June 30 -- A day of reflection

A century and a half has passed and it is a time of reflection and memory about the Iron Brigade of the West at Gettysburg.

 

           The Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan soldiers camped at Marsh Creek south of town that night of June 30th some 150 years ago were much changed since being called to Washington. Later it was said to be a sight never seen again—the Western regiments  swinging along with an easy stride toward the Marsh Creek camp, the famous black hats now more serviceable than showy. One who saw them said they “looked like giants with their tall black hats,” and recalled the veterans of the  2^nd, 6^th, 7^th Wisconsin, 19^th Indiana, and 24^th Michigan moved with a “steady step” and filling the “entire roadway, their big black hats and feathers conspicuous….”

         Two years of service, the letters, journals, and diaries they left, revealed the bright hopes of 1861 and 1862 were gone for the veterans. The survivors gathered in close, tight messes to share food, drawing on each other support. While they marched and died, enduring unspeakable hardship, the homefolk “growled” about high prices, short money and hard times. The army tossed out the used-up soldier and the “patriotic” speculators fleeced them of their pay. The soldiers fought well, but were denied victory by incompetent generals. Officers used their rank to get through sentry posts to forage and their authority to execute a weak soldier unable to face combat.

         Only one of three soldiers was still in ranks from the regiments formed in 1861; the others dead from battle or illness or even homesickness. Scores of the early volunteers were sent home sick and disabled; some gone only God knows where or why. The survivors were first dependent on the men of their campfires and then to their small companies and then to their regiments. They were isolated from the homefolk, misused by their generals and the country’s leaders, cheated by sutlers, snubbed by Easterners because of their Western origins. They trusted only their comrades and the few officers who have proved to be skillful and brave. They are a hard lot, good soldiers, and proud of their reputations.

            Only the men of the 24^th Michigan, even after 10 months in service, marched toward Gettysburg feeling they still had something to prove. The Michigan regiment and its famous brigade saw only limited service at Fredericksburg when the Wolverines first came under fire and their colonel called out, “Steady, men, those Wisconsin men are watching you.” The Michigan regiment joined in the spirited river crossing during the Chancellorsville Campaign, but it was not the kind of fighting endured at Second Bull Run, South Mountain and Antietam. It was only after Chancellorsville that the Michigan regiment’s coveted black hats arrived. “They made our appearance,” a Wolverine said, “like the name of the brigade, quite unique.”

            The Western men would regard the upcoming fighting at Gettysburg as the turning point of the Civil War. In many ways it was the last great fight for the “Boys of ’61,” those bright volunteers who flocked to the National flag in a swell of patriotism after Fort Sumter. The army itself was changing into something that seemed more sinister. In the camps, the veterans were unsettled by recruits who enlisted to collect bounties and newspapers reporting lack of support for the war back home. After the first three days of July 1863, it would all be different, partly to a change in the way the war was fought and partly because of the men brought in fill the battle-diminished regiments.

                     But on that quiet evening of June in 1863 at Marsh Creek, all that was yet to come…

Men of the Cloth in the Civil War

Religion in the army was largely a personal matter. Many soldiers carried their own bibles and religious objects. The more formal service was left to regimental chaplains, who usually received appointment by the unit commander on the vote of field officers and company commanders. Such chaplains had to be a regularly ordained minister of a Christian denomination and received the pay and allowances of a captain of cavalry. The chaplain’s main duties included overseeing the moral condition of the men in their regiments, conducting Sunday services, and assisting at the burial of soldiers. Conscientious chaplains also visited hospitals and guard houses and ministered to the individual needs of soldiers. Military officials made regular efforts to weed out the incompetent, but were often unsuccessful. The proportion of Catholic to Protestant chaplains was one to 20 although Catholic historians believe the ratio of their faith to Protestants in the Army was at least one in six. There was little friction between the Catholic and Protestant chaplains and most men of the cloth were regarded as sincere, hard-working religious men.   

Hardtack, Salted Pork and Soldier Food

Now I sit me in my seat,

And pray for something fit to eat.

If this damn stuff my stomach brake,

I pray that God my soul will take.

 

Oh, thou who blessed the loaves and fishes,

Look down upon these old tin dishes;

By thy great power those dishes smash,

Bless each of us and damn this hash.

            A Volunteer’s Prayer

 

           Rations for the soldiers had to be easily transported as well as resistant to spoilage. Fresh cuts of beef, soft bread and vegetables could be issued in established camps, but soldiers on the march existed on what they could carry in their haversack—coffee, salt, sugar, hard bread and salted beef or salted pork. Regulations called for a daily issue of 16 ounces of hardtack, 20 ounces of salt beef or 12 ounces of salt pork. The meat was packed in a brine solution sufficient to preserve it for two years.

           By late 1863, desiccated potatoes and desiccated vegetables, which were scalded and then pressed and dried into sheets, were issued as an antiscorbutic to prevent scurvy.  The soldiers in the Iron Brigade called them “desecrated vegetables” and generally did not eat them.
          Coffee, usually issued in bean form, was always popular and was pounded or crushed, then boiled in water in tin cups.
          Hardtack was a square biscuit made of salt, flour and water and then baked. It could be soaked in water and fried in the sizzling fat of the issue salt pork which was called “sowbelly” by the soldiers.
          Soldiers on both sides took to “foraging” to supplement their food rations. Orders generally prohibited the theft of private property in the form of pigs, chickens, corn and sweet potatoes.  A brigade commander requested his men not steal, but added, “Boys, do not go hungry,” which, one Black Hat private observed, “in war time means take what you want whenever you can get it.”
          One French officer with the Army of the Potomac in 1862 an estimated 2,000 wagons, drawn by some 12,000 animals, were necessary to feed an army of 100,000 men and 16,000 horses at only two days march from a base of operations.

 

 

Moses Ladd of the 21st Wisconsin

     One Badger soldier always catches my interest is Pvt. Moses Ladd of the 21st Wisconsin.
     He was was born June 28, 1828 in what is now Wisconsin. His mother was a Menominee and his father of Ojibwa/Ottawa mix. He married Mary Grignon sometime before the Civil War. She was the daughter of Charles Grignon, a well-known fur trader for the Hudson Bay Company. The Grignon family included the Langlade and Brunette families, all active in settling northeast Wisconsin.
     Ladd, despite his mixed Menominee/Ojibwa/Ottawa heritage, enlisted in the 21st Wisconsin Infantry in 1861. He suffered a minor wound at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, where he was cited with saving the life of Jeremiah Reardon, who later became Manitowoc County Sheriff. Near the end of the war, he served as a chief scout for General William Sherman on the March to the Sea. Ladd mustered out with his regiment in 1865 and returned to the Poygan area.
     He was singled out by Sherman in 1880 when the general visited in the Winneconne and Oshkosh area. Seeing Ladd in the audience, Sherman stopped a speech to go over and greet him. He also offered Ladd a home in Washington. Ladd refused, however, saying he could not leave his hunting and fishing grounds. Sherman again stopped Ladd during the 1889 Reunion in Milwaukee telling him, “Moses, you are one of the best men I had.” Ladd died May 30, 1920 at the Soldiers Home in King, Wisconsin. He is buried in the 21st Wisconsin plot.

Western Style and Prairie Manners....

---From the La Crosse Democrat

Re-printed in the Prairie du Chien [Wisconsin] Courier, Thursday, June 17, 1864

 

Since the opening of the present war we have watched with the closest eye and careful scrutiny the conduct of our Northern troops. Before the May battles began, the Western men were more than in advance of those in the East, and the events of the present month have faded the laurels for the East and brightened those of the West till the latter are truly entitled to the proud title of American Heroes.

The battles fought lately in the West have been of terrific carnage. The victories Western men have successfully won have been at the bayonet point, after a display of courage and endurance like that of the ancient Romans who used the shield less for defense than to rest the heads of dying braves on. The troops under Grant - the divisions of Logan, Steele, Sherman, Quimby, McClernand, McArthur, and McPhereson in the late battles before Vicksburg have covered themselves with glory enough for a lifetime, no matter what reverses in the Providence of the war may overtake them in the future. Where death held highest revel - where the bursting shell - screaming rifle ball and howling rifled shot dealt destruction the brave troops of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Kansas have with unfaltering firmness and unfinishing bravery beat back the pride of the rebel forces and made the rebel chivalry forces to acknowledge the superiority of Western pluck, muscle, bravery, and endurance.

When the full accounts of the battles of Jackson, Raymond, Edward's Depot, Big Black Bridge, Barker's Creek, Vicksburg and other fields are given, each one will be a chapter of bravery which will make Grant's army the envied of the war. All through this war, the entire record of Western troops is one of undaunted spirit. In defeat or victory they have never become demoralized, or given up in despair. Western men don't know the meaning of defeat. At Boonville, Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Springfield, Lexington, Frederickstown, New Madrid, Cape Giradeau [sic] - at Corinth, Fort Donelson, Columbus, Pea Ridge, Pittsburg Landing - at Boston Mountain, Fayetteville, Island No. 10, Bowling Green, Shiloh, and Murfreesboro our Western men have proved themselves.

While the West has fought to win, with a life, pluck and energy to make us feel more than proud, the armies of the East have become demoralized, politicalized and manipulated that no one dare bet on them for fighting. The retreats, flights and foot races in and out of Washington have caused us to lose much of the respect once felt for the eastern troops.

Had it not been for the Western troops, the forces on the Potomac, Rappahannock and about Washington would have been a mob long since. There is contagion in example. The pride of Western men has kept them from following the lead of Eastern army styles - we hope the pride of Eastern men will enable them to emulate the glorious example of Western soldiers from this time on. Hair-oiled Bostonians, black-coated New Yorkers and white-necktied Philadelphians may turn up their noses at the brusqueness of the Hoosiers, Badgers, Pukes, Buckeyes, &c, of the western prairies - they may laugh at western style and smile at prairie manners, but when it comes to making a country, to whipping rebels, or otherwise proving title to the name of MAN, the "uncouth" sons of the west take front seats.

(Thanks to my friend Mike Thorson)

How the Minie-ball changed war in 1861-1865

I used to spend a good amount of time on the firing line with the North-South Skirmish Association shooting Civil War era weapons in marksmanship competitions. Along the way I picked up some thoughts on whether the new so-called “Minie-ball” (my friend Phil Spaugy would say “Burton bullet”) of the Civil War era changed the war.

Technology had stepped ahead of the tactics and experience in the 1861-65 and the officers of both sides—trained in the linear infantry movements of Napoleon—were slow to catch up. The foremost innovation was the new "rifle-musket “which became standard for both armies. Rifles had long been used in war, but they were slow to load and the basic infantry firearm until the mid 19th century was the muzzle-loading smoothbore musket. The smoothbore was quick to load, but its effective range was limited.

The new .58-caliber "rifle-musket" (with the length of a musket and the rifling of the rifle) was adopted for U.S. service in 1855, just six years before the start of the Civil War. It was still a muzzle-loader, but had grooves in the barrel to spin and stabilize a new hollow-based bullet the soldiers called the "Minie-ball" and it produced surprising accuracy and velocity. Accepted tactics of the day, however, were based on massed formations that could deliver dense swarms of bullets. The training was designed to bring soldiers quickly and in good order to a place where they could fire. The regiments fought with companies abreast, forming a long, double rank of men.

It all was based on the accepted theory a regiment was able to advance within 100 yards of an enemy position without taking significant causalities (given the limited range of smoothbores), then make the quick dash to close with bayonets. The emphasis in the volunteer camps was on marching in well-closed, disciplined formation; bayonet drill, and instruction for the individual soldier in loading quickly and firing on command. Marksmanship training was limited.

While the new rifle-musket made much of such training obsolete, it would be easy to overstate the importance of improved accuracy and point to it as the reason for the terrible casualty rates of 1861-65. The technology did not increase the rate of fire by individual soldiers (about two or three shots per minute) and, in fact, there was a drawback. If a soldier under ideal conditions was able to hit a man-sized target at 500 yards, the lobbing arc of the "minnie-ball" (as it was called by the soldiers) was about 12 feet above the point of aim at mid-range—causing infantrymen to over or under shoot at the longer distances. Even clear-eyed marksmen would find it difficult to consistently strike a moving line of infantry at distances of more than 300 yards.

The tragic significance of the rifle-musket and Minie-ball came at ranges less than 200 yards—it was there massed fire knocked apart battle lines with brutal efficiency. The point-blank killing range became 150 yards (not 50 yards) and all the previous experience of officers and the training of soldiers involved the short effective range of the smoothbores.

 

Other observations can be made on the subject, but let those bide for another time.

A soldier cemetery at Gettysburg

Frank Haskell of the 6th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade was serving as a aide to Gen. John Gibbon when the two went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in November 1863. They were there to represent the Army of the Potomac at the special dedication of a new federal soldier cemetery. The neat row of stones of the fallen was troubling to Haskell. He wrote his brother a short time later:

“…[W]hat is so appropriate for the soldier’s rest as the spot where he died nobly fighting the enemies of the country,--where perhaps the shout of victory went up with his spirit to Heaven—where his companions in arms, his survivors, had lovingly wrapped him in his blanket, and wet with brave men’s tears, had covered him with the earth his blood had consecrated…. But no,--these things were not to be. The skeletons of these brave men must be handled like the bones of so many horses, for a price, and wedged in rows like herrings in a box, on a spot where there was no fighting—where none of them fell! It may be all right, but I do not see it…but as it is now…we have instead a common, badly arranged grave yard, in which names, and graves, if designated at all, are as likely to be wrong as right. But read the newspapers,--Every body says this is splendid, this making the ‘Soldiers’ Cemetery,’ and I suppose it is.”

Frank Haskell was himself killed in 1864 leading a charge of the 36th Wisconsin near Cold Harbor, Virginia. His body was returned to Wisconsin for burial at Portage.