As a rule, Civil War soldiers were more religious than Americans ... awake all night with weapons at the ready. A veteran who narrowly survived an artillery barrage would shout at his wife ...

Photograph showing Union soldiers with rifles at attention in front of the Capitol. May 13, 1861. Courtesy: Library of Congress Whitman was forty-two years old when the Civil War started.

Reliability and accuracy made the Colt a favorite of soldiers and frontiersmen ... Introduced at the start of the Civil War, Spencer repeating guns were technically advanced, used cartridges ...