Untold Stories Of the CIvil War

For this weeks post, I listened to podcast put on by National Geographic about the more human side of the Civil War. The podcast gave a brief history leading up to the Civil War, then started giving looks into many parts of the war that are overlooked. For example, a little known aspect of the Civil War are the pets that were kept on both sides. These pets included the usual dogs and cats, but included raccoons, possums, and even camels. the most famous of the animals was an eagle named Honest Abe. Honest Abe was the mascot for the Wisconsin infantry division, and was said to have a fondness for battle, letting out high pitched screeches during the charge. This eagle became the symbol for many things, but most notable was it's adoption by the 101st Airborne division in WWII, who named themselves the screaming eagles, and who's patch had the eagles head on it. It was actually quite interesting the amount of things that have carried over from the Civil War into our modern lives. Things such as pre sized clothing, flushing toilets, and canned food all originated during the Civil War, and really are an every day necessity of our modern world.