Anybody who knows about the America Civil War knows that this was one of the most brutal conflicts in human history. To this day the battle of Antietam, one that pitted General Robert E. Lee against the Union’s George B. McClellan, still holds the record for the most American military deaths in one day. This includes the United States involvement in the trench warfare of World War I, and the modern mechanized style of fighting of World War II. This, along with a number of other vicious battles that often became hand to hand affairs where guys were driving bayonets into the torsos of their fellow man, would indicate a deep hatred for the enemy. The surprising thing is this was not the case.
The American Civil War is often credited with the evolution of poker into the game we know today. What a lot of people don’t know is that the first, informal World Series of Poker may have been played between the enemy soldiers.
The soldiers involved in this war had far more in common than they did reasons to dislike each other. Even the slave issue was generally off the table when it came to the fraternization between Union and Confederate soldiers. The common fighting man didn’t have the income to afford a slave, so the issue did not affect them one way or the other. Despite attempts by officers to crackdown on fraternization, casual meetings between northern and southern soldiers were commonplace. While trading goods was one of the major reasons for the meetings (southern boys trading tobacco for coffee with their northern counterparts, etc), poker was a popular way for these guys to spend their time during these unofficial truces.
In the winter of 1862-3 the opposing forces were on either side of Virginia’s Rappahannock River. Almost nightly soldiers would meet on a nearby island to trade stories and play some serious poker. Beating your opponent with a pair of Kings seemed much more desirable then trying to shoot him. The game of poker was something common to all of them that transcended politics, propaganda, and war.
