Study Traces Europe's Bets on Civil War

And 40% of white Southerners feel the same way

(NEWSER) - Today marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, and it looks like the conflict is still dividing the country. In a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released today, roughly 25% of Americans said they sympathized with the Confederacy more than the Union. Among white Southerners, that figure soars to nearly 40%. Among all respondents, a full 42% said slavery was not the main reason the South seceded. More»

Virginia could overtake North Carolina in number of soldier deaths

(NEWSER) - With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaching, North Carolina and Virginia have commissioned official recounts of how many soldiers each state lost in battle. What sounds like a humdrum exercise is producing surprising results, reports the Wall Street Journal : North Carolina has long laid claim to losing the most men in uniform: 40,275, according to the 1866 count. That number will surely decline by thousands. Virginia, meanwhile, is at 31,000 and still counting, far exceeding its original total of about 15,000. More»

Author Joy Masoff read about it on the Internet

(NEWSER) - A Virginia 4th-grade textbook has come under fire for claiming that thousands of slaves fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War—something an overwhelming majority of historians say isn’t true. The book’s author, Joy Masoff, isn’t a trained historian, and says she did most of her research on the Internet. She attributes the claim—which critics say is often used to downplay slavery as a cause of the war—to a website from the Sons of Confederate Veterans. She tells the Washington Post she’s sticking by it. More»

Embattled prez had more to deal with than Civil War

(NEWSER) - A handwritten note dated just a few days before Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has finally made its way back to the National Archives, the Washington Post reports. The terse communication from the president to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase addressed corruption charges against a Lincoln appointee. "Even though this item is seemingly routine, it is in fact very important," said an Archives official. More»

(NEWSER) - A legend about a DC watchmaker who etched a secret message inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch is true, the Washington Post reports. Smithsonian officials opened the watch today and found it amid the tiny gears: "Jonathan Dillon April 13, 1861. Fort Sumter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. Thank God we have a government." Sumter proved to be the opening battle of the Civil War, and Dillon happened to be working on the watch that day. More»