Conference smurf::civil_war

    The more I learn about the trememdous courage and stamina exhibited by
    the men on both sides of the war the more I'm interested in trying to
    understand how they did it.  
    
    I know there were regimental bands and lots of card playing but I
    recently learned something more interesting and wondered what else
    might have gone on between battles/campaigns.
    
    I read that a favorite camp activity was to build dams and waterwheels
    and make other 'improvements' to the streams and brooks that flowed
    through camp.  One quote said something about New England soldiers
    forever tinkering with gadgets and such and always improving the
    waterways.
    
    In the course of battle, the men were often called upon to build
    bridges, fix or build roads, dig trenches and erect breastworks,
    operate locomotives and such.  The bulk of the soldiers from both sides
    were farmer with the North having a much larger portion of mechanics
    than the South.  These men brought diverse skills that contributed to
    the war effort and I'm sure contributed to improved camp life.
    
    Food was alternatively abundant or scarce.  Hardtack, bacon and coffee
    being every present.  Trading between lines was not uncommon. 
    
    Until the start of Grant's final push through the Wilderness, Cold
    Harbor, Petersburg and Appomatix, the armies had a lot of time on their
    hands between battles.  Besides drilling, how did they fill the time?
    
    I look forward to reading what you all can provide.
    
    
    Regards,
    
    
    Marv
     

    They had several activities which took up their time. Drilling 
    of course, which was done for hours on end. Also Guard Duties,
    working (fatigue) parties to do such wonderful activities as
    dig latrines, haul wood and water. They also would've spent time
    keeping arms and equipment in good repair, ready for inspection.
    There were to be three muster rolls daily. A company inspection on
    a daily basis was not uncommon. Nor, for an encamped army, was 
    dress parade not unheard of. 
    
    They also played "rounders" (forerunner of baseball) as you noted
    played cards (although gambling was severely frowned upon), wrote
    letters, read (when books were available).
    
    Officer types would do similar activities to some extent as they
    might supervise some fatigue duties, take turns as Officer of the
    Day/Guard. 
    
    Alcohol was also available to the army, however, drunkeness was
    like gambling severly frowned upon/punished.
    
    Hope that's some help.
    
    J
    
    

    The schedule for a typical day...granted this is more of a "boot camp"
    type day.
    
    Reveille...........0500
    Breakfast call.....0700
    Guard mounting.....0900
    Dinner call........1200
    Company drill......1300 to 1500
    Dress parade.......1800
    Supper call........1900
    Tattoos(?).........2100
    Taps...............2200
     
    This was the schedule for Camp Defiance, near Cairo, Illinois. 
    Camping after boot camp was certainly a lot different, just as it is 
    today. Each soldier carried half a tent and two buttoned together made
    the full tent, insuring a buddy system. The Confederates sometimes em-
    ployed similar tents, but because of a perrennial shortage of canvas,
    they often had to make do with crude "shebangs," fashioned of brush and
    oilcloths arranged over a framework of poles. Both sides showed ingen-
    uity, armed with only axes and saws, they made do.
    Filling their leisure time was usually of their own devising, -1 men-
    tioned gambling and drinking, it was a bigger problem then he  stated,
    Sutlers, like today's black market dealers, followed the troops from
    camp to camp, selling their wares, usually consisting of, cakes, pies,
    candies, figs, boots,shoes, gloves, and most of all tobacco and alco-
    hol. A quote from General Braxton Bragg concurred: "We have lost more
    valuable lives at the hand of the whiskey sellers than by the balls of
    our enemies." And quoting General McClellan, "To eradicate drinking
    from the camps would be worth 50,000 men to the armies of United
    States."
    Better close this reply for now, more later about the gambling and
    games....
    Jim
    

    The booze the men were getting wasn't really the best...one Indiana
    officer wrote that he and his comrades drank a brew of bark juice, tar
    water, turpentine, brown sugar, lamp oil and alcohol...the soldiers
    honored the stuff with such titles as "Old Red Eye,""Bust Skull,"
    "Rifle Knock-Knee,""Oh, Be Joyful" and "Oil of Gladness." 
    The gambling was a big time consumer in camp, dice and card games were
    especially favorites. The dice game they played was called chuck-a-
    luck..no idea how it's played, I assume it's like today dice. Letters
    to parents also told of chess games, arm wrestling and playing base-
    ball, they would make a baseball out of walnuts and wrapping them in
    yarn until they were the right size and cutting a limb from a tree
    and shaping it into a bat....this is really how baseball became the
    sport of America some say because it was brought back to the towns
    and villages they came from all over the U.S.
    Veneral disease was another problem.... Eight percent of the Federal
    troops were treated for VD in one form or another, this is just the
    reported cases. Two prostitutes named Mary and Molly Bell were caught
    in Confederate uniforms posing as one Tom Parker and Bob Morgan. They
    had been working within the ranks for nearly two years. The women were
    tried, found guilty and imprisoned for "aiding in the demoralization of
    of General Early's veterans. I'm making camp life sound like it was
    carefree....most of the troops spent their spare time reading(mostly
    the bible) and writing letters home to parents and love ones...a lot
    of this information was from letters to home.
    Foraging was a big time spender too....that's a whole note file though.
     
    Jim

	   Head  Quarters  Fifth  Regiment  New-Hampshire  Volunteers,

					        Camp  Jackson, October 8, 1861.


			   D A I L Y    C A L L S.

		Revielle (Roll Call).................6 o'clock A.M.
		Breakfast............................6 1/2 "    "
		Surgeon's Call.......................7     "    "
		Sergeant's Call......................7 1/2 "    "
		Guard Mounting.......................8     "    "
		Company Drill........................9     "    "
		Cease Drill.........................11     "    "
		Officer's Drill.....................11.10  "    "
		Cease Drill.........................12 o'clock M.
		Dinner..............................12 1/2 "   P.M.
		Fatigue to be beaten by the drums....1     "    "
		Company Drill........................2     "    "
		Cease Drill..........................4     "    "
		Officer's Drill......................4.10  "    "
		Dress Parade (Roll Call) ............5     "    "
		Retreat and Supper immediately after Dress Parade.
		Tattoo (Roll Call) ..................8 1/2 o'clock P.M.
		Taps.................................9        "     "

	  The Fatigue Call will be sounded by the Drums, and all Calls will
	be sounded in front of the Guard Tent.
	  At Revielle, Retreat and Tattoo, all the Field Music will assemble
	in front of the Guard tent.
	  The Light Infantry Revielle, Retreat and Tattoo will be sounded by
	the Buglers, and afterward played by the Drummers and Fifers.
	  Five minutes before Revielle, Retreat or Tattoo, the call for the
	assembly of the Field Music will be sounded by the Chief Bugler.
	  Half an hour before Dress Parade the signal will be sounded for
	the Band and Field Music to assemble on the Regimental Parade.
	  At the same time each Company will turn out, under arms, on its
	own Parade for Roll-Call and Inspection by its own officers.
	  When the Band commences playing the Companies will march promptly
	to the Parade Ground and form on the Color Company, to go through
	Dress Parade as laid down on pages 51 and 52 of the Army Regulations.
	  Cooks called one hour before Revielle to prepare Breakfast.
	  Between Revielle and Breakfast the men in each Company will see
	that their quarters and streets are in a cleanly and proper condition.


	  BY ORDER OF COLONEL E. E. CROSS

						     CHARLES DODD, Adjutant.

    Regarding gambling:  I read that just prior to a battle the men would
    get rid of any playing cards they had so that if they were killed they
    wouldn't be known as gamblers (sinners).
    
    I'm glad you mentioned that mostly the men read the Bible.  There was a
    dime novel industry going then (or was it later, say 1870's?) but a lot
    of the men seemed to stick with the Bible and/or newspapers when they
    could get them.  I think that that is reflected in the colorful and
    flowing language many of the men used.
    
    Cooking food also seemed to be an adventure.  There were no
    professional cooks in the army although some officers and men did have
    contraband's with them serving that purpose.   There are repeated
    accounts of new Union generals gaining the respect of their men by
    ensuring that fresh food was available to them.  It surprises me that
    McClellan, Burnside and Hooker were all known as generals who loved
    their men and showed it by providing rations and blankets and new
    uniforms.  If Mac was so good, why did Burnside have to do that and if
    Burnside was so good why did Hooker have to do the same thing?  I guess
    you had to stay on top of the Quatermasters all the time.  At times, fresh
    vegetables were left rotting on railroad sidings, beef cattle diverted
    to a black market and the men were often left with only hardtack, bacon
    and coffee.  Its amazing that the men could keep their strength on that
    diet.  However, I also realize that many more men died from decease
    than combat and I'm sure nutrition had a lot to do with that fact.
    
    I, too had read of baseball games so I guess that ends the myth that
    Abner Doubleday invented the game.
    
    Lastly, I enjoyed the account, I think it was just before Chancellorsvill
    of the massive snowball fight involving nearly 9,000 rebs.  Seems that a 
    lot of them had never seen snow before and they had what I'd guess was 
    the largest snowball fight in history!
    
    Love to hear more from the reinacters in the crowd.
    
    
    Marv
    
    

    The first recorded appearance of the word "baseball" was in 1815.  The
    game almost certainly developed from rounders.  What Doubleday did was
    to codify the game's rules.
    
    -dick

    
    It probably comes as a major disappointment to all Civil War buffs,
    but the official myth of baseball's beginnings has been pretty 
    effectively debunked. Abner Doubleday had nothing to do with the 
    codifying of its rules, that credit should go to another.
    
    Baseball is descended from ye good old English game of "rounders",
    I cringe to say it is now mainly played over there (and in Ireland)
    by pre-teenage girls. In the early 19th century it was played in 
    the US in a variety of guises, and known as base ball (two words)
    or town ball.
    
    The Doubleday "creation myth" was officially promulgated by a 
    Baseball Commission in the 1880's (I think), and filled a need among
    nationalistic Americans to have a native version of the game's
    beginning. Who better than a Civil War hero to be the official
    "founder" of baseball?
    
    The basis of the above statements comes from an essay by
    Stephen Jay Gould - I will bring in details tomorrow.
    This may seem to have little to do with Civil War camp life, but
    the game WAS played in the camps, and its true origins
    may be of interest.
    
    Toby

    
    Abner Doubleday was said by the committee (referred to in the 
    last note) to have "invented" base ball (so called) in 1838 at
    Cooperstown, New York by interrupting a marbles games behind
    a tailor's shop and drawing a diagram of a baseball field,
    explaining the rules of the game and designating the activity
    by its name "base ball". So was the evidence of a witness
    named Graves, whose evidence was (suspiciously) transmitted
    to the committe by its funder, A.G.Spalding, founder of the
    sporting goods company. However, Doubleday's claim was
    probably only as good as anyone elses, and there were 
    better claimants. But Graves' story met the need to have
    a native American and heroic origin for baseball, and this
    was the story adopted.
    
    The truth was that baseball evolved from English stick-and
    -ball games. In the novel "Northanger Abbey", Jean Austen
    wrote in 1789, "It was not very wonderful that Catherine
    ... should prefer cricket, base ball, riding on horseback,
    and running .......to books." These stick-and-ball games
    were brought to America, and during the 19th century
    evolved into a bewildering variety of games. In the
    Massachusetts Game, rules codified in late 1850s,
    bases were made of wooden stakes projecting four feet
    from the ground, the batter (called the striker) stood
    between first and fourth base. Sides changes after
    a single out. One hundred runs (called tallies) spelled
    victory. Balls hit in any direction were in play. Runners
    were not tagged out, but dismissed by "plugging", that is,
    being hit by a thrown while running between bases. Balls
    were soft. This game was known as town ball.
    
    Probably the ball games played by Civil War soldiers 
    resembled the older varieties of "town ball" rather than
    the modern game. The main version of the game that took
    over from the others was the New York Game, with rules
    codified by A.J.Cartwright in 1845. This had two innovations
    - he eliminated plugging by introducing the modern tagging,
    and he introduced foul lines, as his batter stood at home
    plate and had to hit the ball within defined lines. This
    enabled the game to become a spectator sport as watchers
    could now move close to the action.
    
    There were still some curiosities - twenty-one runs (called
    aces) won the game, and balls caught on one bounce were
    out. It is an amalgam of the New York Game and the 
    Masschusetts Game that led to modern baseball.
    
    It may or may not be true that "Abner Doubleday didn't
    know a baseball from a kumquat" as someone asserted, however
    he is probably wrongly credited with baseball's "invention".
    The other point is that the stick-and-ball games played
    in the Civil War camps was probably quite different to the
    modern game. The fascinating speculation is that is was
    the enforced mingling of men from different states with
    different varieties of game that accelerated the 
    evolution of modern baseball.
    
    I am indebted for this note to Stephen Jay Gould's 
    essay "The Creation Myths of Cooperstown" from his
    collection "Bully for Brontosaurus", published by
    Norton and Co.
    
    Toby  

    I'd mentioned in an earlier response drinking and gambling, which as
    someone else pointed out were a bigger problem than I'd mentioned, and
    they were a major difficulty throughout the armies. While we think of
    people like Grant who history tells us drank heavy and often, the 
    alcohol problem was something the army was forever trying to come 
    to grips with. Other activities were drilling, a "stick and ball" 
    game, whether 'baseball', 'rounders', 'townball' or whatever they
    played some form of whatever as recreation. Foraging parties also
    took up parts of the day, drilling, cleaning, sewing (repairs or
    new - some actually wrote of how well they could sew). The Gambling
    problem was also not a minor one. Likewise, as I read it referred
    to "horizontal refreshments" with ladies of negotiable affections
    was a form of 'recreation'.
    
    There were working parties for such things as latrine digging,
    wood cutting and so on as well. Reading, Letter writing, and 
    as with all armies from all times, no doubt, boredom would no
    doubt also be there as well. From a re-enactment point of view,
    I think it would be safe to say that "hurry up and wait" is not
    a new military term, but appears to be an age-old one. 
    
    J
    
    

One aspect of camp life that is probably impenetrable to us today
is the religious aspect. Over 90% of both sides believed in God
and an afterlife, so that a portion of each week was given over
to prayer and religious service. 

Both Lincoln and Davis, at different points in the war, ordered
national days of fasting and prayer to expiate the nation's sins.
Many chaplains accompanied the armies, some who were unofficial and
self-taught, and who also participated in combat. 

Despite the manifold temptations of camp life, it seems that both
armies saw an increase in religious practise during the war. An
above note describing the church built at Poplar Grove by the
New York Engineers in 1865 was entered above. There are probably 
    many examples of religious faith on the Southern side also.

Toby