Obscure/Interesting/Quirky "American" Facts 1865-1880

We aren't doing your homework for you.

New York City was by far more dangerous than the wildest of the wild west towns.

Also, about 20% of cowboys were African American.

The James Gang are knowns as western outlaws, but they mostly operated in the Midwest and South, rarely venturing further west than Missouri, and robbing banks as far south and east as Kentucky, Mississippi, and Alabama.

The Civil War was not fought over slavery

Reconstruction sucked.

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The Civil War was not fought over slavery

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As one Confederate Cabinet member said after hearing this for the 10,000th time, "If we're not fighting this war for *******, I'd like to know what the hell we are fighting for".

I know an interesting fact that happened in NY at midnight on January 1, 1881. However it was still 9 PM December 31, 1880 in San Francisco.

I'll let you decide.

In 1871, John Wesley Hardin shot a man for snoring.

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And Samuel Tilden, the man who was robbed of the 1876 Presidential Election, owned a huge collection of pornography.

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I just thought that was normal behavior for back then.

The worst maritime disaster in Anerican history happened in 1865 whe the riverboat Sultana exploded and sank on the Mississippi River near Memphis. The country barely noticed however due to the fact President Lincoln had been killed the day before.

To give an idea of the scale if this disaster, almost 300 more people died when the Sultana went down than would die when the Titanic sank 47 years later.