Vignette's of The Civil War, By O.J. Fargo, Edited by G.C. Stevens

 

Mess Mates of the Army of The Southwest at Winterset Iowa Photo by the Author

The civil war (1861-1865) was both a time of change and upheaval, but it was also a time that generated its own stories, legends and culture. As reenactors, we try to recreate the mindset and circumstances of the time period. There are many writings, including poetry, and music which are a direct result of the culture and people who lived during this time. The following are some campfire conversation starters that one might hear late at night while camped on an ancient battlefield somewhere in south, as the ghosts of the war (which we call the "Old Ones") swirl around the gathering of the men wearing the gray and blue uniform. 

CLOTHING

Blue Glasses

No they were not a fashion statement.  The blue (cobalt) lenses were to protect light sensitive eyes. The most common reason was morphine addiction, which was called "the soldiers malaise" by some. There were other conditions that also required patients to wear them too.

Breaking in Brogans

One poster talked about soaking shoes and walking in them to mold them to your feet. Yes, it will do that but you will shorten the life and ruin the suppleness. leading to problems with your feet. My suggestion (one of many, but what I learned from the Marines and much field experience): take new shoes, rub in mink oil thoroughly. let stand over night. wipe off excess in am - repeat next night. if you want apply silicon snow seal or similar rubbing in to seams well. if you have smooth side out brogans (like I as a well-dressed officer do) then polish.. this regime will keep natural oils in the leather ensuring suppleness.

Photo by the Author

Bummer

Modern myths. The US Army cap issued for non-dress purposes is called a forage cap. Today people often refer it as a bummer cap, associating it with Sherman's bummers. It was not so called during the war. The Confederate Army did not issue a copy of the US Army forage cap--the caps reenactors so often use are incorrect. In the early war many Southerners used what we call a McDowell Cap, made with the low peak or brim that covers the eyes. An example is the pre-war cap Stonewall Jackson wore. The issue Confederate cap, however, is a copy of the stiffened French Army kepi.

TACTICS

Repel Saber

The front rank goes to charge bayonets, guard against cavalry. The rear rank takes a half step forward, holds their muskets, bayonets fixed, over the heads of the front rank men, parallel to the line of men, barrels facing out and up, fingers do not curl over the stock or barrel. The bayonet should be to the left, butt to the right, musket held lengthwise over the heads of about four men. The muskets of the rear rank overlapping one another. You have to be careful not to stick your bayonet into the head of the fifth man on the left. This is to guard the heads of the front rank men's heads from saber cuts delivered by  mounted opponent.

                                                                              FOOD

Fried Sweet Potatoes

Parboil for 15 minutes 4 good-sized sweet potatoes and remove skins.  Cut thick potatoes slices lengthwise, and fry in butter or Crisco.  Serve with maple syrup.

   

 Photo by the Author

Cornbread

1 egg-well beaten

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 cup sour or buttermilk

1 tsp. soda

2 Tbsp. melted shortening

1 cup flour

1 cup corn meal

Beat egg, add sugar.  Pour in milk to which soda has been added.  Add dry ingredients, beat well, and add shortening.  Pour into shallow pan.  Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) for approximately 25 minutes.  Serve warm with butter or with creamed chicken or any creamed meat.

MEDICINE

Abscesses

Abscesses were the fourth most common reason why white union soldiers could not march or fight. Treatment was incision and drainage, using thread as a drain. Sometimes a “seton wound” was made by passing thread or wire through the skin into an abscess, creating a passage to drain the pus. The seton sometimes was left in place for the rest of the soldier’s life, depending on the location of the abscess. Of course, drainage was not done with sterile technique or materials, because the role of microscopic living particles in causing infection was unknown to the surgeons. It is remarkable therefore that of more than a hundred thousand abscesses, there were only 180 deaths reported in the Sickness and Mortality Reports for the entire war in white soldiers and of 6,000 in U.S.C.T., only 21 deaths.[40]

Scurvy

The arthritis of scurvy (scorbutic arthritis) occurs when foods containing vitamin C are not eaten and was the fifth most common reason soldiers could not march and fight. It causes bruising of the skin, but more importantly, painful bleeding into joints and under the periosteum (lining around bones), especially the knees, ankles and shins. Obviously a soldier so affected would not have been able to stand up, much less march. Surgeon General of the Union Army (April 1862 to August 1863) William Hammond described his findings in soldiers and its treatment:

“Scurvy was known to the ancients, cured, as at present, by the use of fresh vegetable food. [Those with scurvy have] swollen and discolored gums, bleeding patches of…blood, first upon the legs…; hardness and [a] permanent state of contraction of the muscles; …stiffness of the joints; …reopening of old ulcers and cicatrices [scars].… Stiff joints [should be] rubbed with a stimulating liniment and be forcibly extended and fixed by mechanical means (splints to straighten them).”[41]

Unfortunately much of the food of both armies was dehydrated or overcooked, destroying any naturally occurring vitamin C. Especially tragic was the finding of a study in 1940 that showed the Minimum Daily Requirement of vitamin C to be a measly 30 mg/day.

Conspicuous by their absence in the present writing, are details of the same diseases in the Confederate States Army (CSA). Sadly, when Richmond was burned at the end of the War, its medical records were lost almost in their entirety.

‘Blood marked their tracks’

Ogilvie Donaldson was 25 years old when he mustered in as a corporal in the 19th Iowa Infantry in August 1862. Hard battles and active campaigning would take a toll on him, of course, but his lack of shoes while a prisoner was probably his biggest challenge.

In September 1863, Donaldson was among about 200 men in his regiment captured at Stirling’s Plantation and sent to Camp Ford. News eventually arrived that the regi-ment and others there were to be exchanged. The men had marched through Shreveport on their way to Tyler, but now for the exchange they were heading back—again by foot. It was a 100-mile trek and few men had shoes or heavy coats as the November cold settled in. “Over the frozen rough road and through ice-bound streams, those barefooted and half-clad five hundred marched, leaving on many a spot of Texan soil drops of blood from bruised and swollen feet,” wrote one 19th Iowa man, adding, “The sun at midday thawing it out only enough to make a cold slush, then toward night freezing again.”

Most 19th Iowa POWs had to learn to live without their brogans.

When plans for an exchange at Shreveport fell through, Donaldson and the others had to spend the winter camped a few miles from the city, huddled in improvised huts. In March 1864, they returned to Camp Ford. While there, word came of another exchange. It was July, and instead of frozen ground, unbearable heat beat down on the weakened men as they tramped to Shreveport. “[T]he

hot dust and pebbles blistered our shoeless feet, while hickory leaves bound ’round our head served as hats…”

When they eventually reached New Orleans on July 24, a local paper reported: “[O]ur citizens were astonished by the apparitions of a regiment, the like of which certainly never marched through the streets of any Christian city. Hatless and shoeless, without shirts and even garments that decency forbids us to name….[A]s their bare feet pressed the sharp stones, the blood marked their tracks.”

Donaldson’s medical record read like an encyclopedia of gastrointestinal ailments, including diarrhea, dysentery, and the flux. Home in Iowa, though wracked by the effects of frostbite and scurvy, he returned to his life as a farmer. But his deepest wounds weren’t physical: For years he kept a pair of shoes in every room—a stark reminder that he would never again be without.

Rick Barram, a history teacher from Red Bluff, Calif., is the great-great-grandson of the 19th Iowa’s Ogilvie Donaldson. He has no plans to walk barefoot across Arkansas in solidarity with his Hawkeye ancestor.

Fire by drum

The companies form into line of battle and dress.  The command "Prepare to fire by the drum" is given, and the men go to the ready position, at half-cock. the drummer beats "rum pum pum pum pum" and on the last beat, the line goes to full cock. The drummer again plays "rum pum pum pum pum" and on the last beat, the soldiers aim.The drummer then plays "Pum pum pum...pum"  On the third beat, the whole line fires at once, and on the fourth, they recover arms. Unless an occasional Jonah forgets the times, or screws up for whatever reason, the result is a crisp volley, and the crowd is always impressed.