During the Civil War, a person could pay $300 for someone to take their place in the Grand Army of the Republic ("The North" or the Federal government).
When Joe is getting ready to rescue Peter from the stairwell, Joe says "Stairs. Why'd it have to be stairs?" This is a reference to Indiana Jones, where the titular character, who has a fear of snakes, is confronted with snakes and says "Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?"
Sixth episode to have "Family Guy" in the title.
Stop and Shop, the grocery store found in the episode, is a supermarket chain whose headquarters are in New England, the region of the country where Seth MacFarlane is from.
The production code was HACX12.