I would love to see some actual combat photography from the Civil War. Of course, the nature of photography in the 1860s was such that long exposures would render action shots nothing but big blurs. So nearly all images from the war are posed. From time to time, you might run across a "posed" action shot - like pretend sword fighting or something along those lines. And then there are the unusual shots of soldiers on the march - like this one of Confederates marching through Frederick, Maryland. It is a great image of soldiers on campaign - what they would carry and how they generally looked while on the move. K
On April 16, 1862, the Confederacy enacted the first American military draft. The Confederate Conscription Act allowed for those with means to hire a substitute, and thereby avoid military service (much to the chagrin of those less fortunate). One could pay an individual who was exempt from the draft because of trade or profession as stipulated by the act, someone outside of the mandatory conscription age, or a foreign national.
Well it did not take long for the less scrupulous among the Confederate citizenry to figure out how to profit from the substitute business. Below is a June 24th article from the Richmond Daily Dispatch exposing the scoundrels and outlining some of their trickery.
A few days ago we alluded to the immense frauds and villainy being carried on in this city in buying and selling substitutes by men who make a regular business of the nefarious trade. Although frequently spoken of and condemned by this paper and others, the evil still continues, and, if anything, is rather on the increase. It should be put a stop to by the authorities, and some of the swindlers, both the men who furnish them, and the substitutes themselves, who sell their service with the deliberate intention of deserting as soon as the purchase money is safely in their pockets, summarily punished. Too strong terms cannot be used in condemnation of this pernicious practice. It has a bad influence upon the army, for it these rascals can elude the service, and desert when they please without being punished, why cannot other do the same? Another case has come to our knowledge. A few days ago a man by the name of Levasseur went to the 3d Alabama regiment and bargained to furnish a substitute for a man then in service. The price fixed upon was $00 the dealer in substitutes receiving $300 for his services. The man's name was Byrnes who came with a certificate from the British Consul and recommendations from others; but as soon as the bargain was concluded, the substitute absconded, returning, probably, to the person who originally brought him to be sold over to other parties. With in the last three weeks seven men from this one regiment alone have been purchased, all of whom have since deserted. Such conduct is no more or less than stealing, and it is time due check should be put upon such operations by the police. The morale of such conduct is bad, and, if allowed to go on, our army will be reduced very materially.
Now this is not to suggest that Confederates had a monopoly on shady activities - this kind of thing went on north of the Potomac as well. Substitute swindling, bounty jumping, and other kinds of fraud weakened the fighting strength of both armies.
We all know Braxton Bragg - one of the principal Confederate commanders in the war's Western Theater. He was tight with Jefferson Davis, a strict disciplinarian - something of a martinet, really, he was given to irritability - suffering from any number of ailments undoubtedly causing chronic pain, and he was extraordinarily argumentative - a trait that clearly chipped away at his popularity in the army.
But Bragg's prickly personality has at least provided Civil War historians and enthusiasts a swell story to share at parties. Because...everyone likes a good Braxton Bragg story. Ulysses S. Grant recalled Bragg in his memoirs and related a funny little story that should amuse anyone. In the prewar army, Bragg had once been both a company commander and the company quartermaster. As company commander he made an official request to the company quartermaster (himself) for some sort of supply. As quartermaster he denied said request and returned an official explanation for doing so in writing. As company commander he returned the favor arguing that he was entitled to his request. Quartermaster Bragg persisted (again in writing) on denying company commander Bragg's request, at which point company commander Bragg solicited the intervention of his superior officer - presumably to head off any further escalation of the argument. Bragg's commander - mystified by the exchange, declared "My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarreling with yourself."
This story may indeed be apocryphal. But even if that is the case, it is probably at least close to the truth....and illustrative of Bragg's general disposition.
Months ago, we discussed the death of Elmer Ellsworth, the first officer in the United States Army to fall in combat. The first Confederate to hold such an unfortunate title was a Virginian named John Quincy Marr
From Warrenton, in Fauquier County, Marr graduated from Virginia Military institute in 1846. He originally sought a commission in the United States Army, but eventually returned to Warrenton to the family farm - where he pursued a career in law.
After the Brown raid, he organized a militia unit known as the Warrenton Rifles - what in 1861 became company K of the 17th Virginia Infantry. He had served on the secession commission from Fauquier County, voting against on the April 4 vote but later supporting the April 17 move for secession.
On June 1, 1861, company K was involved in a skirmish with United States cavalry at Fairfax Courthouse. Marr was shot through the heart and killed. The video comes to you courtesy of the Museum of the Confederacy. You can have a look at their other vodcasts by clicking HERE.
Peace,
Keith
NB - while Marr was the first Confederate officer killed in action, Ellsworth still holds the title (if one can call it that) of being the first officer killed in either army. He managed to get shot a week earlier.
A long time ago, I embarked on a little side project that concerned a Confederate Soldier named Henry A. Allen. I came across his papers at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia back in grad school - his wartime letters had no direct bearing on my research but I thought they were interesting so I made copies and tucked them away for a later date.
Allen was a captain in the 9th Virginia Infantry Regiment and was captured at the Battle of Gettysburg. He spent the remainder of the war in northern prisons - where he wrote his wife, Sarah, on a regular basis...explaining the goings on of prison life and sending her instructions as to how best conduct their household while he was away. Long after the war Allen joined a veterans' organization called the Immortal 600. Now, the 600 were some angry ex-Rebs, which is what drew me to Allen in the first place. What happened to him during the war and behind enemy lines that brought out the animosities later in life?
My plan was to present the letters in unedited form online - to make them available to the public. I made a good start until the letters dated after June, 1864 went missing from my files. You can see the letters dated before that by clicking HERE. Well, after relocating Cosmic America HQ this last month, the 1864-65 letters have resurfaced. Thus the project continues! Stay tuned to find out what happens to Allen as the months turn in to years. You might just find a few surprises!
The next step is to edit this collection for publication, which means a few more trips to the archives. Allen was from Portsmouth, Virginia - and strangely...after years of living in the Old Dominion, I never made it there. I suppose a visit is in order.
Greetings Cosmic Americans - I'm just enjoying life at the Laguna Cliffs Resort in Dana Point!
Perry from Vancouver, British Columbia has had it with all of those "revisionist" historians who insist that Confederates soldiers were fighting to preserve the institution of slavery. He just wants to remind me and other Cosmic America readers that very few Confederates actually owned slaves - so they could not possibly have been fighting for slavery.
Well Perry, your Lost Cause credentials must certainly be in order. Like many former Rebels in the decades following the war, you seem to be trying to distance the Confederate cause from slavery. Not so fast my friend. You didn't need to own slaves to be tied to the institution. Confederates far and wide felt it absolutely necessary to maintain the slavery system, whether they owned slaves or not. Just watch the video.
Peace, Keith
My friend and fellow blogger Richard McCormick reminded me that Joseph Glatthaar's book General Lee's Army does a nice job of explaining Confederate soldiers' connections to slavery. Thanks Richard!
We've all heard of the Rebel tatterdemalions who subsisted on nothing but grass, dirt, and their own ear wax from 1861-65.
Of course that's not really true...rebs had a bit of a tougher time with rations but they did eat something.
Here is the regulation ration for a Confederate soldier as of January 28th, 1863 (pretty much copied from the US version:
3/4ths of a pound of pork or bacon, or one and a fourth pounds of fresh or salt beef. (Reduced to 1 pound of beef or 1/2 pound of pork in January 1863). 18 ounces of bread or flour, or 12 ounces of hard bread, or 20 ounces of corn meal.
Meh - not great but it could be worse....and if you believe all the Lost Cause types - it was. Sure there were plenty of shortages, especially during sieges and when supply lines got cut by Union armies. The food - when it was available - wasn't that great either...the pork often went rancid and there was plenty of times when there was more fat than meat....cooking it reduced the food to next to nothing.
But soldiers - being a resourceful lot - would often live off of the land. Both armies "liberated" the available resources when they came upon them. So if you were a civilian in, let's say, northern Virginia in 1864...you might want to look after your chickens. Just sayin'...
For decades, we thought we knew what the Rebel yell sounded like. We figured it was somewhere between a blood-curdling scream and an extended YEEEEEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAAAA in The Dukes of Hazzard fashion.
But reports from Union soldiers who heard it in battle don't exactly match up to the popular understanding of the infamous war cry. Federal soldier Ambrose Bierce said of the yell..."It was the ugliest sound that any mortal ever heard -- even a mortal exhausted and unnerved by two days of hard fighting, without sleep, without rest, without food and without hope." And a New York Times war correspondent remarked “..the Southern soldiers cannot cheer, and what passes muster for that jubilant sound is a shrill ringing scream with a touch of the Indian war-whoop in it.” Shelby Foote - who seems to be the master of all things Civil War, stated in Ken Burns's The Civil War, that is was most likely some sort of "a foxhunt yip mixed up with sort of a banshee squall."
Has the sound been lost to history? Well, thanks to the Museum of the Confederacy, maybe not. Have a quick look at these two short videos and see how the MOC pieced together what sounds haunting and just plain scary - just like the Union soldiers described.
The yips, barks and yelps generated in the studio as Waite Rawls, president of the MOC describe and the yell reproduced by Henry Kidd and the other Confederate reenactors may very well be the closest thing we have to the real deal. Sometimes I imagine myself hearing this from a thousand or more voices. Yes - I am a dork.
