The Civil War Soldier

A Historical Reader

Michael Barton, Larry M. Logue

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9780814725146
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

In 1943, Bell Wiley's groundbreaking book Johnny Reb launched a new area of study: the history of the common soldier in the U.S. Civil War. This anthology brings together landmark scholarship on the subject, from a 19th century account of life as a soldier to contemporary work on women who, disguised as men, joined the army.

One of the only available compilations on the subject, The Civil War Soldier answers a wide range of provocative questions: What were the differences between Union and Confederate soldiers? What were soldiers' motivations for joining the army—their "will to combat"? How can we evaluate the psychological impact of military service on individual morale? Is there a basis for comparison between the experiences of Civil War soldiers and those who fought in World War II or Vietnam? How did the experiences of black soldiers in the Union army differ from those of their white comrades? And why were southern soldiers especially drawn to evangelical preaching?

Offering a host of diverse perspectives on these issues, The Civil War Soldier is the perfect introduction to the topic, for the student and the Civil War enthusiast alike.

Contributors: Michael Barton, Eric T. Dean, David Donald, Drew Gilpin Faust, Joseph Allen Frank, James W. Geary, Joseph T. Glaatthaar, Paddy Griffith, Earl J. Hess, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Perry D. Jamieson, Elizabeth D. Leonard, Gerald F. Linderman, Larry Logue, Pete Maslowski, Carlton McCarthy, James M. McPherson, Grady McWhiney, Reid Mitchell, George A. Reaves, Jr., James I. Robertson, Fred A. Shannon, Maris A. Vinovskis, and Bell Irvin Wiley.

Part I

Who Soldiers Were

Chapter 1
What Manner of Men

Bell Irvin Wiley

Bell Irvin Wiley was not the first historian to portray life in the Civil War armies, but his Life of Johnny Reb (1943) and Life of Billy Yank (1952) were far more extensive than earlier efforts, and they became benchmarks for studies of army experience. Wiley, who spent most of his career at Emory University, combed through letters, diaries, muster rolls, and official records in compiling his accounts. The two books are divided into what Wiley saw as the essential features of soldier life—behavior and misbehavior in camp, coping with inadequate food and supplies, the ebb and flow of morale, and the experience of battle, for example. In this selection, the final chapter of The Life of Johnny Reb, Wiley describes the variety of characteristics and personality types that made up the Confederate army.

The men who marched under the Stars and Bars were impressively diverse in character. The full range of their variation can never be known, however, because one of the most fruitful sources of information—the original muster and descriptive rolls—is so incomplete. For some companies such rolls were not even prepared; for many, only a part of the required data was given; and for hundreds of others the records were lost or destroyed. But from rolls that are extant, from comments of travelers, from court-martial proceedings, memoirs, diaries and personal letters, a general idea of the South’s soldiery may be obtained.

Scattered through the camps of the Confederacy were men of widely varied birth and race. The great majority of the rank and file were Southern-born, of course, but the non-native element was large enough to figure prominently in the general pattern. A considerable proportion came from the country north of Mason and Dixon’s line. A random sampling of 42 descriptive rolls covering 21 regiments from six Confederate states yields the names of 86 privates born in eleven northern states.¹ Of these, 37 were natives of New York, 10 of Illinois, 9 of Pennsylvania, 7 each of Indiana, Massachusetts and Ohio, and the rest came from Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, Vermont and Michigan. An estimate of the total number of Yankee-born men who served the cause of the South could be no more than a guess, but the figure must have run into the thousands.

The foreign-born element in Southern ranks was also large enough to demand attention. A number of companies were made up entirely of foreigners, and several regiments were composed largely of this class.² In some Louisiana camps orders on the drill ground were given in French to polyglot organizations containing Irish as well as Latins; and one of the most amazing incidents of the war was the objection raised by a lusty son of Erin to a dictum requiring officers to give their commands in English instead of in French—“I don’t know what Oi’ll do,” he said to his lieutenant. “You want us to drill in English and the devil a wurd I know but French.”³ …

Louisiana, whose population in 1860 was more than one-tenth foreign, contributed more non-natives to the Southern cause than any other state. Some regiments recruited from New Orleans were made up largely of Irishmen, others of Germans, and still others combined these two groups with a miscellany from every part of the globe. Company I of the Tenth Louisiana—which Professor Lonn calls “the Cosmopolitan Regiment”—was composed of men from no less than fifteen countries; and in the First Louisiana Regiment thirty-seven nationalities were represented.⁴

Texas was next in the number of foreigners supplied for Confederate service. Several infantry and cavalry companies from Comal, Gillespie, Fayette and Colorado Counties were German. Some of the Texas Germans were notoriously unsympathetic toward the Southern cause, but many served faithfully and gallantly. From the Lone Star State likewise came companies made up largely of Irish, Mexicans and Poles. And here, as in Louisiana, many of the organizations were composed of a mixture of nationalities.⁵ …

Most of the foreigners who fought for the South were infantrymen, though there were considerable numbers in all branches of the service. Of the various nationalities represented, the Irish were most numerous. Frequently they were rough, quarrelsome, plunderous and impervious to discipline, but for the most part they were blessed with a redeeming good humor. They adapted themselves well to the hardships of camp life, and they enjoyed an excellent reputation as fighters. Next to the Irish in number were the Germans. Their love for music enlivened the atmosphere of many encampments, and when convinced of the rightness of the Confederate cause, as they doubtless were in a majority of cases, they acquitted themselves creditably on the firing line. The British, the French, the Poles, the Canadians, the Dutch, the Austrians and the many other nationalities represented in Southern ranks all made their distinctive contributions to the Lost Cause. The total number of foreigners enrolled in the Confederate Army unfortunately must remain unknown, but there can be no doubt that the figure ran well up into the tens of thousands.⁶ To this host of immigrants who wore the gray, particularly to those thousands who yielded up their lives in the service, the South owes an incalculable debt of gratitude and honor.

Another of the diverse groups in the Confederate Army was the Indian. Shortly after the formation of the Secession Government Albert Pike was sent to the trans-Mississippi country to make treaties with the various tribes residing in the red man’s territory. The emissary’s efforts, notably successful, prepared the way for actual recruiting. In November 1861 the Department of Indian Territory was established with Pike as commanding officer. It was Pike’s intention to use Indian soldiers largely for defense of their home area, but his plan was overruled by other considerations.

When General Van Dorn began his campaign for the relief of Missouri in early 1862, four regiments and two battalions had been formed from among the trans-Mississippi red men and half-breeds. Later a fifth regiment and several battalions were created. In the latter part of 1864 the Indian troops were organized into three brigades. These were: The First Brigade, composed of Cherokees, Chickasaws and Osages, commanded by Chief Stand Watie, a valiant officer of whom General S. B. Maxey said, “I wish I had as much energy in some of my white commanders as he displays”; the Second Brigade, made up of Choctaws, led by Tandy Walker; and the Third Brigade, of Creeks and Seminoles, headed by D. N. McIntosh.⁷ …

The only major encounter in which western Indians took part on a large scale was the Battle of Pea Ridge in early March 1862. As the vanguard of Pike’s command came up to join Van Dorn on the eve of this fight, the red men presented a picturesque spectacle. Speaking primarily of the Cherokees, a member of the First Missouri Brigade said:

“They came trotting by our camp on their little Indian ponies, yelling forth their wild whoop … Their faces were painted, and their long straight hair, tied in a queue, hung down behind. Their dress was chiefly in the Indian costume—buckskin hunting shirts, dyed of almost every color, leggings, and moccasins of the same material, with little bells, rattles, ear-rings, and similar paraphernalia. Many of them were bareheaded and about half carried only bows and arrows, tomahawks, and war-clubs. … They were … straight, active, and sinewy in their persons and movements—fine looking specimens of the red man.”⁸ …

Following the Battle of Pea Ridge, activities of the red men were limited largely to raiding and scouting. In September 1862 a force led by D. H Cooper engaged a group of Federal Indians commanded by William A. Phillips. The Confederates were victorious, but both sides acquitted themselves with credit. …

The Cherokees and Seminoles were never unanimous in their support of the South, and as Confederates suffered reverses large numbers went over to the Federals. The Cherokees were particularly susceptible to discouragement and defection. On two occasions groups belonging to the command of Colonel John Drew abandoned Confederate ranks under duress and went over to the Yankees en masse; the opinion was widely prevalent in the South that John Ross, principal chief of this nation, conspired with the Yankees for his capture. But many of the Cherokees remained loyal to the Confederacy throughout the war, and their troops were among the best of the Indian fighters. The Choctaws and the Chickasaws were overwhelmingly faithful to the Southern cause.⁹

The Indian soldiers of the Confederacy were victims of shabby treatment by their white superiors. General Pike strove assiduously to secure a square deal for them, but he was far removed from Richmond, and opposed by leaders like Van Dorn, Hindman and Holmes, who were concerned primarily with the protection of white areas and who apparently cared little for the welfare of the red men. Pay, food, clothing and weapons intended for the Indians were diverted by these commanders to other troops. Corruption and fraud were rife in the filling of contracts, and in other phases of government service. A general reorganization of late 1864 resulted in some improvement, but the change came too late to be of much benefit. …

The visitor to Southern camps in the first year of the war might expect always to encounter a large number of Negroes. These, to be sure, were not soldiers, but their relation to the fighting force was so vital and so intimate as to merit consideration as a part of the army. Conspicuous among the Negroes attached to military personnel were the body servants. When members of slaveholding families enlisted in 1861 it was quite common for them to take along black members of the household to serve them in camp. Some of the wealthier volunteers had more than one servant, but the usual practice was for a single slave to minister to his own master or to a mess of from four to eight men; in the latter case all members “chipped in” to bear the cost of his maintenance. Nonslaveholders sometimes hired Negroes to act as body servants. The duties of these Negroes consisted mainly of cooking, washing, and of cleaning quarters. Those attached to cavalry companies were required to look after their masters’ horses. Many became adept at foraging—a term frequently used in the army to dignify the practice known among civilians as stealing—to supplement the usual leanness of rations issued by commissaries.¹⁰

During battles the body servant usually remained in the rear out of reach of Federal shells. But a few became so thoroughly imbued with the martial spirit as to grab up muskets during battle and take pot shots at the enemy. There are several instances on record of servants thus engaged killing and capturing Federals. On at least one occasion Confederate domestics made prisoners of Negroes serving Yankee officers. When fighting abated, the colored aide usually loaded himself with canteens and haversacks and went in search of his master. If the latter was wounded, the servant carried him to shelter and sought medical assistance; if he was killed, the domestic made arrangements for his burial or escorted the body home. The relation between master and body servant was usually marked by genuine affection. Frequently intimate association extended back to childhood days. When Confederate masters were ill, they were nursed by their black companions, and when the latter were stricken, they sometimes were attended by their owners with the tenderest solicitude. There were some instances of unfaithfulness and of cruel treatment, but the circumstances of the soldier-servant relationship made these much less frequent in the army than on the plantation.

The life of the body servant was generally not a hard one. He seldom lacked for food, and he usually recouped his wardrobe in the wake of each battle from Yankee sources. He had opportunities to earn money by doing odd jobs for his master’s comrades, and the stake thus acquired could be increased or diminished by sessions with fellow servants at dice or cards. Occasional visits home for provisions made it possible for him to play the hero among less fortunate inmates of the slave quarters. In camp his ready laugh—whether inspired by genuine amusement or by a keen sense of appropriateness—was a valuable stimulant to soldier morale, as was his proficiency with song and guitar.¹¹

It was with real regret, therefore, that most private soldiers dispensed with the service of their colored associates during the second and third years of conflict. But the increasing scarcity of provisions in the army and the greater need of their labor by civilians made it necessary for the Negroes to be sent home. Those who remained in camp after 1863 were largely the servants of commissioned officers or were employed by the government as musicians, cooks, nurses, hostlers and wagon-drivers.¹²

The largest group of Negroes connected with military affairs were those employed for the construction of fortifications. Early in the war great numbers were hired to throw up works in seacoast and river areas and in other strategic portions of the Confederacy. The intrenchments used in resisting McClellan’s peninsula movement were largely the work of Virginia slaves. At first planters responded generously to government calls for laborers, but in the second year of the war impressment sometimes had to be used, and in 1864 levies became the general rule. In February 1864 a Confederate law was passed authorizing the Secretary of War to conscript 20,000 Negroes for militar...