The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa., is worthy of a visit. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

As much as we might think we know all there is to know about a subject, there always seems to be more to learn. Such was the case on a visit earlier this month to the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pa.

All the pictures I had seen and the stories I had read about the Civil War I assumed the fighting was all on land. Strange assumption considering the long coast line of so many of the states involved.

One panel explains, “In 1861, the U.S. Navy was badly organized with its 1,457 officers and 7,600 men scattered across the globe. Less than half of its 90 ships were ready for active service. As a result, the North was able to establish only a partial blockade of Southern ports early in the war. However, the U.S. Navy responded with great vigor, rapidly concentrated its forces, built new ships, and expanded its manpower. Union vessels attacked Confederate fortifications along the coasts and rivers, transported troops, and supported infantry assaults. By war’s end, the U.S. Navy had destroyed Rebel forts, closed or captured Southern ports, and taken control of the great inland waterways.”

One way women helped their side in the war was by smuggling goods in their clothing. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

And until this visit I thought it common for women to be nurses and less so for men. Had I given it more thought, I should have known women weren’t always welcome in this profession. Really, what profession did men ever want them to be in?

A museum exhibit says, “Until the American Civil War, nursing was considered a man’s job. It was believed that a woman’s constitution was not suitable for dealing with the horrors of war. Women like Dr. Mary Walker, Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton, Juliet Anne Opie Hopkins and Mary Ann Bickerdyke rewrote that narrative. They waded into these horrors and changed how Americans viewed women in health care.”

Throughout the museum are plaques telling about how the Civil War brought about several firsts. That’s the thing about wars, they can be progressive in ways not before imagined.

The museum is full of information and artifacts from both sides. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Some of the firsts listed at the museum include:

• The Civil War created a huge demand for ready-made men’s wear. The federal government supplied manufacturers with common measurements for military uniforms, and manufacturers used this information to develop standard sizes. This was the first time that ready-made clothing was produced in regular sizes, a practice that continued after the war was over.
• Gabriel James Rains was a pioneer in the development of the land mine. During a Confederate withdrawal in the Peninsula Campaign, Rains had his troops bury Columbiad artillery shells with pressure sensitive fuses along a road, thus creating the first field of land mines. These shells exploded when stepped on or moved. Officers on both sides considered the “Confederacy’s Infernal Machines” to be unethical and inhumane weapons. Their use continued, however. Rains became head of the Confederate Torpedo Bureau in 1864.
• On Sept. 19, 1862, two days after the battle of Antietam, Alexander Gardener and James F. Gibson photographically recorded 95 scenes of battlefield carnage. A month later their work was exhibited in the prestigious photograph gallery of Mathew Brady in New York City. For the first time civilians could see the dead of a battlefield lying as they fell in combat. A reporter for the New York Times wrote, “Mr. Brady has done something to bring home to us the terrible reality and earnestness of war. If he has not brought bodies and laid them in our door-yards and along streets, he has done something very like it…”
• One hundred-nine African Americans served as commissioned officers of U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War, including eight surgeons and 14 chaplains. Martin R. Delany was commissioned a major in the 104th U.S.C.T. on Feb. 26, 1865, giving him the distinction of being the first African American staff officer in the United States military. Maj. Delany was sent to the Department of the South to aid in the recruitment and organization of the 104th and 105th U.S.C.T.
• Recovering from a wound received at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, Union Gen. Daniel Butterfield, to relieve boredom perhaps, began experimenting with bugle calls. He, with the help of bugler O.W. Norton of the 83rd Pennsylvania, reworked the last 5¼ bars of a French bugle call into what was later named “Taps.” It became the official signal to extinguish lights in camp during the Civil War and is now used as a final call during military funerals.
  

  The horrors of slavery, like this four-pronged shackle, are instrumental in telling the story of the Civil War. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

• The Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor, was first authorized in a bill passed by Congress and approved by President Abraham Lincoln in December 1861. In March 1863, the first Army Medals of Honor were awarded by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to six participants of the ill-fated Andrews Raid. More than 1,200 Medals of Honor were awarded for gallantry in action during the Civil War. Sixteen Army Medal of Honor and eight Navy Medal of Honor recipients were African Americans.
• Americans had no experience dealing with large numbers of battle casualties prior to the Civil War. Desperately wounded men could only walk or crawl for help or rely upon other combat soldiers for aid. In August 1862, Gen. George McClellan issued an order establishing an ambulance corps for the Army of the Potomac. At the Battle of Antietam, the ambulance corps effectively transported more than 8,300 wounded men to hospitals in Frederick, Md. In 1864, Congress established the corps as a regular army unit, giving the Medical Department the right to train and examine men for duty.
• On Feb. 17, 1864, the Confederate submarine Hunley attacked the USS Housatonic which was blockading Charleston harbor. A torpedo attached to the sub bow was rammed into the warship. The explosion sank the Union ship, but the Hunley also sank. The sinking of the Hunley was the end of Confederate submarining, but signaled the start of a revolution in naval warfare.
• Although not technically a machine gun because it used a hand crank, Richard Gatling’s multiple-barrel weapon was capable of firing 600 rounds a minute. Gatling was unable to interest the U.S. Army in his gun during the Civil War because it was expensive and fragile. However, Gen. Benjamin Butler did purchase 12 Gatling Guns, at $1,000 each, for use on the Petersburg front during 1864. Several of the weapons were used on gunboats along the James River. Following the war, improved models were tested and accepted officially by the U.S. Army in 1866.