toppled a provisional government in Tashkent, a group of Muslim clerics called the “Ulema Jamiati” met to discuss their response to the new government. They proposed setting up a coalition government with the Soviets, but their proposal was rejected by the newly formed Sovnarkom (aka the “Council of People’s Commissars”) on the basis that the Muslims were untrustworthy and had no proletarian organizations to participate in the government.

The Ulema Jamiati were miffed and reached out to their old Central Asian political rivals, the Milli Markaz (aka the “National Center”), meeting with them in the city of Kokand for the Fourth Congress of Central Asian Muslims. There, they announced a new government for Turkistan with a 54‑member regional council.

They turned against the Soviets when the Reds opened fire on civilians in Tashkent who were celebrating the announcement of the Kokand Autonomy on the Prophet’s birthday. The Soviets claimed that the civilians were demonstrators who had freed prisoners. The Kokand Autonomy sought foreign alliances but failed to secure support. They were also stymied in their efforts to raise money to purchase arms.

Then the Soviets broke through a blockade of the region by Cossack leader Ataman Dutov. Along with troops raised from Austro‑German prisoners of war and Armenian dashnak fighters, the Soviet forces attacked the Kokand Autonomy. In a week, the city was largely destroyed. Over 14,000 people were killed, putting an end to the dream of autonomy.

4 Polar Bear Expedition

Few know about the disastrous deployment of American troops to northern Russia following the end of World War I. Large stockpiles of military equipment and supplies had been sent by the Western Allies to aid the tsar. Stored in warehouses at the northern Russian ports of Murmansk and Archangel, these stockpiles needed to be secured to keep them out of Bolshevik hands and allow them to be redistributed to the White forces, which were supported by the Allies.

The cities were also strategically important entrances to Russia that were still held by White forces. Some politicians believed that Allied support was needed to help the Whites rally to defeat Bolshevism.

In 1918, 5,500 soldiers of the 339th Infantry and support units, primarily composed of troops from Michigan and Wisconsin, were sent to Archangel in the “Northern Russian Expedition” (or more popularly, the “Polar Bear Expedition”). With the tacit goal of fighting the Bolsheviks, they joined an international force commanded by the British. They were to advance south and east to link up with scattered anti‑Bolshevik Russian forces and fight the Reds, but most of the battles were inconclusive or inconsequential. Morale suffered after Armistice Day was announced in Europe.

In 1919, two companies of the US Army Transportation Corps accompanied the soldiers to maintain a railroad. The expedition was stymied by the horrible conditions of a Russian Arctic winter and unclear reasons as to why the Americans were even fighting there. The local population also resented the Allied presence and had little enthusiasm for fighting the Reds.

Today, the expedition is seen as a cautionary tale of mission creep, which ended in fiasco. French, White Russian, British, and American troops revolted against the ambiguous campaign. The Allied forces withdrew in humiliation, leaving the White Russians to the tender mercies of the vengeful Bolshevik forces. The expedition failed because it lacked knowledge of local conditions, a clear objective, and a plan of engagement.

There was also confusion among the different agencies and nations involved in the fighting. Some say the intervention only served to make things worse. Russian professor Vladislav Goldin explained, “From our point of view, without the Allied intervention, the anti‑Bolshevik struggle in the north could hardly have taken the form of civil war.”

3 Nikolayevsk Incident

In 1919, White General Alexander Kolchak ruled a fiefdom from Omsk, supported by the Japanese who were bitterly resented by Russian partisans for their repressive policies. After a Japanese unit was almost wiped out by partisans, the Japanese retaliated by killing the 232 inhabitants of the village Ivanovka. Such massacres were perpetrated by both sides, but the most notorious became known as the “Nikolayevsk incident.”

With a population of 450 Japanese fishermen, traders, and their respective families, Nikolayevsk was occupied by infantry troops of the Imperial Japanese Army in 1918. In January 1920, the town was surrounded by Bolshevik troops under the command of Yakov Triapitsyn. A truce was arranged that allowed the Reds into the city, but they were attacked by the Japanese when the Japanese discovered that the Bolsheviks were executing anyone they believed to be supporting the Whites.

The Japanese were defeated, with Triapitsyn ordering the execution of the remaining 300 prisoners in revenge. Then the Bolshevik troops turned on the civilians, wiping out most of the population (including all the Japanese) and leaving the town in ruins before a Japanese relief force succeeded in retaking it.

A non‑Bolshevik commission from Vladivostok surveyed the aftermath: “Everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, there were only ruins of houses—here and there lonely house chimneys, the tall chimney of the blown‑up electric plant, half‑sunken vessels. … Almost no inhabitants were seen. Only when the steamer drew nearer, did lonely figures appear, all in black, all humped and bent.”

Survivors reported that the Reds had burned down wooden houses with kerosene and executed women and children. Then they threw the bodies in the river and murdered people with rifle butts, sabers, and bayonets.

The Japanese were furious at the massacre, condemning the barbarity of the Red troops. Though Triapitsyn was later executed by the Soviets, the Japanese used the incident as a pretext for occupying northern Sakhalin Island and for prolonging the Japanese occupation of Siberia for another two years.

2 Decossackization

In 1919, the Bolshevik government instituted a policy of “decossackization,” which was designed to eliminate the Cossacks as a social class and semi‑independent political force, especially the Don and Kuban Cossacks. This was the first time that the Bolsheviks had enacted a policy to eliminate an entire social class as collective punishment for real and imagined crimes against the Bolsheviks.

On January 24, a secret resolution of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party called for “mass terror against rich Cossacks, who should be exterminated and physically eliminated to the last.” In February and March, the Red Army advanced into the Don region, massacring any Cossacks who fell into their grasp.

Within a few weeks, between 8,000 and 12,000 Cossacks were killed. Two months later, the secret resolution was withdrawn due to the rising Cossack insurgency and opposition by some party members. But persecution of the Cossacks continued in other ways.

In 1920, separate Cossack soviets were abolished, and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic took over government administration of the Cossack regions. In June, Cheka leader Karl Lander was made plenipotentiary of the Kuban and the Don. He established tribunals that sentenced thousands of Cossacks to death and sent members of Cossack families to concentration camps.

Toward the end of the year, five Cossack boroughs—Kalinovskaya, Ermolovskaya, Romanovskaya, Samachinskaya, and Mikhailovskaya—had their entire populations exiled to the Donets Basin to serve in the mines as forced labor.

Many Cossacks fled the country, settling in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and later joining the German army en masse during World War II. In 1945, the British handed over 35,000 Cossack prisoners of war to the Soviet Union for summary execution.

While Soviet attitudes toward the Cossacks later softened, the experience of decossackization was long remembered. The Cossack movement used it as evidence that they deserved recognition as a persecuted class during the glasnost period of the 1980s.

1 Kronstadt Rebellion

Built by Peter the Great in the 18th century, Kronstadt was a fortified Russian city and naval base on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland. In 1921, Kronstadt was also the home base of the Soviet Baltic fleet. Its sailors had long harbored revolutionary sympathies, having commandeered a cruiser in 1917 to sail up the Neva River and open fire on the Winter Palace.

During the revolution, they also turned against their officers—jailing, lynching, or drowning them. According to Trotsky: “The most hateful of the officers were shoved under the ice, of course while still alive. … Bloody acts of retribution were as inevitable as the recoil of a gun.”

By 1921, the sailors at Kronstadt were angry at the Bolshevik government. On the practical side, they were forced to endure low wages, food and fuel shortages in the winter, and the unequal distribution of food that favored those in power.

In a political sense, they were furious at the Soviet suppression of political dissent, the lack of democracy, and the rigors and abuses of so‑called “War Communism.” On February 28, they issued the Petropavlovsk Resolution, which included demands for national elections by secret ballot, the freedom of speech and assembly, the release of political prisoners, the cessation of forced labor, free markets for the peasantry, the freedom to form trade unions and peasant assemblies, an end to grain seizures, the removal of communist political agencies from the military, and freedom of the press for all socialist parties.

In a letter, Trotsky characterized the mutiny as an uprising by a “grey mass with great pretensions, but without political education and without a readiness to make revolutionary sacrifices.” With 20,000 Red Army soldiers sent to defeat the 15,000 rebels, artillery duels decimated both sides as the Red Army advanced across the frozen Gulf of Finland. Aerial bombardment also weakened the rebel defenders. The Red Army defeated the sailors, killing 500 and wounding over 4,000. More rebels were either executed in the aftermath or absconded to Finland.

Trotsky blamed the revolt on the influence of Makhno and the incompetence of Cheka secret police leader Felix Dzerzhinsky. Some believe that the suppression of this revolt was the turning point where the Soviets lost sight of their original revolutionary goals and embarked on the path of totalitarian terror. In the aftermath, the New Economic Policy was enacted to ease the suffering while the Bolsheviks clamped down even more on political dissent.

Since 2011, one topic has consistently dominated headlines in the news: the war in Syria has now been raging for over half a decade and is widely recognized as one of the most shameful and bloody civil conflicts in recent history. Yet, as horrific as it is, Syria is not alone. Since the emergence of nation‑states, humanity has witnessed civil wars of staggering brutality. When we look at post‑World War II history, few internal conflicts have matched the inhumanity of the following. Here is our top 10 shameful civil wars that rival Syria’s carnage.

10 2002

At rush hour on July 25, 1995, a bomb detonated in the Paris subway, killing eight people and wounding 150. Before the Charlie Hebdo and ISIS attacks, it was one of the worst terrorist incidents the French capital had ever seen. The perpetrators were not disgruntled French or European nationals; they were Algerian operatives. The bombing was a direct spill‑over from one of North Africa’s deadliest internal wars.

Much like today’s Syrian conflict, the Algerian war ignited when a government refused to relinquish power. The military canceled an election that seemed poised to hand victory to an Islamist party. That pre‑emptive coup sent protesters onto the streets, quickly evolving into a lethal clash between state forces and out‑of‑control jihadists. In a chilling echo of ISIS, the Islamists first targeted Algerian civilians and later French civilians in Paris with improvised explosives. Under the fanatics’ reign, teachers, artists, journalists, and judges vanished. Even fifteen years later, roughly 8,000 innocents remain missing.

On the opposite side, Algeria’s army was equally ruthless. Just as Assad drops barrel bombs on his own people, the Algerian authorities torched entire villages in a frantic hunt for terrorists who often fled weeks earlier. During the “black decade,” both sides committed war crimes, including the murder of newborn infants. By the time the dust settled in 2002, about 200,000 civilians lay dead. For perspective, the infamous Sri Lankan civil war against the Tamil Tigers claimed about half that number over more than double the time.

9 1996, 1999–2003

Throughout the 1980s, Liberia simmered with ethnic resentment. Indigenous President Samuel Doe finally overthrew the Americo‑Liberian elite who had dominated since the nation’s founding, only to promote his own ethnic group above all others. Into this volatile mix stepped Charles Taylor in 1989.

A former preacher who had fled to Libya after being indicted for embezzlement, Taylor trained a guerrilla army, returned, and toppled his old enemy. Most Liberians initially welcomed him… until a group allied with Taylor executed Doe in 1990. At that point, Taylor turned on his allies, igniting a war that engulfed the entire country.

Over the next decade, Taylor would end one civil war, start another, and exacerbate a neighboring Sierra Leone conflict. He even managed to become Liberia’s president, campaigning under the slogan, “He killed my Ma, he killed my Pa, but I will vote for him.” During the two wars, over 250,000 Liberians died—about 7.5 % of the population—and 25,000 were raped.

What made Taylor’s wars stand out wasn’t merely their brutality but their surreal horror. He ruled through terror, employing units like the infamous Butt‑Naked Battalion to frighten everyone. Despite the bizarre name, the battalion was anything but amusing. Children were fed amphetamines, injected with hallucinogens, handed guns, and ordered to kill anyone crossing their path. They fought either naked or clad in lurid women’s wigs and ball gowns.

8 2002

Sierra Leone shares a long, swampy border with Liberia—an almost 300‑kilometre stretch of wetland. Politically, the two nations were tightly intertwined in the 1990s. Thanks to Charles Taylor’s intervention, an insurgency that could have been quelled erupted into a merciless decade‑long war.

The spark was the astonishingly incompetent reign of President Joseph Momoh, a man so corrupt he’d make Putin look like Lincoln. When his regime stopped paying even the army, ex‑Corporal Foday Sankoh raised a rebellion, seizing towns along the Liberian border. Backed by Taylor, they were initially hailed as heroes—until they weren’t.

Within a year, Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was accused of raping and mutilating civilians. The army was equally reprehensible. Low rations and unpaid salaries drove soldiers to become “sobels”—soldiers by day, rebels by night. In effect, both sides merged into a single terror‑focused force.

Sobels later tortured civilians in hideous ways, even forcing victims to commit cannibalism. Taylor’s financing of the rebels and the diamond‑fuelled proxy wars ensured the conflict had no foreseeable end. It wasn’t until the UN deployed 17,000 troops backed by the British army that the endless terror finally subsided. By then, 50,000 people lay dead, and even today, girls sold into sex slavery during the war still await assistance or justice.

7 1996

During the Cold War, the CIA developed a habit of inserting its nose into Latin America, often with disastrous results. They helped install Chile’s monster Augusto Pinochet and encouraged Argentina’s junta to “disappear” 30,000 opponents. Yet perhaps nothing matches the CIA’s involvement in Guatemala.

In 1954, democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz legalized the Communist Party, sparking a CIA‑induced panic. The agency responded by engineering a coup that removed Arbenz, replacing him with Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. Armas was swiftly murdered and succeeded by General Miguel Ydigoras Fuentes, an outright psychopath.

When indigenous left‑wing groups rose against Fuentes, he unleashed a terror campaign few nations have ever witnessed. Civilian suspects were murdered in the night, their mutilated bodies dumped on public roads. He also birthed a culture of murder and abuse within the army that persisted long after his ouster.

In 1999, a UN report reviewing the 36‑year war concluded that 93 % of human‑rights violations were perpetrated by the Guatemalan state. The war claimed about 200,000 lives, most of them civilians. The majority of the dead—83 %—were from the Maya minority, leading many to label the conflict a genocide.

6 Present

The most depressing fact about Colombia’s ongoing conflict—often called the longest current civil war in the world—is that it isn’t even the first war Colombians faced in the 20th century. In the 1940s, a riot in Bogotá sparked death squads from conservative and liberal factions, leading to a wave of murders.

Known as La Violencia, this silent war was marked by extreme brutality. Liberals decapitated conservatives and played soccer with their heads. Conservatives slashed liberals’ throats and pulled their tongues out—a mutilation dubbed the “Colombian necktie.” In total, 200,000 Colombians died in atrocious ways. La Violencia also sowed the seeds for the present conflict.

Fast forward to the 1960s: an uneasy truce banned all parties from Colombian politics except the Liberals and Conservatives. The Communist Party, feeling sidelined, urged peasants to form their own armies. One such group, based in Marquetilla, was bombed into oblivion by the Colombian army. Only 48 survivors remained; they would become the founding members of the left‑wing rebel outfit FARC.

Soon after, other rebel groups sprang up. The Catholic ELN emerged a few months later. The war stayed low‑key until the 1980s, when the cocaine trade entered the picture, making everything messier.

FARC and ELN used drug production to amass millions, recruiting more members and eventually seizing control of one‑third of the country. Simultaneously, figures like Pablo Escobar launched deadly criminal enterprises that often clashed with the rebels. Other left‑wing groups such as M19 emerged, only to find right‑wing paramilitaries hunting them. The Colombian army began committing war crimes, and civilians were caught in the crossfire. By the 1990s, the number of factions, alliances, and gangs in the war was essentially uncountable, similar to Syria today.

To date, the Colombian conflict has killed over 250,000 people and displaced seven million—more than any other war on the planet except for Syria. Fortunately, peace talks with FARC and ELN are underway, offering hope that this protracted civil war may finally draw to a close.

5 1992

One of the most remarked‑upon aspects of the Syrian civil war is that it isn’t really a civil war in the usual sense. It’s an extremely complicated proxy war, pitting Saudi Arabia against Iran and Hezbollah, Russia against Turkey and the West, and Islamic extremism against secular governance. It also includes the Kurdish battle for a homeland.

In the 1980s, another nation was embroiled in a similarly complex civil war. While it lacked the religious element of Syria’s, El Salvador’s conflict involved a comparably massive number of outside players, each pushing their own agendas.

The war’s source was a clash between the Marxist rebel group FMLN and the right‑wing government after a 1979 coup that saw the government shooting down protestors. It quickly morphed into a larger ideological battle over land, freedom of expression, and the plight of the poor. Behind the scenes, the conflict became a proxy battleground.

Because the war unfolded during the Cold War, the FMLN received official backing from the Soviet Union, though the Russians largely kept their distance. The real supporters were Cuba and Nicaragua, pushing for a socialist revolution akin to their own. Opposing them was the United States, terrified of Central America turning “red.” Costa Rica, Mexico, and even France also stuck their noses in, each pursuing distinct goals.

The result was disastrous. Approximately 75,000 Salvadorans perished over the decade as government death squads looted and raped entire towns, while the FMLN carried out devastating acts of terrorism. It wasn’t until 1992—after the Soviet Union’s collapse, which sapped Russian and U.S. interest—that the war finally ended. Even today, many murky details of this shameful proxy war remain concealed.

4 1970

When Nigeria first achieved independence from Britain, it was less a viable state than a disaster in the making. The North comprised a series of Muslim feudal states, the South and East were Christian, and an animist kingdom persisted in fragmented form. Four major ethnic groups—the Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, and Ibo—distrusted one another intensely. Adding to the chaos, the country’s oil reserves were concentrated in the East.

The flashpoint arrived when Muslim Hausas launched a rampage, massacring 30,000 Christian Ibos. Up to one million Ibos fled eastward, where Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu declared independence, establishing the Republic of Biafra. Oil went with the secessionist state.

The Nigerian military had other plans. When Biafra’s oil fields were recaptured, the fledgling state lost its entire income. Unable to import food, the Ibo people of Biafra endured an apocalyptic famine. In just two short years, one million people died from malnutrition—roughly four times the death toll in Syria since 2011. Many victims were children too young to understand why they were starving.

Eventually, Biafra was reabsorbed into Nigeria in 1970. Yet Nigeria’s troubled history did not end there. Over the following decades, a succession of coups and counter‑coups paralyzed the nation, culminating in the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency.

3 Present

It would be impossible to do justice to all of Myanmar’s internal conflicts in a single article. When the British left Burma in 1948, they abandoned a patchwork of ethnic and religious groups with little in common. No sooner had the national government formed than fighting erupted, and it has continued more or less uninterrupted to this day.

Unlike most civil wars, there has been no single group the government has fought continuously. Initially, major rebels were communists, later replaced by an ethnic Christian insurgency, which was then eclipsed by a broad uprising among all of the country’s diverse factions. Parts of Myanmar split into de facto autonomous states organized along ethnic lines and have remained that way ever since. Because the military junta refuses to recognize them, fighting along their borders has been essentially constant.

Elsewhere, oppressed groups without a microstate of their own have resorted to guerrilla warfare, using terror to attack the government. Adding another layer of complexity, the Rohingya ethnic group has been targeted in an extermination campaign the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum terms “genocide.”

The outcome is one of the bleakest, hardest‑to‑understand conflicts on the planet. Rohingya Muslims have been forced into slavery by Buddhist oppressors, while ordinary citizens have endured security forces that rape and murder with impunity. Simultaneously, different ethnic statelets have forged alliances and fought one another in an unending war. With around 15 rebel groups currently active, a lasting peace in Myanmar seems distant.

2 1972, 1983–2005, 2003–Present, 2013–Present

It’s saying something when a conflict that has claimed half a million lives is the least nasty civil war a country has endured. The first Sudanese civil war erupted before the British formally declared independence on January 1, 1956.

At that time, Sudan was roughly one‑third the size of the continental United States and contained over 600 ethnic groups speaking 400 languages. A religious divide also existed: the Arab‑dominated Muslim North held power, while the black, primarily Christian South felt exploited. Additionally, tensions brewed between black African farmers and nomadic Arab tribes in the West. A half‑hearted attempt at a federal system failed, making conflict inevitable.

The initial war (1955‑1972) lasted 17 years, with rebels seizing swathes of Southern territory, the North launching attacks, and around 500,000 people dying. An Ethiopia‑brokered peace agreement halted the carnage in 1972, but peace was short‑lived. A decade later, the Arab government in Khartoum tried to impose Sharia law nationwide, prompting the South to take up arms again.

In 1989, Omar al‑Bashir overthrew the Arab government in a military coup and immediately intensified the war with the South. His forces deployed helicopter gunships to attack civilian villages and dropped bombs so indiscriminately that aid convoys struggled to reach those in need. By 2003, over two million people had perished, and a new front opened in the West.

In Darfur, resentment toward the government boiled over. Black farmers formed rebel groups, while Arab tribes coalesced into deadly, government‑backed militias. The resulting genocide saw 300,000 massacred in brutal assaults, while the Sudanese army engaged in coordinated mass rapes against villagers. Just as the war with the South wound down, this new conflict erupted. Fast forward to 2016, and it remains ongoing.

Worse still, the conflict never truly ended. When the North and South made peace in 2005, it seemed a victory for humanity. The South voted for independence, becoming the world’s newest state—South Sudan—in 2011. Almost immediately, internal rivalries resurfaced. The two main tribes, the Dinka and the Nuer, which had co‑existed under a unified Sudan, now clashed over power.

In 2013, the Dinka leader claimed the Nuer attempted a coup to oust him, while the Nuer argued the coup was a false‑flag operation designed to trigger genocide against them. Most observers believe both sides simply sought an excuse to fight. Their wish was granted. At the time of writing, the new country is locked in a civil war that the UN estimates has killed 50,000.

1 2001

After that mammoth entry on Sudan’s numerous conflicts, it’s difficult to imagine any recent civil conflict being more complex or multifaceted. Yet one civil war surpasses Sudan—and even Syria—in terms of utter messiness: the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

It’s hard to imagine a more fertile ground for conflict than post‑Tito Yugoslavia. The nation was a patchwork of religious and ethnic differences held together more by wishful thinking than anything else. Serbs resented Croats for siding with fascists in World War II (leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Serbs), Kosovars resented Serbs for political domination, and both Croats and Serbs claimed historical rights to Bosnia. When the federation finally began to crumble in 1991, it set the stage for a sectarian conflict almost unparalleled in modern history.

Over the course of five separate wars, the once‑mighty country collapsed into seven new states. The least terrible war was also the first: the Ten‑Day War, a short conflict that saw Slovenia split but resulted in fewer than 70 deaths. If anyone hoped this signaled an easy divorce, they were swiftly disappointed.

When Croatia declared independence in 1991, it triggered a titanic battle. Former comrades from the Yugoslav army found themselves fighting each other in devastated towns that had once been models of ethnic cooperation. Serb forces shelled the ancient city of Dubrovnik and laid siege to Vukovar for 87 days. In response, Croat forces flushed tens of thousands of Serbs out of Eastern Slavonia in an atrocious act of ethnic cleansing. By the war’s conclusion, 20,000 were dead.

But even that paled compared to Bosnia. The three‑way conflict between ethnic Serbs, Croats, and Muslim Bosniaks saw some of the worst war crimes in history. Serb forces laid siege to Sarajevo with snipers, killing nearly 14,000 (including 1,500 children) and committing genocide at Srebrenica, murdering nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys over a handful of days. Bosniak commanders held Serb prisoners in filthy holes filled with feces and embedded their forces among the civilian population. Croat forces conducted mass rapes in the Lasva Valley. All sides committed war crimes.

By the war’s end, over 100,000 were dead, but the Yugoslavian conflict still wasn’t over. The 1998‑99 war in Kosovo saw ethnic cleansing, mass rapes, organ harvesting from corpses, and NATO jets bombing the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Over 13,000 people died, followed by another 200 or so killed during the Macedonian Insurgency of 2001.

All in all, the Yugoslavian breakup killed around 133,000 and traumatized millions more. It was perhaps the messiest civil conflict since World War II. We can only pray that nothing like it ever happens again.

When you think of the U.S. Civil War, the thunder of artillery and the roar of infantry often dominate the imagination. Yet, lurking behind the smoke and carnage were medical nightmares that would make even the bravest soldier shudder. In this roundup of 10 terrifying medical stories, we pull back the canvas of field hospitals to reveal the gruesome, the absurd, and the heroic moments that defined wartime healing.

10 Drunken Surgeons

Alcohol was the lifeblood of Civil War surgery, initially prized as a quick anesthetic for amputations. But the line between medicine and mayhem blurred fast. Some physicians took a modest sip to steady their nerves, while others – including the very hands wielding saws – indulged to the point of full intoxication.

Confederate hospital matron Phoebe Yates Pember recounted a tragic case: a soldier arrived with a crushed ankle from a train accident. After a seemingly successful set, the patient’s pain persisted. Upon closer inspection Pember discovered that the bandaged leg was perfectly fine; the surgeon, utterly drunk, had mistakenly set the healthy ankle while the other leg was “swollen, inflamed and purple.” The error led to fever and the soldier’s death.

Stories of inebriated surgeons, officers, even generals, were alarmingly common. At the First Battle of Bull Run, civilian medics tasked with driving medical wagons became so drunk on whiskey that they abandoned their duties, leaving wounded comrades stranded on the battlefield.

9 Smuggling Drugs Past Enemy Lines

Mid‑19th‑century medicine relied heavily on European imports. The Union blockade choked the Confederacy’s supply lines, cutting off vital pharmaceuticals. Desperate, the South turned to ingenuity: processing native plants, pilfering captured Union caches, and daring smuggling operations.

One especially clever method involved concealing medicine inside children’s dolls. The hollow papier‑mâché heads were packed with morphine and quinine, slipping past Union inspectors who ignored the innocent toys. This covert trade kept soldiers from succumbing to pain and disease.

Morphine dulled agony, while quinine combated malaria – a scourge that swept through camps. Roughly 900,000 Union troops contracted malaria; Confederate numbers remain uncertain but were likely staggering given their dire shortages.

8 Compassion In Gettysburg

Amid the carnage of Gettysburg, a beacon of humanity emerged. On July 1, 1863, Union forces seized the Lutheran Theological Seminary, converting its sanctuary into a makeshift hospital. Though officially a Union facility, doctors and volunteers tended to Union, Confederate, and Black soldiers alike, treating every wounded man with equal care.

Soldiers shared cramped quarters, sleeping side‑by‑side regardless of allegiance. At its busiest, the seminary housed 150 patients; by August 3, 78 remained under its roof, a testament to the inclusive compassion that flourished even in the midst of war.

7 Unqualified Doctors

American medical schools lagged behind their European counterparts, offering merely two years of instruction – often a mere repetition of the first year. Harvard, for instance, lacked a stethoscope or microscope until after the war. Consequently, most Civil War surgeons had never performed surgery, let alone treated a gunshot wound.

Both armies suffered severe staffing shortages: the Union fielded only 98 doctors, the Confederacy a paltry 24. As casualties swelled, the military began to accept anyone who claimed medical knowledge. Their primary guide? A single surgery manual penned by Dr. Samuel Gress, which became the de‑facto textbook for emergency procedures.

6 Bizarre Medical Treatments

With scant education, doctors resorted to peculiar cures that often worsened conditions. Severe gonorrhea, for example, was “treated” with a concoction of whiskey, silkweed root, pine resin, and blue vitriol – a mixture that likely did nothing to combat the infection. Syphilis sufferers were given mercury, a toxic element with dangerous side effects.

Physicians also misinterpreted pus as a sign of healing, deliberately transferring infected pus from one patient to another in the misguided belief it would aid recovery. Diarrhea victims received chloride of mercury, a harsh laxative that intensified dehydration, vomiting, and ultimately, death.

5 Working Around The Clock

Beyond unqualified staff, sheer exhaustion plagued Civil War surgeons. Melvin Walker of the 13th Massachusetts Infantry described surgeons at a division hospital who labored nonstop for 36 hours, subsisting on meager rations and without any relief.

After the Battle of the Wilderness, roughly 7,000 wounded trekked to Fredericksburg – a grueling 24‑hour journey over clogged roads in horse‑drawn ambulances. Upon arrival, only 40 surgeons awaited, while ambulances kept pouring in. Surgeon George Stevens of the 77th New York recounted the harrowing scene: bodies fell around him, and he and his colleagues felt “almost worked to death.” The toll of overwork contributed to more deaths off the battlefield than on it.

4 The Great Anesthesia Myth

Contrary to popular belief, anesthesia was not absent on Civil War battlefields. While amputations were frequent – limbs littered the floors of field hospitals – soldiers were often sedated with chloroform and whiskey, slipping into a semi‑conscious state that dulled pain.

When properly administered, patients felt no pain. A prime example is Stonewall Jackson’s arm amputation: once the chloroform took effect, he reported only the sound of the saw and a repetitive whisper of “blessing, blessing, blessing,” indicating a painless, almost serene experience.

3 Battling The Real Enemy

Disease proved the deadliest foe of the Civil War. Typhoid, pneumonia, measles, tuberculosis, and malaria swarmed camps, battlefields, and hospitals. Except for malaria, no effective treatments existed, allowing illnesses to spread unchecked.

Poor sanitation compounded the crisis. Surgeons reused instruments without cleaning, and some even held blood‑stained tools in their mouths, further contaminating themselves and patients. Dysentery alone claimed 45,000 Union lives and 50,000 Confederate lives.

Out of the 620,000 war deaths, two‑thirds resulted from disease rather than combat. Malnutrition, exhaustion, and contaminated water weakened immune systems, turning microscopic pathogens into the war’s most lethal adversaries.

2 The Dawn Of Modern Medicine

Amid the tragedy, the Civil War sparked a medical revolution. Physicians began systematically documenting cases, creating a repository of observations that would guide post‑war research.

One breakthrough was the realization that sanitation dramatically reduced infection rates. Hospitals that washed bandages in hot, soapy water saw fewer infections, laying the foundation for modern antiseptic practices.

The conflict also birthed modern emergency medicine and organized ambulance evacuation. Rapid transport of the wounded from battlefield to field station, then to hospital, established a precedent for swift medical response that persists in contemporary warfare and disaster relief.

1 Dr. Mary Walker

The tale of Dr. Mary Walker stands as a beacon of courage and trailblazing spirit. After earning her medical degree, she ventured to the front lines, serving in tent hospitals at Warrenton and Fredericksburg, Virginia. The following year, General H. Thomas appointed her assistant surgeon with the Army of the Cumberland in Tennessee – a role no woman had ever held.

In April 1864, Confederate forces captured Walker, imprisoning her in Richmond for four months. Upon release, she supervised a hospital for women prisoners and an orphanage, while also acting as assistant surgeon with the Ohio 52nd Infantry – a first for any female physician.

Walker’s distinguished service earned her the Medal of Honor in 1865, which she wore proudly until her death in 1919. To this day, she remains the sole woman ever awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, cementing her legacy as a pioneering figure in American medical history.

Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.

10 Terrifying Medical Overview

This collection of 10 terrifying medical facts paints a vivid picture of the grim reality faced by soldiers and doctors alike during the Civil War. From intoxicated surgeons to groundbreaking sanitation, each story underscores the harrowing conditions that shaped modern medicine.

Jackie Robinson famously broke baseball’s color barrier as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. But he’s not alone in having an impact on the civil rights movement through his position as an athlete, and many lesser‑known figures played sports while positively affecting society through civil rights advocacy. In this roundup of 10 surprising sports champions, we explore the hidden trailblazers whose actions on and off the field helped reshape history.

10 Surprising Sports Moments That Changed History

10 Peter Norman

This Australian sprinter surprised many observers of the 1968 Olympics by taking the silver in the 200‑meter dash. Norman finished second to American Tommie Smith and ahead of Smith’s teammate, John Carlos, setting the stage for what may be the most recognizable piece of sports photography ever. Smith and Carlos each wore black gloves and raised their fists in the air in the Black Power Salute. While Norman stands somewhat anonymously to the side, he actually played a significant role in the photo. He suggested that Smith, who was wearing both gloves before the ceremony, give the other glove to Carlos so that both men could join in the salute.

Many who see the photo do not immediately notice that all three men—Smith, Carlos, and Norman—wear pins reading “Olympic Project for Human Rights,” representing a group opposing racism in sports. This act of solidarity caused Norman a great deal of trouble in his home country of Australia (he was not selected for the 1972 team despite holding the fifth‑fastest time in the world), but it served as a powerful and enduring image of unity in the fight for equality.

9 Dock Ellis

Dock Ellis was quite a character and likely is best known for the no‑hitter he threw while high on LSD. That notoriety is unfortunate given how much he accomplished as a civil‑rights advocate during his playing days and as a drug and alcohol counselor once his career ended. He never wavered in standing up to the injustices of inequality, and he took action as far back as his high school career, once refusing to play in a game as a protest against the coach’s racism.

Ellis was very outspoken, and he was never one to let someone get away with an injustice. He challenged manager Sparky Anderson to start him in the All‑Star Game so that he could face Vida Blue, saying that Anderson “wouldn’t pitch two brothers against each other.” Despite some of his on‑field antics—including tying the MLB record for being hit by pitches, an act he admitted was intentional—Ellis worked diligently in charitable endeavors, most notably helping to found the Black Athletes Foundation for Sickle Cell Research in 1971.

Among the many men who appreciated Ellis’s efforts in civil rights was Jackie Robinson, who wrote a moving letter praising Ellis and advising him on some of the difficulties he would encounter. Footage from a recently released documentary on Ellis shows him reading the letter, which moved him to tears even several decades after it was received.

8 The Boston Celtics & Bill Russell

Boston—owing perhaps to protests and riots in the 1970s after Boston public schools were desegregated by a court order—has had to endure a stigma as a racist town. But the city’s hometown basketball team, the Boston Celtics, was among the most progressive when it came to matters of race. The team was the first in professional basketball to draft an African‑American player in Chuck Cooper, whom they selected in 1950. The Celtics were also the first in North American sports to hire an African‑American coach when Bill Russell took over the team from the legendary Red Auerbach in 1966, a time of significant unrest throughout the country.

Russell is known as one of the most successful professional athletes in history, but he has also been an outspoken advocate of civil rights, and he has recently spoken out in support of gay athletes as they endure what Russell sees as issues black athletes encountered when he played. In 2010, Russell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for his work as “an impassioned advocate of human rights.”

7 The Starting Five At Texas Western In 1966

Texas Western’s role in the civil‑rights movement was something of a surprise to them, as many did not realize that they were members of the first collegiate basketball team to field an all‑African‑American starting lineup—and, ultimately, the first to win an NCAA Championship. In recollecting the game, most of the Texas Western players recall not understanding its importance until years later, when strangers would approach them to thank them for opening doors that had previously been shut.

That championship game, played against Kentucky, took on greater significance after famous Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp reportedly declared that no all‑Black team could defeat his all‑white squad. Pat Riley, then a member of the Kentucky squad, recalled how motivated Texas Western was after learning of Rupp’s comments, saying, “It was a violent game. I don’t mean there were any fights—but they were desperate and they were committed and they were more motivated than we were.”

Ultimately, Texas Western’s coach, Don Haskins, did not choose his starting five because of their race but rather in spite of it. He simply wanted to win, and those five gave him the best opportunity to do so. His assistant, Moe Iba, confirmed this, saying, “The fact that he was doing something historic by playing five Blacks, that probably never crossed Don’s mind. Hell, he’d have played five kids from Mars if they were his best five players.”

6 Stewart Udall, Secretary Of The Interior

Udall, the Secretary of the Interior to both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, became involved in the civil‑rights movement through his intervention with a Washington Redskins football franchise that refused to integrate. The Redskins had been adamant in this refusal, with its team owner, George Marshall, once saying that the team would “start signing Negroes when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites.” Marshall’s position on the matter was assailed by many, with one columnist referring to him as “an anachronism, as out‑of‑date as the drop kick.”

Despite the pleading of the press and fans, not until Udall stepped in and threatened retribution on the federal level did the Washington Redskins become the last team in the NFL to integrate. Since the Redskins’ new stadium was on federal land, Udall informed Marshall that if he continued to refuse to be integrated, the team would not be allowed to use it. In 1962, Marshall heeded Udall’s ultimatum, and the Redskins were finally integrated.

5 Don Barksdale And His US Olympic Teammates

Barksdale was the first African American to represent the US on the Olympic basketball team, and his role in the civil‑rights movement was in a Kentucky arena in 1948, the year after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Barksdale’s moment was during an exhibition game when his teammates passed a water bottle down the bench, with each man taking a sip. After Barksdale took his, he passed it to a teammate—“Shorty” Carpenter of Arkansas—who drank from the bottle without hesitation.

While this moment seems like nothing more than a minor detail today, the water bottle drew the attention of all those in attendance, many of whom felt that Carpenter could have made a statement by refusing to drink. This was especially true given that whites and blacks in the South rarely, if ever, drank from the same glass or from the same water fountain at the time. He didn’t refuse, and the game went on. Barksdale would later go on to become the first African‑American All‑Star in the NBA, playing for the Boston Celtics alongside Chuck Cooper.

4 Kathrine Switzer & Roberta Gibb

Before 1967, no woman had officially run in the Boston Marathon, and the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) did not willingly issue bib numbers to women who applied. The Amateur Athletic Association (AAU) did not formally accept women as participants in distance running, fearing that their bodies could not handle the rigors of long distances. Roberta Gibb ran the Boston Marathon in three consecutive years (1966–1968) but did so without a bib number, having to hide in the bushes at the race’s starting line to avoid being spotted.

Switzer, however, was issued a bib number but not with the full blessing of the BAA—according to the BAA, she did not clearly identify herself as a female entrant and signed her entry form as “K.V. Switzer.” She started the race unnoticed, but around the fourth mile, the press bus caught sight of her, causing a stir. Once race officials were notified, one of them even tried to rip off her bib number and physically remove her from the race before another runner—“Big” Tom Miller, a nationally ranked hammer thrower and former All‑American football player—pushed him aside. Switzer officially finished the race and helped to clear the path for female participation in distance running events.

3 Francois Pienaar & Nelson Mandela

Francois Pienaar grew up under apartheid in South Africa, when it was common to hear Nelson Mandela referred to as a terrorist who deserved to have been imprisoned for all of those years. As a rugby player, Pienaar was a part of the 1995 Rugby World Cup that came to symbolize the changing of South Africa, and Mandela supported the South African team and dismissed the notion that the springbok—the team’s emblem and a notorious symbol of apartheid—should be tossed aside. Instead, Mandela used the Rugby World Cup as an opportunity to unite the nation once again under the banner of sports.

Upon South Africa’s victory, Mandela, who wore a South Africa rugby shirt that prominently featured the springbok, presented the cup to Pienaar, the white South African team captain. The image was an important one, as it came to be recognized as a moment of reconciliation for a formerly divided nation. Pienaar and Mandela became quite close thereafter, and the man known as Madiba ended up attending Pienaar’s wedding and becoming godfather to one of the Rugby captain’s children.

2 Al Davis

Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis saw his football legacy somewhat tarnished during the last decade of his life, as the Raiders endured an extended period of futility that has continued to the present day. The team has not made the playoffs since its Super Bowl run of 2002, and many observers blame Davis for being out of touch with the game. Too many forget that Davis was an innovator of the highest order throughout the overwhelming majority of his life in football, and that included his attitude toward issues of civil rights.

In 1963, just a year after the Washington Redskins had to be forced to integrate its team, Davis was refusing to play a preseason game in Mobile, Alabama as a protest against the state’s laws on segregation. Davis, again protesting the inherent unfairness of segregation, also implemented a policy stating that the Raiders would not play in cities in which players would have to stay in different hotels due to race.

Davis was also responsible for hiring the second African‑American head coach in the NFL in Art Shell and also the first female front‑office executive in Amy Trask. Shell, a former offensive tackle with the Raiders, played under the league’s second Latino head coach, Tom Flores, who was also hired by Davis.

1 Willie O’Ree

O’Ree didn’t even realize that he had broken the color barrier in the NHL in 1958, saying, “It just didn’t dawn on me. I was just concerned about playing hockey.” O’Ree grew up in Canada, playing both hockey and baseball, and as a teenager he had the opportunity to meet Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn after being invited to camp with the Milwaukee Braves. The two spoke briefly, and after Robinson told him that there were no black kids playing hockey, O’Ree corrected him, saying, “Yeah, there’s a few.” Less than 10 years later, O’Ree would be making his NHL debut for the Boston Bruins.

O’Ree had to endure taunts and insults while playing games on the road, but he was steadfast in his belief that those taunts deserved no response from him. There were even times when, while in the penalty box, O’Ree would be spit on and have objects thrown at him because of his race. O’Ree went on to work with the NHL after completing his professional hockey career, serving as the director of youth development for the NHL’s diversity program.

When we talk about 10 ways american history shows that slavery lingered well beyond the Emancipation Proclamation, the first thing to understand is that the end of the Civil War did not magically erase the chains. The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery in name, but clever lawmakers and ruthless plantation owners invented new tricks to keep black labor bound to the South.

10 ways american Overview

10 Slavery Was Used As A Legal Punishment

The 13th Amendment did not eradicate every form of forced labor. It carved out a chilling exception: slavery could persist “as a punishment for crime.” In practice, Southern states simply invented a laundry list of offenses—often absurd or trivial—to arrest newly freed Black people and then lease them out as convict labor.

Legislators drafted the infamous Black Codes, statutes that permitted the arrest of Black citizens for everything from swearing to selling cotton after sunset. In Mississippi, a single uttered profanity could land a man in a chain gang, forced to toil in mines, farms, or quarries under brutal overseers.

The system proved immensely profitable. By 1898, a staggering 73 percent of Alabama’s state revenue derived from leasing convicts as slave labor. The conditions were horrific: one in four leased convicts died within a year due to savage beatings, and secret, unmarked graves concealed the bodies of at least 9,000 men who perished in the camps.

9 Many Freed Slaves Worked On The Same Farms For The Same Wages

After the amendment passed, a judge in Alabama bluntly declared that the South would keep Black labor alive, whether through outright slavery or “some other method.” In reality, freedom translated into a thinly veiled continuation of plantation life. Former slaves, lacking money, education, and any alternative skills, often signed labor contracts with their previous masters and returned to the same fields.

White landowners preserved the gang‑labor model, deploying white overseers to keep Black workers in a quasi‑slave condition. Wages, when paid, were miserably low—by 1910, the average Black laborer earned only about one‑third of what a white counterpart made, and many records suggest conditions were even worse in the decades immediately after emancipation.

8 Sharecropping Made Slaves Through Debt

The promise of “40 acres and a mule” evaporated as quickly as it appeared. The federal government never delivered the land, and white owners refused to sell or give it away. Instead, they introduced sharecropping: a system where Black families rented roughly 20 acres to grow cotton or tobacco, surrendering half of the harvest to the landlord.

Because the cash crop dominated the fields, sharecroppers could not grow their own food and were forced to purchase provisions on credit. With half the yield already owed to the landlord, many families fell into a crushing cycle of debt, borrowing money for basic necessities and becoming, in effect, perpetual laborers tied to the land.

7 Unemployed Black People Were Forced To Work Without Pay

Vagrancy laws turned unemployment into a crime. In Virginia, a Black person caught without a job could be charged with vagrancy and sentenced to three months of forced labor for a wage so meager it was described at the time as “slaves wages utterly inadequate to the support of themselves.”

Those who tried to escape this forced labor were shackled with ball‑and‑chain devices and compelled to continue working without any pay. The vagrancy statutes were essentially “slavery in all but its name,” often delivering harsher conditions than the ante‑bellum system itself. The only choices left for many were to accept exploitative sharecropping, gang labor, or endless unpaid work.

6 Fake Apprenticeships

Plantation owners rebranded bondage as “apprenticeships.” They lured freedmen with promises of education and skill‑building, only to bind them to contracts that forced them back into the same grueling labor they had performed as slaves. Breaking these contracts could land a former slave in legal trouble, and any employer who hired them risked being sued for “enticing” apprentices away.

Elizabeth Turner’s story illustrates the trap: she was coaxed into an apprenticeship, immediately thrust back into slave‑like work, and only escaped with the help of an abolitionist lawyer who offered pro bono representation. Most former slaves, illiterate and impoverished, lacked the resources to fight such contracts, leaving them trapped in a new form of servitude.

5 Confederados Took Their Slaves To Brazil

After the war, Brazil’s still‑legal slavery attracted Confederate planters seeking to preserve their way of life. While roughly five million slaves had already been shipped to Brazil—far more than ever arrived in the United States—between 10,000 and 20,000 Confederates migrated there under the promise they could keep their slaves.

Some brought newly emancipated Black people with them, effectively re‑enslaving them in a new country. Others purchased fresh slaves at discounted rates. Even today, isolated Brazilian communities still honor their American slave‑owning ancestors, calling themselves “Confederados,” waving Confederate flags, and speaking with a distinct Southern twang.

4 Black Workers Were Locked Up And Beaten

Although sharecropping was officially outlawed in 1867, the practice persisted for another century, often morphing into outright imprisonment. In Florida, a group of Black laborers recruited for sugarcane work found themselves confined in a squalid shack, beaten mercilessly, and threatened with death if they attempted to flee.

Across the country, similar camps shackled workers to beds or whipped them with cat‑o‑nine‑tails, offering only scraps of food. Most of the victims were illiterate and unable to navigate the legal system, leaving them defenseless. While white Southerners occasionally expressed disgust, it was not until the 1940s—spurred by Axis propaganda exposing the camps—that the United States took serious action to dismantle these brutal operations.

3 Blacks Couldn’t Testify Against Whites

In Kentucky, a Black person was legally barred from testifying against a white defendant. This denial of courtroom voice meant white perpetrators could commit theft, assault, or murder with impunity. One vivid example involves Nancy Talbot, whose home was burglarized. Although the judge recognized the thief’s guilt, Talbot could not testify, and the case collapsed.

Even though emancipation granted Black citizens the right to earn wages, it offered no protection for those earnings. White thieves could simply steal a Black person’s hard‑earned money, and without the ability to testify, the victims had no legal recourse.

2 White People Could Get Away With Massacres

Even with the 13th Amendment on the books, Kentucky’s legal loopholes allowed white murderers to walk free. In 1868, John Blyew and George Kennard broke into the Foster family home, slaughtering the father, mother, and grandmother with an axe, and grievously wounding two children.

The eldest son, Richard, hid beneath his father’s corpse until the attackers fled, then staggered to a neighbor for help, only to die from his injuries two days later. The youngest survivors, eight‑year‑old Laura and six‑year‑old Amelia, escaped with severe injuries; Amelia bore a lifelong scar across her face.

Because Black witnesses were barred from testifying, the case escalated to the Supreme Court, which ruled that Blyew and Kennard could not be convicted on the basis of Black testimony. Although the law eventually changed and the men were imprisoned, they were quickly pardoned by the governor and released.

1 Mississippi Didn’t Ratify The 13th Amendment Until 1995

When the 13th Amendment passed in 1865, 27 of the 36 states at the time ratified it promptly. However, some states lingered. Kentucky waited until 1976, and Mississippi didn’t officially ratify the amendment until 1995—130 years after its adoption.

Even after the 1995 vote, Mississippi’s legislators failed to file the ratification with the Federal Register, leaving the amendment unenforced in the state until activists uncovered the oversight in 2011. The amendment finally took effect in 2013, meaning Mississippi officially opposed the abolition of slavery until just four years ago.

Both the Union and the Confederacy enlisted child soldiers during the bloody US Civil War that lasted from April 12, 1861, to May 9, 1865. Many of the children served with distinction and returned home. Others were not so lucky and paid with their lives. This is a look at 10 notable child soldiers who left an indelible mark on history.

Why These 10 Notable Child Soldiers Matter

Their youthful bravery, tragic ends, and extraordinary feats illustrate how even the youngest could shape the outcome of a nation‑splitting conflict.

10 Edwin Francis Jemison

The iconic photograph of Confederate Private Edwin Francis Jemison remains one of the most recognizable images of the Civil War. He entered the world on December 4, 1844, and signed up with the 2nd Louisiana Infantry in May 1861 at the age of 16. The picture that immortalized him was taken shortly after he joined the ranks.

Jemison first faced Union troops in April 1862 during the clash at Dam No. 1 in Virginia. His second encounter came a few months later, on July 1, 1862, at the Battle of Malvern Hill, which held the record for the deadliest engagement until the Battle of Antietam eclipsed it.

The Confederates suffered roughly 5,500 casualties at Malvern Hill, while Union losses were about half that number. Jemison’s life was cut short when a cannonball struck him as he surged toward the enemy lines. He was just five months shy of his 18th birthday.

9 John Lincoln Clem

Born John Joseph Klem, he later adopted the middle name Lincoln out of admiration for President Abraham Lincoln. In 1861, at just ten years old, John slipped away from home to enlist as a drummer with the 3rd Ohio. The regiment turned him away for being underage, prompting him to try the 22nd Michigan, which also rejected him for the same reason.

Undeterred, John attached himself to the 22nd Michigan, eventually being embraced as a mascot and unofficial drummer, though formal enlistment didn’t occur until 1862.

During the September 1863 Battle of Chickamauga, John swapped his drum for a musket, and three bullets punctured his hat. While separated from his unit, a Confederate colonel chased him and demanded surrender. John refused, shooting the colonel dead; the officer had derisively called him a “Yankee Devil.” This daring act earned him a promotion and the nickname “The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.” He was discharged in 1864, rejoined in 1871 as a second lieutenant, and retired as a brigadier general in 1915.

8 Elisha Stockwell

Elisha Stockwell first answered a Union recruitment drive in Jackson County, Wisconsin, when he was 15. His father objected, prompting the recruiters to cross his name off the rolls.

Refusing to be deterred, Elisha ran away with a Union soldier who was a family friend and on leave. Before departing, he told his sister he was heading downtown; she reminded him to return early for supper. Two years later, he did just that.

During his second enlistment, Elisha claimed he couldn’t recall his exact age but guessed he was 18. The recruiter, aware he was younger, nevertheless recorded his age as 18 and listed his height as 165 cm (5 ft 5 in)—a stature he wouldn’t actually reach for another two years.

Elisha’s first encounter with death came at the 1862 Battle of Shiloh, where he stumbled upon a disemboweled soldier slumped against a tree, an experience that left him “deadly sick.” He also participated in a downhill charge toward Confederate lines; when the assault was called off, roughly half of his comrades lay dead or wounded.

That harrowing experience taught Elisha that running away from home was folly, as war was no child’s play. After the war, he discovered that only three of the 32 men and boys from his hometown who had left for battle survived.

7 William Johnston

William Johnston holds the distinction of being the youngest Medal of Honor recipient. Born in July 1850, he enlisted with the 3rd Vermont Infantry as a drummer in May 1862.

He fought in the “Seven Days” campaign (June 25 – July 1, 1862), during which his unit was forced to retreat under the pressure of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s forces. As Union troops fell back, many abandoned their weapons and drums.

William, however, clung to his drum, and when the entire division assembled for an Independence Day parade on July 4, he performed for the whole formation. President Abraham Lincoln was so impressed by his determination that he awarded William the Medal of Honor. At just 13, he remains the youngest recipient to date.

6 John Cook

John Cook signed up as a bugler with the 4th United States Artillery at age 15. He saw action at the brutal Battle of Antietam, where his battery was assaulted by Confederate infantry.

The first wave of the Confederate attack left about 17 of his comrades wounded or dead, including the battery’s commander, Captain Campbell, whose horse was killed. As survivors attempted to retreat, John managed to pull the wounded captain to safety before taking control of a cannon himself.

He was soon joined by Brigadier General Gibbon, who personally loaded and fired the cannon alongside him. The Confederates launched three attempts to seize the artillery; the third brought them within a terrifying 3‑5 meters (10‑15 ft) of the guns.

When the fighting ended, the battery had suffered 44 men and 40 horses killed or wounded. John Cook’s bravery earned him the Medal of Honor, making him the youngest artilleryman ever to receive the award.

5 Robert Henry Hendershot

Robert Henry Hendershot was ten when he joined the Union’s 9th Michigan Infantry as a volunteer drummer in 1861. Though a mischievous youngster who often quarreled with his mother and tossed fruit at passing train passengers, he took the drumming role seriously.

He wasn’t formally accepted until March 1862. From that point onward, his wartime accounts wavered between truth, embellished truth, and outright fabrication.

He claimed to have slain a Confederate colonel during a siege at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, after which he was captured and later exchanged. He reenlisted with the 8th Michigan under the name Robert Henry Henderson on August 19, 1862, but somehow ended up in the 7th Michigan, where he asserted he forced a Confederate soldier’s surrender at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

In August 1891, veterans of the 7th Michigan disputed his presence at Fredericksburg, stripping him of the title “The Drummer Boy of the Rappahannock” and suggesting the honor belonged to John T. Spillaine or Thomas Robinson. The 8th Michigan later claimed the title belonged to Charles Gardner. Ultimately, prominent figures—including President Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant—intervened, restoring Robert’s title.

4 Charles Edwin King

Charles Edwin King holds the grim record of being the youngest fatality of the Civil War. Born on April 4, 1849, he enlisted as a drummer with the Union’s 49th Pennsylvania Volunteers on September 12, 1861, at the tender age of 12. Though his father opposed the enlistment, he relented after Captain Benjamin Sweeney promised to keep Charlie away from the front lines.

Charlie’s first combat experience came at the Battle of Williamsburg, where Union forces were routed from the Virginia Peninsula by Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s troops. He saw action again on September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam—the bloodiest single day of the war.

Estimates suggest the battle claimed at least 22,720 lives: roughly 12,400 Confederate and 10,320 Union casualties, not counting civilians who later died of disease or the 6,300 soldiers who fell in the prelude three days earlier.

During the Antietam engagement, Charlie was seriously wounded when shrapnel from a Confederate shell exploded near the rear lines, tearing through his body. He lingered for three days before succumbing to his injuries on September 20, 1862, at age 13.

3 Frederick Grant

At age 12, Frederick Grant, the son of Union General Ulysses S. Grant, followed his father into the war. He set up camp in his father’s tent, received his own horse and uniform, yet General Grant barred him from front‑line exposure. Still, Frederick defied the restriction, venturing onto the battlefield until a Confederate soldier wounded him in the leg.

Frederick’s lowest point came during the Battle of Port Gibson, where Union forces suffered 131 dead and 719 wounded. He helped collect the fallen bodies after the fighting, an experience that made him ill, prompting him to assist other soldiers in transporting the wounded to a makeshift hospital. The sight inside the hospital—rows of amputated limbs— horrified him, and he retreated to sit beneath a tree, shaken by the gruesome scene.

2 Edward Black

Edward Black enlisted as a drummer with the 21st Indiana Infantry at the astonishing age of eight, making him the youngest person ever to serve in the United States Armed Forces. Drummers were constantly at the front, using their instruments to signal commands, which also made them prime targets for enemy troops seeking to disrupt unit cohesion.

Edward was captured during the Battle of Baton Rouge and imprisoned on an island in the Gulf of Mexico. He regained his freedom when Union forces seized the island and the nearby city of New Orleans.

After President Lincoln banned child soldiers in 1862, Edward was discharged and returned to Indianapolis with his drum. The trauma and injuries he endured during the war likely contributed to his premature death at age 18. His drum now resides at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, where it is one of the museum’s most treasured artifacts.

1 Abel Sheeks

Abel Sheeks fled his Alabama home at 16 to join the Confederate Army. Short on uniforms, he initially wore a blue shirt and trousers—clothing that resembled Union uniforms—until a fellow soldier asked if he wanted to risk being mistaken for an enemy.

After each skirmish, Abel scavenged the battlefield for uniforms belonging to fallen Confederate soldiers his size. Though he despised the practice, necessity left him no alternative, and within weeks he had assembled a proper Confederate uniform.

Training in Confederate camps proved grueling for youngsters. Drills dominated daily life, while opportunities for live‑fire practice were scarce due to limited ammunition, meaning many learned to shoot only amid actual combat.

Union camps were no better. One Union boy, weary of endless drills, suggested “Let’s stop this fooling and go over to the grocery.” The drill sergeant reacted harshly, ordering a corporal to “drill him like hell.”

Oliver Taylor is a freelance writer and bathroom musician. You can reach him at [email protected].