Day 89. May 28, 1862.
89
With hideous yells and war whoops….
May Wensday 28
Midling cool this morning. We have a fine appearance for a fine day and the men are buissy washing their cloaths up and the Regts are going a Inspection.* While they were getting Inspected there was a dispatch to get ready and march. The order came at 12.0. and at 2oclock we took up the line of march and we marched on through New Baltimore on through Hay Market turned to the left almost due west came on some 4 miles from this town and then camped for the night. We marched 14 miles in 6 hours including all stopages. We haulted at 8oclock. We cooked some coffee and eat hard crackers and then lay down and sleept. I was very much tired out. We have march so much―
Note: As noted in April 21, about the mud, Ephraim uses a punctuation mark for second & last time to end an entry today. Today he seems to want to emphasize the 110th has marched so much– same as he ended his April 21st entry, with mud dry up— as if like he wanted to continue describing his circumstances but didn’t dare. The dash here says more than words ever could. I think he knew that. Obviously he knew more than his words could convey at the end of every day. He’s growing more vocal about his misery.
*”Hardee’s Tactics” was the training manual used by both sides, which “dictated drills, maneuvers, how and where tents were to be pitched, horses picketed, latrines dug, hay stored.”
Note: Inspections were weekly. A Weekly Hospital Inspection report dated 11/14/63 detailing several regiments, including the 110th, is at this link. https://emu.usahec.org/alma/multimedia/184579/20182819MN000017.pdf To a Dr. Lyman, Surgeon in Chief, 1st Division, 3rd Corps., (as was Hays), Dr. Hays writes of his own 110th, “I have repeatedly directed Dr. Pomeroy asst. surg. of the Regt. to establish a Regimental Hospital but without affect. He apparently pays no further attention to the sick of the Regt. than to administer a little medicine, allowing their comrades to take care of them in [illeg. maybe “Quarters”].
For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War James M. McPherson P. 164
“Many Union soldiers also succumbed to combat exhaustion in the three-months’ Peninsula campaign that culminated in the Seven Days battles. After “living on eight or nine hard crackers from Thursday dinner till Monday near dinner and fighting and marching day and night nearly all the time,” reported a Pennsylvania private and a Massachusetts lieutenant, they were “all reduced to shadows and look as though they were on their last legs. They have a dreamy, listless look as though they were without hope.” A lieutenant in the 13th New York was “worn out– ten years older than I was when we left Yorktown” two months earlier. “I must rest or lie down and die.’”
Note: Grant lost 12,000 men at Cold Harbor in one hour (not 20 minutes). Contrast Grant with Sherman below:
Marching with Sherman: Passages from the Letters and Campaign Diaries of Henry Hitchcock, Major and Assistant Adjutant General of Volunteers, November 1864–May 1865 (1927) Major Henry Hitchcock P. 147 (excerpt)
OGEECHEE CHURCH” OR
STATION 4½ GEORGIA CENTRAL R.R.
Twentieth day out
Monday, December 5/64.
“No man in the army is bolder or more rapid and daring than Sherman, whether personally or as a General; but no man is more unwilling to throw away his men. I have repeatedly heard him say that the best way, he thought, to win battles was more by the movement of troops than by fighting. On this campaign in particular he has expressed his determination not to damage this army—“it is too valuable.” His men all understand this thing in him, and hence their unbounded confidence in him.”
Note: Weather after the Seven Days Battles affected men, too:
Civil War Weather in Virginia Robert K. Krick P. 63
“The bad weather affected pursuit of General George McClellan’s Federals after the Seven Days Battles around Richmond. “We rose… in a heavy rain, which continued throughout the day,” a Virginia soldier wrote of July 2. “Our long fatiguing march and the fact that we were wet to the skin from the rain… prevented anything like rapid pursuit [during] a toilsome, diasgreeable, all-day march.”
P. 58
“7a.m. 71; 2p.m. 75′ 9p.m. 54.”
Nature’s Civil War: Common Soldiers and the Environment in 1862 Virginia Kathryn Shively Meier P. 89
“While commanders and medical directors were most influential in shaping health policy and determining the location of armies, regimental officers were responsible for enforcing discipline, which critically shaped the way the soldiers experienced the environment of war. Men looked to their officers as examples and for orders regarding camp layout, camp maintenance, and personal hygiene. Commission secretary Olmsted had critiqued officers in his December report for failing to keep their men clean, and the Commission inspection returns from the early part of 1862 corroborated his concern. The reports confirmed that the healthiest camps were those in which regimental officers took responsibility for inspecting the kitchens, latrines, and tents of their men, while unhealthy camps featured trash piled up in the streets, men dropping their trousers wherever they pleased, and negligent officers. In some cases those officers who were inexperienced volunteers themselves did not know or appreciate the importance of army regulations. In other cases, much to the frustration of Sanitary Commission members, some officers resented playing “chambermaid” to the men.”
Note: Fear of getting shot while relieving oneself was a factor in water supply corruption. Imagine the idiocy of dying not in battle but taking a whiz. Better to play it safe, stay near ones tent & not venture out to the latrine at midnight.
A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War The Diaries of David Hunter Strother David Hunter Strother P. 22
“MAY 28, WEDNESDAY.—Threatened rain. Went forward with a reconnaissance toward Charles Town. We saw nothing until we arrived at the hill near the Charles Town Toll gate where a sharp fire of musketry was opened on our advance by some Rebel pickets stationed on the road at the fair ground. Ashby was there as usual, circus-riding up and down. We brought up our battery and opened with shells. I asked the Captain to fire low to save the town. Half a dozen shots cleared them out. In the meantime, flanking parties of cavalry were sent around the town. Having cleared out the pickets, the artillery opened on our own rooms. Three or four tumbled off their horses, which caused great excitement among the fools at the supposed loss of the enemy. I stopped the firing and urged the Colonel to advance his infantry now that the enemy were gone. Instead of this, he ordered the cheers for Captain Loder. The whole command responded. Somebody called three cheers for somebody else and so they went on cheering like fools at a public meeting.
Riding forward, I got the cavalry to advance, which they did in good style, nothwithstanding some straggling shots against them. When I got to Mrs. Hunter’s house, I stopped and stood guard over it. The troops went firing down every cross street as they rushed to the other end of town. Some stopped and, breaking open the town hall, set fire to it. As it began to burn fiercely, I endeavored to get some soldiers and then some citizens to put it out. The soldiers did nothing and the citizens who showed willingness to act were deterred through fear of the soldiers. I appealed to the colonel of infantry just marching by and then to the major commanding the rear guard, but they flatly refused or evaded my request. The flames rose fiercely and threatened to destroy the village. Seeing a young officer with a squad of men halted in front of Redmonds, I inquired his name and corps. He said he was Captain Healy of the 8th New York Cavalry. I asked him to put himself and squad under my command. He cheerfully did so. I put him to guard the streets and then invited the citizens to get out their engines, and to prevent the further progress of the fire. Negroes, women, and all turned in, and in an hour or two the hall was burned down but all the adjacent buildings safe.
Passing to the lower part of the town I saw the colonel of the regiment ordering the opening of a store. I inquired as to its propriety. He said that he had been ordered to search for Confederate arms and stores. This was a lie. Seeing his men carrying out tobacco I asked him if those were Confederate stores. He looked abashed and called to the men to stop taking the tobacco, but they paid no attention to him whatever. I left in disgust. Returning to the house I got a milk toddy, my dinner, and a cup of coffee. While we dined, cannon began to roar at the other end of town and scattered horsemen galloped to the rear. Presently a whole squadron rushed by as if the devil was after them. I also noticed the infantry double-quicking it up the street in a body. I rode down far enough to see the smoke of Ashby’s cannon crowning the high ground on the old Winchester road. Everything looked like a disgraceful stampede. For the first two miles the road was strewed with plunder gotten by the rascals during their three-hour sojourn in the village.
Several miles from town I saw a countryman riding down the road guarded by a file of cavalry. I recognized by friend and cousin, Joe Crane. He was riding a work horse without a saddle. His clothes were spotted with blood and his hand bloody and maimed. His face was livid but firm. He said a trooper had come to his house and was taking his horses before his eyes. He remonstrated and resisted. The man sabred him and Joe shot him dead. I grasped his hand, promised my best service, and advised him to report immediately with his guard to headquarters. He rode on and left me sad and appalled. Joe was my father’s favorite nephew and his best friend. He must be saved….
Getting back to Smallwood’s hill the whole army of ten or fifteen thousand men was in commotion and forming line of battle. The reconnaissance instead of forcing Ashby to show his strength ran away at the first shot, each exceeding the other in lies to cover up his cowardice. I met General Hamilton and possessed him of Joe Crane’s aces and afterwards the history of the reconnaissance. He laughed and returned to town incredulous of the approaching battle.
Saw a Yankee woman at headquarters who had just arrived from Winchester. She had a pass from the Confederate authority there and appears to have conversed freely with their leading military men. She says the people of Winchester expected Jackson confidently for some days before he came and were making preparations for him. She says that several days before our retreat she saw a horseman clad in grey clothes, the homespun dress of a farmer, ride into Winchester. His military air was unmistakable, however, notwithstanding his disguise. She saw him approached by several citizens and earnest words were exchanged, such as “in great force” – “will be here in a few days” –etc. She did not know to whom he alluded at the time but guesses now. She was out to see the battle Sunday morning and saw our troops retreating. The Confederates following poured in at every street like a flood of dirty water. They were grey, ragged, and unwashed, clad in all fashions, but hats, beards, and persons all of one uniform dust color. With hideous yells and war whoops this mass of twelve thousand men poured through the streets, rushing to stores and houses, demanding food and drink, others greeting friends and acquaintances. Stories of burning the hospitals and maltreatment of the sick she does not verify….
She says General [Isaac R.] Trimble and others conversed with her freely and told her they were now going to carry war into the North, break through our lines, arouse Maryland, and occupy Philadelphia. They gave her a pass without difficulty and exacted no promise of silence. The number of men in their column was estimated at from eighteen to thirty thousand. She says they took but few prisoners from us and most of these were the sick and hangers-on about our army, of which we had a great number, more than should have been permitted. These with some nurses and camp women were herded in the courthouse yard to make a show for the people.”
Living Hell Michael C.C. Adams P. 114-115
“As an engagement developed and regiments became embroiled in musketry, stress from the uproar increased exponentially. Captain John William DeForest, 12th Connecticut, wrote vividly of the “incessant spattering and fiery spitting of musketry, with whistling and humming of bullets; and constant through all, the demoniacal yell advancing like the howl of an infernal battle. Bedlam, pandemonium, all the maniacs of earth and all the fiends of hell, seemed to have combined in riot amidst the crashings of storm and volcano.” Men hyperventilated, and for many, the strain progressed to an irregular cardiac condition known as “soldiers heart.” The thousands affected experienced “fits of fluttering cardiac action” and “cardiac irritability,” with pulse rate fluctuations as high as 120-150, severe shortness of breath, even coughing up of blood. We can tell that many soldiers on the firing line succumbed to extreme emotion from the number of dropped muskets loaded multiple times without being discharged. Of 27,500 single-shot shoulder weapons gleaned from the field after Gettysburg, 12,000 had two unused loads in the barrel, 6.000 had three to ten rounds, one was stuffed with twenty-three. In other words, at least 18,000 men, in a highly distracted mental state, loaded and over-loaded their weapons, oblivious of never having fired them.
As fierce fighting continued, men broke and ran. To prevent this, noncoms took station behind the ranks, backed by officers and sometimes cavalry, division during the Gettysburg campaign, General Jeb Stuart flatly stated: “let the artful dodger on the battlefield receive the retributive bullet of his gallant comrade.” Captain Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 20th Massachusetts, stood behind his men at Fair Oaks in June 1862, swearing he would shoot any runners. Yet men still continued to bolt, “skulking” behind trees, rocks, in barns, and other shelters.”
Note: As with men, horses too were falling by the wayside. As with men, correct numbers were impossible to come by. Unlike men, there has been just one monument ever to Civil War horses; it’s at the Virginia Historical Society. Horses scream when wounded too. A sound unlike anything you ever heard. Historians rarely consider these horses and the pain they suffered at all. An innocent & terrified, rearing, plunging, screaming huge beautiful animal. They would land on men, on their limbs, causing crush injuries of organs like the kidneys. It must be so hard to have a heart that beats so fast. A horse’s heart rate can go from 40bpm at rest to 300 bpm coming out of a starting gate. This would be a starting gate. A horse can see in back of itself, too. They lost 15k horses & mules on the way back from Gettysburg in one day. The animals just couldn’t take another step. They laid in the roads and went to die. How could you do that to a horse? Ride it into bullets? Horses smell different than humans when they burn, or cats or dogs. Without horses, the war wouldn’t have happened because it couldn’t have. They carried everything the war consisted of, such as ambulances, ammunition, messages, scouting & raiding. The oldest known sculpture of a horse is carved in mammoth ivory: the Vogel herd horse is 35,000 years old.
Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War U.S. Congress 1863 Part One: Army of the Potomac. P. 538
From a letter by M.C. MEIGS, Quartermaster General, to General Halleck, General-in-Chief:
“In regard to the falling off in the quality of the horses, I can only say that the horses lately provided have been procured by contract, and on specifications and inspection identical with those formerly issued, excepting that, finding five years old horses liable to distemper and disease, officers providing them have generally been instructed to buy no horses under six years of age.
The demand for horses has been so great lately that they have been carried off and put to service in many cases before they recovered from the fatigue and exhaustion of transportation from the country by rail.
The railroads are heavily taxed, and transportation has been delayed. A case is reported in which horses remained fifty hours on the cars without food or water; were taken out, issued, and put into immediate service. The horses were good when shipped, and a few days’ rest and food would have recruited them; but the exigencies of the service, or perhaps carelessness and ignorance, put them to a test which no horses could bear.”
Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era 1829-1877 Walter A. McDougall P. 445
“Anyway, southern quartermasters were hard put to it to supply the 5,300-odd bushels of fodder the army’s livestock ate every day in 1862. The following year some 20,000 Confederate horses died of hunger, fatigue, and battle. That was as telling a turning point as any.”
Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War U.S. Congress 1863 Part One: Army of the Potomac. P. 529
“In a letter to Major-General H.W. Halleck, M.C. Meigs, Quartermaster-General, writes October 14, 1862: “Is there an instance on record of such a drain and destruction of horses in a country not a desert?” to which General McClellan replies on October 18, 1862: “Number stated by quartermaster general: 9,254. Difference: 7,290. From this statement it will be seen that the total number of horses received by this army since the commencement of the present campaign is only 1,964, 7,290 less than the number given by the quartermaster general.”
Note: About replacement and rest of horses, the following exchange between Lincoln & McClellan can be found at: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln5/1:1039?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
Note that on October 25, 1862, after McClellan’s dispatch to Halleck stated, “I have in camp 267 horses . . . of these, 128 are positively and absolutely unable to leave camp, frozen from the following causes, viz, sore-tongue, grease, and consequent lameness, and sore backs . . . . The horses, which are still sound, are absolutely broken down from fatigue and want of flesh . . . .” Lincoln replied (in incorrectly dated telegram of the 24th): “I have just read your despatch about sore tongued and fatiegued [sic] horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?” (OR, I, XIX, II, 485-86).
McClellan replies to Lincoln at 6 P.M. October 25, as follows:
“In reply to your telegram of this date, I have the honor to state, from the time this army left Washington, on the 7th of September, my cavalry has been constantly employed in making reconnaissances, scouting, and picketing. Since the battle of Antietam, six regiments have made a trip of 200 miles, marching 55 miles in one day, while endeavoring to reach Stuart’s cavalry.
General Pleasonton, in his official report, states that he, with the remainder of our available cavalry, while on Stuart’s track, marched 78 miles in twenty-four hours.
Besides these two remarkable expeditions, our cavalry has been engaged in picketing and scouting 150 miles of river front ever since the battle of Antietam, and has made repeated reconnaissances since that time, engaging the enemy on every occasion, and, indeed, it has performed harder service since the battle than before. I beg that you will also consider that this same cavalry was brought from the Peninsula, where it encountered most laborious service, and was, at the commencement of this campaign, in low condition, and from that time to the present has had no time to recruit.
If any instance can be found where overworked cavalry has performed more labor than mine since the battle of Antietam, I am not conscious of it.” (OR, I, XIX, II, 485).
Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign Peter Cozzens P. 197
(Note: at Kernstown)
“Colonel Fulkerson’s was having trouble enough just staying on his horse. “The day’s work hurt my horse worse than anything which he has gone through,” Fulkerson told his sister eleven days after the battle. “He was under the saddle from daylight till eleven at night and was greatly excited. The reports of the guns did not scare him, but the whistling of the balls and particularly the minie balls excited him to the highest pitch. He has not yet recovered.”
P. 373
The Southern cavalry had to pace their horses more carefully than did their enemy, for whom government animals were generally in good supply. The Rebels provided their own mounts; if a man’s horse broke down, he was responsible for finding, stealing, or capturing another.”
The Peninsula & Seven Days: A Battlefield Guide Brian K. Burton P. 156-157
“‘Whoever saw a dead cavalryman?” was a byword among Civil War soldiers, a pointed allusion to the fact that the battlefield role played by the mounted arm was often negligible. For example, at the battle of Antietam– the single bloodiest day of the entire war– the Union cavalry suffered exactly 5 men killed and 23 wounded. This was in sharp contrast to the role played by horsemen during the Napoleonic era, when a well-timed cavalry charge could exploit an infantry breakthrough, overrun the enemy’s retreating foot soldiers, and convert a temporary advantage into a complete battlefield triumph.
Why the failure to use cavalry to better tactical advantage? The best single explanation might be that for much of the war there was simply not enough of it to achieve significant results. Whereas cavalry had comprised 20 to 25 percent of Napoleonic armies, in Civil War armies it generally averaged 8 to 10 percent or less. The paucity of cavalry may be explained in turn by its much greater expense compared with infantry. A single horse might easily cost ten times the monthly pay of a Civil War private and necessitated the purchase of saddles, bridles, stirrups, and other gear as well as specialized clothing and equipment for the rider. Moreover, horses required about 26 pounds of feed and forage per day, many times the requirement of an infantryman. One might add to this the continual need for remounts to replace worn-out animals and that it took far more training to make an effective cavalryman than an effective infantryman. There was also the widespread belief that the heavily wooded terrain of North America would limit opportunities to use cavalry on the battlefield. All in all, it is perhaps no wonder that Civil War armies were late in creating really powerful mounted arms.
Instead, cavalry tended to be used mainly for scouting and raiding, duties that took place away from the main battlefields. During major engagements their mission was principally to screen the flanks or to control the rear areas. By 1863, however, the North was beginning to create cavalry forces sufficiently numerous and well armed to play a significant role on the battlefield. At Gettysburg, for example, Union cavalrymen armed with rapid-fire, breech-loading carbines were able to hold a Confederate infantry division at bay for several hours. At Cedar Creek in 1864, a massed cavalry charge late in the day completed the ruin of the Confederate army, and during the Appomattox campaign in 1865, Federal cavalry played a decisive role in bringing Lee’s retreating army to bay and forcing its surrender.”
See: The Horse at Gettysburg: Prepared for the Day of Battle, by Chris Bagley (2021)
A Stillness at Appomattox Bruce Catton P.173
“A Massachusetts soldier on the II Corps front told how his regiment made friends with a Confederate regiment opposite it and worked out a fairly extended cessation of hostilities, and he said that if the enlisted men of the two armies had the power to settle the war, “Not another shot would have been fired.” The friendly Confederate regiment was at length moved away from there, and just before it left a Rebel soldier stood up on the rampart and called out a warning: “Keep down, Yanks—we ‘uns are going away.” As soon as the placements came in the firing was resumed. When the V Corps was shifted around to the left of the Union line, so that it faced the Confederates across the Chickahominy River, the 118th Pennsylvania and the 35th North Carolina put in the day sitting on opposite banks of the narrow stream, fishing and chatting.
A soldier in a New York heavy artillery regiment wrote that it seemed, now and then, as if an increasing number of Confederates were willing to slip over to the Union side after dark and surrender, yet he added wryly that “when it comes to fighting, one would not suppose that any of them had the faintest idea of surrendering.” Between fights, he said, Northerners and Southerners talked things over, concluded that peace would be a very fine thing, and agreed that “if a few men on both sides who stayed at home were hung, matters could easily be arranged.”
Yet the soldiers were only a part of it, and what happened to them out along the rifle pits amid the choking dust was having a queer reverse effect on men back home who would never know what it was like to charge a line of riflemen in the smoky twilight, gun butt raised to crush a human being’s skull. For this was the year when the shadow of death lay all across America, and grotesque shapes moved within the shadow and laid hold of men’s hearts and minds. The soldiers at the front could look ahead to peace without seeing it through a veil of hatred, and if they talked lightly about the need to hang a few stay-at-homes, they spoke as men who had seen so many killings that a few more might not make much difference. Yet there were quiet civilians who were talking of hangings, too, these days. They were men of years and peace, who might inspire violence but who had never actually seen any of it, and the war had worked upon them until they could feel that death and heartbreak were positive goods.”
Note: Below Lincoln calls the Potomac Creek Bridge… cornstalks & beanpoles. This was a fine looking bridge: https://www.loc.gov/item/2006683271/
Lincoln Day by Day: A Chronology 1809-1865 Volume III: 1861-1865 C. Percy Powell P. 116
“May 28, 1862: President appears before Commitee on Conduct of War and describes 400-foot railroad bridge across Potomac built by Col. Haupt as having nothing in it but cornstalks and beanpoles. Telegraphs Gen. McDowell at Manassas Junction: “You say Gen. [John W.] Geary’s scouts report they find no enemy this side of the Blue Ridge. Neither do I. Have they been to the Blue Ridge looking for them?… I think the evidence now preponderates that [Gen. Richard S.] Ewell [(CSA)] and Jackson are still about Winchester. Assuming this, it is, for you a question of legs. Put in all the speed you can. I have told Frémont as much, and directed him to drive at them as fast as possible. By the way, I suppose you know, Frémont has got up to Moorefield, instead of going to Harrisonburg.”
Stops by Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th St., NW., where Mrs. Lincoln and party are attending concert by opera star Clara Louise Kellogg.”
Note: Four horses die on U.S. racetracks every week. The average racehorse dies at 5 (lifespan 25) They start training at 18 months old but bones mature at 4 years. They’re injected with drugs to make them go faster & not feel injuries. It’s not “sport,” it’s abuse. Nothing’s changed much. On a lighter note: Tolstoy, 25 January 1851: I’ve fallen in love or imagine that I have; went to a party and lost my head. Bought a horse which I don’t need at all.
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14 miles in 6 hours including all stopages….
Animals who take revenge, imagine them.
Pretty much no one pictures this, but horses scream in war too. Of course no one ever thinks of the animals slaughtered, starved, tortured. The horses. The mules. Dear God, all those animals. The Union alone lost 11,000 horses in the first fourteen months. More than a million perished after it was all said & done.
Cormac McCarthy: “He said that war had destroyed the country and that men believe the cure for war is war as the curandero prescribes the serpent’s flesh for its bite. He spoke of his campaigns in the deserts of Mexico and he told them of horses killed under him and he said that the souls of horses mirror the souls of men more closely than men suppose and that horses also love war. Men say they only learn this but he said that no creature can learn this but he said that no creature can learn that which his heart has no shape to hold.”
In war, truth is the first casualty. Aeschylus
Or, horses are the first casualty.
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