It’s time to stop it with the “brother vs. brother” bullshit re: the Civil War. I’m not saying it never happened, but it must have been rare. Wikipedia says 2.75 million soldiers fought in the war, and I can confidently assert that the brother/brother thing happened exactly 14 times. Now, cousin vs. cousin–especially if you include second and removed cousins–was common, as most of the country was related at the point, but brother/brother? 14 times.

And 13 times, the siblings did not meet on the field of battle. One would be in Virginia while the other was in Maryland, or one died while the other snuck off from camp in the middle of the night to start a new life out west as a pony.

The one time brother actually met brother in the Civil War was at Fredericksburg on 12/12/62.

“Stan?”

“Jimmy?”

“I have been looking for you the whole war!”

“Me, too, bro.”

“To fucking shoot you, you bastard.”

“BRING IT, MOTHERFUCKER!”

So, as you can see, while brother did technically fight brother in the Civil War, those two were looking for an excuse and probably would have wound up killing each other regardless of national politics.

(No sisters fought against one another in the Civil War, but several did pine for their men while a lonesome fiddle played on opposite sides of the conflict.)