We went to Kennesaw Mt. National Battlefield just outside
Atlanta the other day. Actually, getting there was like a battlefield with the
traffic. Fortunately, the only wreck we saw was on the opposite side but it
tied up traffic for miles.
You can see the
steep climb in the picture below, the view from the top and one of the cannons which
posed with us!
There were so many interesting facts in the museum from
music, food and communications to the lives of individual men.
Music…something I can’t live without! The Confederates and the Federals each had particular songs near and dear to them. The Rebels had “The Bonnie Blue Flag” and the Union had “Battle Cry of Freedom.” Each rallied around their flags. I wish people in our country had that amount of respect for our flag. Probably most do but there are a few…I digress!
Music…something I can’t live without! The Confederates and the Federals each had particular songs near and dear to them. The Rebels had “The Bonnie Blue Flag” and the Union had “Battle Cry of Freedom.” Each rallied around their flags. I wish people in our country had that amount of respect for our flag. Probably most do but there are a few…I digress!
Food…one of my favorite subjects. However, in Civil War days
it would not have been. This is what the each soldier got daily if they were
lucky. Union: l lb. of hardtack
(think saltine crackers minus the salt); or 22 oz. of bread or flour; ¾ lb. of salt pork or 1 ¼ lb. of fresh beef;
dried beans, sugar, coffee and salt. Rebels: 1 lb. of beef of ½ lb. of
pork or bacon; cornmeal was substituted for hardtack or flour; they rarely
received sugar or coffee. That’s where chicory came into play and oh, how I
hate the taste of that kind of “coffee”. Of course, sometimes they would forage
plantations. With the lack of fruits and vegetables, no wonder they suffered
from scurvy. In 1861 bacon was 13 cents/lb. In 1864 it was $3.50. Not much
inflation since 1864! However, eggs in 1861 were 15 cents/doz. and $4/doz. In 1864. What are they now? How
can the government allow deflation??
Communications were via colored flags by day or torches by
night using codes, couriers on foot or horseback and telegraphing. Sherman had skilled men
following him who could lay their own telegraph wires rather than rely on
existing wires in GA.
Speaking of Sherman…he was born in Ohio, graduated from West
Point and had been familiar with the land around Marietta, GA. He resigned from the army in 1853 and tried
his hand at banking and also tried being a lawyer. Those jobs were unsuccessful
but he did become the first president of what is now LSU. He bid his students
goodbye when LA seceded from the Union and he joined the Union Army. He had never done battle before but he prepared
for the Atlanta campaign by studying the census returns for GA and the
populations of every county in GA. He apparently was a redhead, smoked cigars
and people thought him rather eccentric and perhaps slightly insane!
Sherman’s opposition was General Johnston. For various
reasons, Johnston felt he should be the highest ranking officer in the
Confederate army. His boss, Jefferson Davis, did not agree with Johnston. They
were both quick to take offense and slow to forgive. Davis wanted Johnston to invade Tennessee promptly and
quickly but Johnston said he didn’t have enough men, horses, artillery or
wagons to do that. NEVER ARGUE WITH YOUR BOSS! Johnston’s failure to stop the
Union caused him to be replaced by General Hood (who also did not fare well).
The man in the background is Hood.
Sometimes during skirmishes, both sides would call a cease
fire, meet between the lines to talk, trade newspapers, or swap Union coffee
for Confederate tobacco. At one point in time, a fire broke out and there were
dead , disgusting soldiers laying in the field. Compassion won out and they
ceased fire. They put out the fire and buried the dead, then began fighting
again. That seems a little insane to me. In the words of a Union soldier, “It
seems too bad that we have to fight men that we like.”
Does the name Landis ring a bell? The first commissioner of
baseball was the son of a surgeon in the Civil War. How about General
MacArthur? He was the son of a Major who commanded a regiment at the age of 19
and won the Medal of Honor. Like father, like son…General MacArthur won the
Medal of Honor for WWII.