Day 17. March 17, 1862.
17
we did not come all this way to Virginia to run….
March Monday 17
Quite frosty and cool this morning and cloudy. I got up quite early as we have new orders to have our breakfast eat at 6 ½ oclock and at 7½ oclock the sick come in for medicine and then the balance of the day for fixing up and reading attending to affairs concerning the medicine. It has been cool all day. The Regiments were out on Battallion Drill* this afternoon. I received 4 letters this morning one from Mrs MB.** There is nothing new transpired here at Camp Shields Frederick Co VA 3 ½ miles north of Winchester and a good camp it is. We have our medicine in the house called Carters House.*** I received 3 newspapers today. I don’t feel very well today. I got 3 apples and had to pay 10 cents and not very large at that. We have to eat hard crackers all the time we have had bread but once since the 1st of February
*2010 Battalion drill at Gettysburg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDtFqdVpn10
**Ephraim’s wife Mary Magdalene Harnish Burket 3/28/1835-5/27/1917. They were married 10/27/1857 and had 6 children. Ephraim had 8 siblings.
***I was excited to find this house still there: Beautifully restored brick, known in the 1860s as the Horner House, & used alternately as Confederate hospital or Union headquarters, depending on the day. This house, Mrs. Carter’s, is referred to, among other places in the O.R., page 380, in a wire from Jackson to Johnston. Clearly a well-known house to both sides:
“Built in 1819, Carter Hall at 71 Winchester St. in Warrenton hosted soldiers from both sides during the Civil War and survived the devastating Warrenton fire of 1909.”
For the architects: https://archello.com/es/project/carter-house
Civil War Weather in Virginia Robert K. Krick P. 48
“7a.m. 30; 2p.m. 34; 9p.m. 37. Snow and sleet all day.”
Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology 1809-1865 Volume III: 1861-1865 C. Percy Powell P. 101
“March 17, 1862: Rumor reaches Lincoln of resolution that may be offered by Cong. John Covode (Pa.) to remove Gen. McClellan from command.”
Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War George Worthington Adams 1952 P. 65
“In the field, the lives of regimental medical officers usually alternated between short frantic periods of overwork and slack periods when their duties occupied them less than a hour a day. During the lulls the medical high-point of each day was “sick call,” when men who sought excuse from duty were paraded before the doctors by the first sergeants. In many regiments this diagnosis was made by the assistant surgeon while the surgeon called on the bedfast and attended sick officers. At the diagnosis it was decided whether the soldier reporting sick should be put in the regimental hospital, excused from duty but allowed to remain in quarters, or assigned to light duty. These were among the most important of the medical officers’ powers. In theory at least, a whole regiment might be excused from duty, and everyone, officers included, came under the surgeon’s command. Or he might exercise his power in another way; he could discharge his patients and order them to the battle line.”
A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War The Diaries of David Hunter Strother David Hunter Strother P. 15
“MARCH 17, MONDAY.—…After dinner, started in the cars for Winchester…. Went to General Williams’ office and found a number of officers in high feather drinking punch. Williams is now temporarily in command of the division. It is reported that General Banks will return here tomorrow or next day. Vague, however. Coming up in the cars I saw two prisoners of [Turner] Ashby’s men. When they were taken and confined in the guardhouse, the elder soldier said, “Lord, what a good sleep I’ll have here tonight. I won’t have to watch the Yankees.’”
The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat Earl J. Hess P. 114
“There was an invisible line stretching two thousand miles, with hundreds of thousands of men united by a common objective. These men “felt that they were all in touch, elbow to elbow, as it were, though hundreds of miles intervened.” If they lost a battle, there was always the assurance that other links in this nationwide chain would step forward to carry on the war for the Union. There would always be others ready to take their places in the ranks if they fell. “Along the entire line was an invisible cord, binding all hearts in the immortal faith that the free institutions of the United States were not born to die…’”
The Civil War Archive: The History of the Civil War in Documents Henry Steele Commager P. 31
“It was the first in which the railroad and the telegraph played a major role. It involved almost every known form of warfare: large-scale battles, guerrilla fighting, trench warfare, sieges and investments, bold forays into enemy country and large-scale invasions, amphibious warfare along coastal and inland waters, blockade, privateering, surface and subsurface naval war, the war of propaganda and of nerves.”
America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation David Goldfield P. 220
“As the West Point manual prescribed, one regiment of skirmishers preceded the army to draw the first enemy contact and guard against an ambush. One regiment of infantry followed, then the artillery, and two infantry regiments completed the brigade. Another brigade followed. Baggage wagons brought up the rear. Up and down the rolling hills of northern Virginia they marched, bayonets glistening in the sun and the artillery rumbling along as if heralding a thunderstorm. The procession took several hours to pass a given point. Residents along the line of march either fled in fright or watched the scene sullenly. A few paid no attention and kept on tending their fields.
P. 212
West Point manuals counseled concentrated offensive charges against defensive positions. By the time defenders had a chance to reload– a process involving nine separate steps– the offensive troops would be on them with bayonets. Not so with rifles, where soldiers holding defensive positions could pull off three rounds before a charging enemy closed. Defensive wars conserved armies; offensive tactics could destroy them. The Confederacy would employ offensive tactics sparingly; the key was timing.”
The Peninsula & Seven Days: A Battlefield Guide Brian K. Burton P. 153-155
“Civil War armies basically had three kinds of combat troops: infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Infantrymen fought on foot, each with his own weapon. Cavalrymen were trained to fight on horseback or dismounted, also with their own individual weapons. Artillerymen fought with cannon.
Infantry were by far the most numerous part of a Civil War army and were chiefly responsible for seizing and holding ground.
The basic Civil War tactic was to put a lot of men next to one another in a line and have them move and shoot together. By present-day standards the notion of placing troops shoulder to shoulder seems insane, but it still made good sense in the mid-nineteenth century. There were two reasons for this: first, it allowed soldiers to concentrate the fire of their rather limited weapons; second, it was almost the only way to move troops effectively under fire.
Most Civil War infantrymen used muzzle-loading muskets capable of being loaded and fired a maximum of about three times* a minute. Individually, therefore, a soldier was nothing. He could affect the battlefield only by combining his fire with that of other infantrymen. Although spreading out made them less vulnerable, infantrymen very quickly lost the ability to combine their fire effectively if they did so. Even more critically, their officers rapidly lost the ability to control them.
For most purposes, the smallest tactical unit on a Civil War battlefield was the regiment. Theoretically composed of about 1,000 officers and men, in reality the average Civil War regiment went into battle with about 300 to 600 men. Whatever its size, however, all members of the regiment had to be able to understand and carry out the orders of their colonel and subordinate officers, who generally could communicate only through voice command. Since in the din and confusion of battle only a few soldiers could actually hear any given command, most got the message chiefly by conforming to the movements of the men immediately around them. Maintaining “touch of elbows” – the prescribed close interval– was indispensable for this crude but vital system to work. In addition, infantrymen were trained to “follow the flag” – the unit and national colors were always conspicuously placed in the front and center of each regiment. Thus, when in doubt as to what maneuver the regiment was trying to carry out, soldiers could look to see the direction in which the colors were moving. That is one major reason why the post of color-bearer was habitually given to the bravest men in the unit. It was not just an honor; it was insurance that the colors would always move in the direction desired by the colonel.
En route to a battle area, regiments typically moved in a column formation, four men abreast. There was a simple maneuver whereby regiments could very rapidly change from column to line once in the battle area, that is, from a formation designed for ease of movement to one designed to maximize firepower. Regiments normally moved and fought in line of battle– a close-order formation actually composed of two lines, front and rear. Attacking units rarely “charged” in the sense of running full tilt toward the enemy; such a maneuver would promptly destroy the formation as faster men outstripped slower ones and everyone spread out. Instead, a regiment using orthodox tactics would typically step off on an attack moving at a “quick time” rate of 110 steps per minute (at which it would cover about 85 yards per minute). Once the force came under serious fire, the rate of advance might be increased to a so-called double-quick time of 165 steps per minute (about 150 yards per minute). Only when the regiment was within a few dozen yards of the defending line would the regiment be ordered to advance at a “run” (a very rapid pace but still not a sprint). Thus, a regiment might easily take about ten minutes to “charge” 1,000 yards, even if it did not pause for realignment or execute any further maneuvers en route.
In theory, an attacking unit would not stop until it reached the enemy line, if then. The idea was to force back the defenders through the size, momentum, and shock effect of the attacking column. (Fixed bayonets were considered indispensable for maximizing the desired shock effect.) In reality, however, the firepower of the defense eventually led most Civil War regiments to stop and return the fire– often at ranges of less than 100 yards. And very often the “charge” would turn into a stand-up firefight at murderously short range until one side or the other gave way.”
The Peninsula & Seven Days: A Battlefield Guide Brian K. Burton P. 158-160
“When defending, Civil War leaders often looked for positions that had as many of the following characteristics as possible:
First, it obviously had to be ground from which they could protect whatever it was they were ordered to defend.
Second, it should be elevated enough so as to provide good observation and good fields of fire—they wanted to see as far as possible and sometimes (though not always)to shoot as far as possible. The highest ground was not necessarily the best, however, for it often afforded an attacker defilade*—areas of lower ground that the defenders’ weapons could not reach. For that reason, leaders seldom placed their troops at the very top of a ridge or hill (the “geographical crest”). Instead, they placed them a bit forward of the geographical crest at a point from which they had the best field of fire (the “military crest”). Alternatively, they might choose to place their troops behind the crest so as to conceal their size and exact deployment from the enemy and gain protection from long-range fire. It also meant that an attacker, upon reaching the crest, would be silhouetted against the sky and susceptible to a sudden, potentially destructive fire at close range.
Third, the ground adjacent to the chosen position should present a potential attacker with obstacles. Streams and ravines made good obstructions because they required an attacker to halt temporarily while trying to cross them. Fences and boulder fields could also slow an attacker. Dense woodlands could do the same but offered concealment for potential attackers and were therefore less desirable. In addition to its other virtues,elevated ground was also prized because attackers moving uphill had to exert themselves more and got tired faster. Obstacles were especially critical at the ends of a unit’s position—the flanks—if there were no other units beyond to protect it. That is why commanders “anchored” their flanks, whenever possible, on hills or the banks of large streams.
Fourth, the terrain must offer ease of access for reinforcements to arrive and, if necessary, for the defenders to retreat.
Fifth, a source of drinkable water—the more the better—should be immediately behind the position if possible. This was especially important for cavalry and artillery units, which had horses to think about as well as men.
When attacking, Civil War commanders looked for different things:
First, they looked for weaknesses in the enemy’s position, especially “unanchored” flanks. If there were no obvious weaknesses, they looked for a key point in the enemy’s position—often a piece of elevated ground whose loss would undermine the rest of the enemy’s defensive line.
Second, they searched for ways to get close to the enemy positionwithout being observed. Using woodlands and ridge lines to screen their movements was a common tactic.
Third, they looked for open, elevated ground on which they could deploy artillery to “soften up” the point to be attacked.
Fourth, once the attack was underway they tried, when possible, to find areas of defilade in which their troops could gain relief from exposure to enemy fire. Obviously, it was almost never possible to find defilade that offered protection all the way to the enemy line, but leaders could often find some point en route where they could pause briefly to “dress’ their lines.
Making the best use of terrain was an art that almost always involved trade-offs among these various factors—and also required consideration of the number of troops available. Even a very strong position was vulnerable if there were not enough men to defend it. A common error among Civil War generals, for example, was to stretch their line too thin in order to hold an otherwise desirable piece of ground.”
For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War James M. McPherson P. 85
“Perhaps the only achievement that could eclipse the honor of taking enemy colors or retaking one’s own was to plant the national flag on a captured enemy position. Regimental rivalries to be the first to do so help explain the reckless courage of many Civil War assaults. In 1864 an officer in the 12th New York described a successful attack on Confederate lines defending the Weldon Railroad near Petersburg. When the American flag appeared above the battle smoke on the enemy works, “it is impossible to describe the feelings one experiences at such a moment. God, Country, Love, Home, pride, conscious strength & power, all crowd your swelling breast… proud, proud as a man can feel over this victory to our arms– if it were a man’s privilege to die when he wished, he should die at such a moment.’”
How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: The Fatal Errors That Led to Confederate Defeat Bevin Alexander P. 276-277
“In this period of the war, there was too little appreciation of the range and power of the Minie-ball rifle, and too much foolish bravado. The 12th Georgia, holding the center of the Confederate line on Sitlington Hill, refused to retire to the reverse of the ridge to escape Federal bullets. Their commander tried to withdraw them, but the men resisted and remained on the crest, where they made easy targets from below. A Georgia youth, asked the next day why they did not seek cover, replied: “We did not come all this way to Virginia to run before the Yankees.” Accordingly, the 12th Georgia lost 156 men and 19 officers.”
Living Hell: The Dark Side of the Civil War Michael C.C. Adams P. 68-69
“Rather than old-fashioned saber or bayonet thrusts, small arms and artillery inflicted most wounds. Musket balls did massive damage to the body. Unlike a modern high-velocity steelhead bullet in the .30-calibre range, a .57 or .58 lead ball frequently lacked the force to drive through and exit the target, instead staying in the victim, wrecking bone and organs. The 71st New York’s chaplain, Joseph Twichell, “saw one man who received a ball in his cheek and, glancing over his jaw, it was taken out between his shoulders.” Another “was hit in the side, yet some how or other the ball found its way up to behind his ear.” The construction of the minnie ball magnified this roaming characteristic.
When the rifle fired, the minnie spread out in the barrel, meaning the pliable lead could no longer hold up on impact but became unintentionally a dum-dum or soft-head bullet. Meeting the resistance of flesh and bone, it flattened out further, even assuming the diameter of a half dollar. As it slowed, it travelled the victim, wrecking everything in its way. This is why experienced officers cautioned against crouching during an advance; the ball would travel the body lengthwise. This is also why surgeons amputated so many shattered limbs; physicians lacked the time, tools, operating facilities, or medical knowledge to reconstruct splintered bones. They had to remove the limb before gangrene and peritonitis attacked. “The shattering, splintering, and splitting of a long bone by the impact of the minie were, in many instances, both remarkable and frightful,” recalled a surgeon.
Minnies inflicted truly horrific damage, their ravaging wounds being excruciatingly painful. During the fighting at Kennesaw Mountain, Rebel Lieutenant Charles Johnsen of the Washington Artillery sustained a fatal shot as he bent over. “A bullet took him, low down, about his waist and in his left side, and ranged up diagonally through the entire length of his body, tearing through his kidneys, bowels, stomach, lungs, and coming out at his shoulder.” He screamed in agony “I am killed” and then managed “Mother,” as blood gushed from his mouth. Hit men might wish to die. At Ball’s Bluff in October 1861, Lieutenant Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 20th Massachusetts, shot by a ball that plowed left breast to right, feared lung damage as he spat up blood. Even though his sergeant had managed to squeeze out the bullet, he considered a laudanum overdose to end the awful pain.”
The Visual Dictionary of the Civil War John Stanchak P. 23
Note: The Enfield Rifle, which weighed nine pounds, fired a .577 caliber bullet, but this assumed your hands wouldn’t be shaking too hard to use the rod:
“To load and fire one, a soldier had to tear open a paper packet of gunpowder, then pour it down the barrel, drop in the bullet, and use a ram rod to pack the powder and bullet into the rifle’s breech. The hammer was then pulled back to half cock, exposing the nipple. A percussion cap was placed on the nipple, then the hammer was fully cocked and the trigger was pulled. The trigger released the hammer, which struck the percussion cap, which ignited the powder, which propelled the bullet. A soldier was expected to get off three shots a minute this way.”
*A Parrott 10-pounder rifled cannon had a range of 6,000 yards; rifled musket at 400 yards; smoothbore musket 150 yards. Now the U.S. Army carries 357s with hollow point loads, launches intercontinental ballistic loads, tosses M-80s, aims AK-47s. Now there’s Metal Storm Gun: 16,000 rounds per second out of 36 barrels, or 1,000,000 rounds per minute (controlled by computer). If that’s a bit much, try the 6,000 rounds a minute M134 GAU-17 Gatling, 100 rounds per second with a 1,093 yard range (7.62mm), or, on a slow day go for the “aggressiveness, intimidation, domination all in one little package” 50 round a second DillonAero M134 Gatling with no recoil or rise ball. Gots tracer and armor-piercing incendiary for land, sea, air; 3,000 rounds a minute, get yours in shiny gray or matte platinum.
Then, to drop war from the skies, there’s the SR-71 Blackbird at 2,200mph, 3x the speed of sound, or Mach 3. Try the SR-72, in development, supposedly at Mach 6. And there was, in 1967, the flight of the X-15, which reached 102,100 feet, at Mach 6.7, 4,520mph, the unbroken world record. Or the Sukhoi Su-34, 1367mph. The FAB-500 M-62. The Storm Shadow cruise missile. And combat drones, or UAVs. The Hunter Killer MQ-9 Reaper, 287mph. The laser-guided missiles & bombs. Thermobaric rockets which replace air with fire, your lungs now a fireplace. MiG-29. And whatever goes up to the Kármán Line, 62 miles up at the edge of Earth’s atmosphere & outer space. Or the ISS, sailing in the thermosphere that you can spy at night if you time it right. Everything else is classified.
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we have had bread but once….
What really did the North go down there for; what really did the South go down for? It was about the hands. What could fit in the palm– a Constitution?– and for how long. Wasn’t so much about anything but that, what they could get their hands on. Some of the earliest known prehistoric rock paintings of human hands…. or, the others…. are in the Cave of Hands, Cueva de los Manos, Argentina. 9-13k years ago humans stood at the rockface then leaned palms onto it like a collective bloodstream covering them in red paint. This means nothing. This means everything. Right now their hand in front of their face in light coming in from a low sun. It’s the kind of thing you never get any explanation for. But it causes a shadow to appear on the palm of your hand when you hold a photograph of those hands that held the same place not able to be completely explained in words under a long-lost Hunter’s full moon where you could hear a lion roar five miles off, same now as then.
You drive a canyon, take a gravel road to get up there to the hands. All the hands along the still dark dusted air after thousands, thousands, thousands, thousands of years. Now as then, the hands.
Chauvet Cave, France. Discovered 1994, 30,000-35,000 years back they stood & made this.
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