The bloodiest war in American history, North versus South

It was the bloodiest war in American history, killing 210,000 soldiers and claiming a total of 625,000 lives, including civilians. The war killed 30% of all male residents of the South between the ages of 18 and 40.

After the Battle of Gettysburg, the victors collected the discarded rifles and took them to Washington, D.C., where they were to be inspected and reissued to the troops. Of the 37,574 rifles, approximately 24,000 were still loaded. Six thousand had one bullet in the barrel, 12,000 had two bullets, and 6,000 had three to ten bullets. One rifle was even loaded with an admirable twenty-three bullets.

During the Civil War, there were about 30 million people living in the United States, 21 million in the North and 9 million in the South. More than 3 million of them fought in the war – 2,100,000 on the Northern side and an equal million under the Southern flag.

More than 180,000 black soldiers fought in the Union army. Fugitive slaves and free blacks from the North served voluntarily.

After the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee in April 1862, 16,000 wounded soldiers were left lying on the battlefield in the rain and cold. Many of them later recounted that as they waited for help at night, their wounds began to glow in the dark. This was a mystery to the doctors, as was the fact that the men with glowing wounds recovered faster than others.

The mystery was solved in 2001 by two young men who discovered that the source of the radiation was bioluminescent bacteria, which not only caused the mysterious glow, but also saved many men’s lives by preventing gangrene.