Description
Week 5 notes 2/7-2/9
∙ Confederate Conscription
o No regular army because they’d never been a country
o Militias volunteer all together for the voluntary army
o March 1861
Jefferson Davis creates a volunteer army around the time of Lincoln’s inauguration
∙ 1 year of service
o April 1862: White male citizens 18-35 years old (3 years)
Draft was hella unpopular because the whole point of leaving the Union was to rebel against an oppressive government
Gave people the option within 30 days to volunteer and avoid the stigma of being a draftee
o Sept. 1862: raise the age to 45
o Feb. 1864: expand to ages 17-50
At the end, it’s kinda useless because everyone that could be drafted already had been
o Exemption
Officers in state militias because they had to defend the home front
1 teacher for every 20 students so education could continue 1 white man for every 20 slaves
∙ Resented by poor, non-slaveholding whites We also discuss several other topics like What causes world war 2?
Clergymen
o Substitution (abolished Dec. 1863)
Wanted bodies and didn’t care where they came from
Immigrants who weren’t citizens yet
Someone of non-draft age
o Can flee the state to dodge the draft
o 25% of CSA army are draftees
∙ Union drafts
o Union uses a draft 4 times
o 1863: July
Mostly to keep up the old regiments
20-45 year olds had to register for the draft
Divided the North into draft districts
∙ Asked people in districts to volunteer in order to fill the
quota
o If they could fill the quota voluntarily, no one would
be drafted
∙ Districts start offering monetary incentives called
bounties to people who would volunteer to avoid getting
drafted
o By the end of the war, bounties were close to
$1000
When the average laborer bakes around
$300/year, that’s super tempting
o Bounty jumpers
Would volunteer, collect the bounty, and
immediately desert to go to another district
and do it again
o 1864: March, July, Dec.
o Methods:
Exemption If you want to learn more check out What did socrates say about knowledge?
We also discuss several other topics like What is methylpropane used for?
∙ Didn’t give them for occupation
∙ Compassionate grounds
o Like if you’re the only supporter of your widowed
mother or something like that
Substitution
Commutation fee (abolished July 1864)
∙ Could pay a fee to get out of going
∙ Could be like democratic reform for the substitution fee If you want to learn more check out What is “the divine faith”?
Don't forget about the age old question of What is a childbirth assistant called?
∙ Really to keep valuable people at home since there were
no occupational exemptions in the North
o Results of Union Draft
Soldiers hate draftees, and they’re crappy soldiers
776,000 names drawn in lottery
∙ 161,000 failed to report
∙ 93,000 were sent home
∙ 315,000 exempt
o Physical or mental disability
Sheds light on how rough life was in the 19th
century
Need front teeth
o Compassionate grounds
207,000 drafted
∙ Of these:
o 87,000 pay commutation fee
o 74,000 get a substitute
o 46,000 actually enter the army
Because of the existence of the draft, lots of people volunteered ∙ Produced a lot more people than it looks like
∙ 8% of Union army made up of draftees/substitutes
∙ Logistics
o Stuff that armies use; where does it come from? How does it get there? o Departments for Logistical Support
Quartermaster General
∙ Clothing, equipment, animals, transport, housing
Commissary General
∙ Rations
Chief of Ordinance
∙ Weapons and ammunition Don't forget about the age old question of What happens to demand when substitute price increases?
Surgeon General
∙ Medical supplies, evacuation, treatment, etc.
o Army of the Potomac 1862
128,000 men
22,000 horsies
10,000 mules
321 artillery pieces
Supply train of wagons would stretch over 30 miles
So big and so spread out
192 TONS of rations
412 TONS of forage
∙ Food for horsies and mules
64 tons of ammunition
668 tons of stuff consumed by this army in ONE DAY
o Army Wagons
2,400 lbs
6 mules
∙ More durable and less excitable than horses
Roughly 500 wagons have to come into the camp EVERY DAY to keep them supplied
Only move about 10-20 miles a day
12 ft wide, 36 ft long with mules
∙ 4-5 miles along a road
Has to be constant supply or you’re screwed
Mules eat 160 lbs of forage/day
∙ Takes 10 days so they’d eat 1800 lbs by the time they’d
get there
∙ Means they need more wagons
o 12 miles of wagons would be hella vulnerable
Very slow and inefficient
o Railroad
Typical car can carry 8 tons
Railroads don’t consume their contents like mules
86 cars/day
Much rather supply armies by railroad than by road
1st war where railroads are super important
Armies will follow the railroads
o Steamboat
500 tons
Just 1 boat could take care of the army for a day
If the river doesn’t go there, then the steamboat can’t get there either
Armies follow rivers as well
Most efficient way of supplying the army
∙ Strategy, Tactics, and weaponry
o Ranks
Lines of men standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder; width o File
Men standing behind each other; depth
About 16 inches in between men
o Typical company formation
The flank is the weak point
∙ Put a company on the flank angled to protect it
o Skirmishers
Go out in front of the main battle line to draw the enemy’s fire/see where the enemy is
o Battle lines
Company guarding the flank is the weak link in the battle line Turning the line is called an evolution/evolving
o Regimental officers
Behind the line on horseback
Pretty conspicuous
Who are you going to shoot at?
o Flags
1 US flag, 1 state flag
Regiment forms around the colors
∙ If you shoot them down, it could cause chaos
∙ Bravest of men
o Didn’t carry weapons
Pretty much the last time in war that the colors are used o Rate of advance
Double quick is the fastest
110 yds per minute
That’s a long time when you’re under fire
Without clear lines and organization, it becomes a mob and therefore is useless
o Weapons
Hadn’t been a major war in Europe or the US since Napoleon in 1815
∙ That’s what they taught at West Point
o All the Civil War generals went to West Point
Flintlock Smooth Bore Musket
∙ .69 caliber
∙ Load at the barrel, not the breach
∙ Powder in first, then bullet
∙ Use a ramrod to stuff it down in there
∙ Pull back hammer
∙ Open frizzen pulls some powder back
∙ Pull trigger
∙ Hammer goes forward, flint hits the frizzen creating a spark, lighting the powder
∙ Skip any step and you’re screwed
∙ Some would pee into the barrel to clean it out so they could load/fire again
These weapons were short range and took a while to reload ∙ This led to Napoleonic tactics
o Aggressor usually won
∙ But weaponry changed
Springfield Rifle Musket
∙ 9 lbs, 56 in tall, 18 in bayonet
∙ Rifling
o Spiral grooves inside the barrel causing the bullet to spin, making it go faster, be more accurate, and more effectives at longer ranges
o Rifles had existed in the 1800s but they were
mostly used for hunting and not effective in battle
because the bullet had to be packed so tightly
Minie Ball
∙ Hollow at the bottom
∙ Wouldn’t fit as tightly so it would go down the barrel much easier
∙ The old musket was like shooting a knuckle ball where as the minie ball was like a fast ball because it spins
∙ Accurate at 300 yds
∙ Could kill at 1,000 yds
Percussion cap
∙ Little copper cap that the hammer hits
∙ Eliminates the frizzen, pan, etc.
∙ Had to be replaced every time the weapon is fired Bayonet
∙ Grooved to let the blood spurt out
∙ If they were solid, you wouldn’t be able to get it out of a person
∙ Almost never fought with them
o Turned a gun into a spear and they didn’t know how to fight like that
o Also, people don’t like getting stabbed so they’d run if it came to it
o Usually, in hand to hand combat, they’d just beat the other guy with their gun
∙ Still useful, though
o Cooking meat
o Candle holder
o Digging trenches
Ammunition
∙ Minie ball is the most common
∙ Would be pre-packaged with bullet and powder all together
o By this time, everything had been converted to the percussion cap
∙ Use teeth to tear the paper
∙ Buck and ball
o Had the big lead bullet and buckshot that will spray and probably hurt others
Enfield Rifle Musket
∙ Name from Enfield Rifle Works, London
∙ .577 caliber
∙ .58 caliber US guns but the minie ball could still be used Shifted the way the war was fought much more to defense ∙ Instead of withstanding a shot or two, it’s now 5-6 shots ∙ Breaks up the line
∙ Armies didn’t take cover
∙ Now there’s an advantage to being entrenched
o At the beginning of the war, nobody does but the soldiers figure it out
∙ But generals had been trained in Napoleonic tactics where aggression wins battles
o Even the best generals still do this
Lee
∙ Pickett’s Charge
Grant
∙ Cold Harbor
∙ Cavalry charges were rendered outdated
o Huge target
o Don’t even have to hit the guy just hit the horse There is debate within the Civil War historians that the change in weaponry didn’t matter as much as it theoretically should have ∙ Eastern theater was really hilly
Cavalry
∙ Carried different weapons
o Revolver and sabre
∙ Colt revolvers
o .44 caliber
o Had to put percussion caps on all 6 chambers
o Only accurate at like 20 yds
o For personal protection, not for battle
∙ Sabre
o Fore waving around in the air and yelling orders