Disease & Sickness Ravaged Civil War America
During the American Civil War over 620,000 people were casualties (and probably a lot more) with 504 dying every day. For the soldier, two out of every three would die of disease. The average soldier quickly discovered that one of the worst places to be sent were the field hospitals. William C. Haynes of the 11th Kansas wrote in February of 1863 wrote about the toll of war with regard to disease (and sickness) and how it ravaged the soldier and the army:
no toungue can tell suffering that they have endured the past winter and have had all in their favor Soldiers are Bound to suffer no mater as to the weather For when they get sick there is hard times come these Not more than one out of every ten that is sick and goes to hospital that ever gets out of it alive Our soldiers that was wounded at prierie grove have all died one man had his finger shot off and it killed him two more was shot in Leg and they died the measles
Civil War Soldiers: William Beynon Phillips
The William Beynon Phillips Collection is one of the better ones in the Soldier Studies database for its historical value. Phillips joined the Union cause in August, 1862, near Scranton, Pennsylvania to fill the ranks of Schooley’s Battery; which shortly later became attached to the 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery as Company M. [to the right is a drawing by Phillips found in the collection of writings.] Phillips was an educated…
Read more...Civil War Soldier Valor the Story of Sam Davis
Sam Davis was captured by Federal cavalry 15 miles outside Pulaski, Tennessee. He was captured wearing a “Federal soldier’s coat” and was a suspected spy and would therefore, per military law, be hanged. Brig. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge was in charge and when Davis was brought to him, he reportedly implored the young man to tell him who he was a spy for (Confederate outlaw “Coleman” led the network of…
Read more...Did the Civil War create a lot of Morphine Addicts?
A question posed in 1999 asked, “I’ve often read that there were 500,000 morphine addicts running around after the Civil War. Is this true? If so, did narcotics have a deleterious effect on the Old West? How many cowboys were wacko on these then-legal drugs?” According to one interesting source, the answer was… maybe: Still, even allowing for exaggeration by drug alarmists, you have to think the Civil War had…
Read more...The Valiant Soldier: The Civil War & Frontier Diary of W. Henry Oettiker
The Valiant Soldier: The Civil War & Frontier Diary of W. Henry Oettiker Soldier Studies Voices, Vol. 1 Paperback includes photos, maps, illustrations 6×9, 132 pages ed. Christopher C. Wehner Soldier Studies is pleased to announce what will hopefully be the first in a series of books dealing with unique Civil War soldier diaries and letters. SoldierStudies.org founder, curator, and historian Chris Wehner edited the Civil War and frontier diary…
Read more...The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory (Book Review)
The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter Lance J. Herdegen Format: Hardcover, 696 pages Price: $39.95 ISBN: 978-1-61121-106-1 eBook: 978-1-61121-107-8 On Sale: September 2012 6×9, 124 b/w photos, 15 maps Lance J. Herdegen is the Award-winning author of Those Damned Black Hats!: The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign and is the former director of the Institute of Civil…
Read more...Soldier Archives Data: Letters by State
From the Browse Letters option at SoldierStudies.org: Several observations on the data, Union correspondences in the database far exceed Confederate; which is not unusual, but we hope to get more. New York leads all states whether Union or Confederate with 167. The top three are all Union: New York: 167 Pennsylvania: 145 Massachusetts: 136 The data represents the declared state (including: Territory, Regular Army, US Colored ,ect.), unit, and allegiance…
Read more...The Demobilization of the Union and Confederate Armies
On April 1, 1993 William B. Holberton, a veteran of World War 2, submitted his Master’s Thesis (Read it here) at Lehigh University. A thesis that would ultimately become a book published in 2001 by Stackpole Books. Hoblerton passed away in March, 2000, and the final editing was completed by several historians he worked with. Homeward Bound: The Demobilization of the Union and Confederate Armies, 1865-66 by William B. Holberton….
Read more...A Leader of Soldiers
Ulysses S. Grant, of course, was a leader of soldiers. He was in many respects a simple soldier himself. I won’t say he would have been happy to have been a simple soldier in the Civil War; he was a driven man out to prove himself in 1861-62. Though I wonder if there were times in 1864 he wouldn’t have minded trading places with some anonymous soldier somewhere other than…
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