Technical advancements of war.

I know you pacifists will say that nothing good comes out of war.
But you have to admit that there are technical advancements made.
And common sense says that those that have the most are likely to win.

There were quite a few advancements made in the Civil War.
Maybe I'm a nerd, but, they seem interesting to me.

Take that little bronze cannon on the right.

It sure is a pretty shade of color. It's called the Napoleon.
But in some battles, like at Gettysburg, it was rarely fired.

That's because it could reach one mile but with very poor accuracy.

It is likely to hit somewhere between that first and second fence.

On the other hand….take a look at this guy:

See that obelisk 2 miles away?
This 1862 "rifle" could not only hit, but it could hit it repeatedly and at whatever height they wanted to aim at!

This is why:

Compare it with the smooth-bore old-styled Napoleon: 

See the wide grooves inside the bore of the newer one?
They make the shell rotate throughout he bore in a specific way that increased it's accuracy tremendously.

In fact, at the end of the war  they asked an Union artillery commander if it was true that they could hit something 3 miles away.
His response: "If I can see it, I can hit it."


Some make a big deal about how the Union, with its advanced manufacturing techniques, had much more of this type of equipment.
Well, let me tell you that all these pictures I have shown you are form the Confederate side of the Gettysburg line.

And take a look at these old style cannon balls, like the 12 pounder shot by the Napoleon above….

 vs. these much more modern shells.

Well, these were found at the Confederate side of where Grant crossed the Mississippi, south of Vicksburg.
Yep, those Rebels did have modern stuff, just not as much.

I know this might be TMI…
But, before I quit, I should show you one thing that did indeed give the Union a clear advantage:

The Rebels just didn't have these.
It's the Spencer repeating rifle, with multiple cartridges fed from it's buttocks, whenever the lever is activated.

Yes, both sides had learned about "rifling" their muzzle loaders to increase accuracy so a good hunter-type guy, while standing, could shoot his enemy at 300 yards.
No more need for that War of Independence order: "Don't shoot till you can see the whites of their eyes" (50 feet to 50 yards at the most).

By Gettysburg in 1863, the Union had these repeaters in the hands of many in the calvary. And by 1865 everyone in the calvary plus many footmen had these.
No need to stop and reload  after every shot with old-style single shoot muzzle-loaders or even the quicker single-loading breech-loaders! 

It explains why, despite Lee's fame as a great military leader,

1. Casualties at Gettysburg totaled 23,049 for the Union (3,155 dead, 14,529 wounded, 5,365 missing). 
   Confederate casualties were 28,063 (3,903 dead, 18,735 injured, and 5,425 missing), more than a third of Lee's army.
   
   
   Hope this has shown some of the "advancements" that war can bring.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Confusing numbers on the Civil War

Union Army's cemetery at Gettysburg

It's hard for me to figure out what is true, based on what I read and hear about the severity of the Civil War.

Repeatedly we are told that the total deaths was 600,000.
Comparing that number to today's U.S. population, it would be 6 million deaths!

But, if you look at specific battles, the numbers don't add up.
In each of the 3 big battlefields we visited, the death toll has been between 4 and 8,000 each.
Yet, some of first articles that appears on a Google search say there were 51,000 deaths at the Gettysburg battlefield!

A problem is that "deaths" and "casualties" are quoted interchangeably.

In fact, some claim that the total deaths just at Gettysburg was 51,000 (equal to the total deaths in Vietnam).

That has to be just plain wrong!

Union Army's cemetery at Gettysburg. 
There are NOT as many graves here as many articles report.

Most reliable-sounding articles say that the total numbers at the Gettysburg battlefield were around 8,000 killed….
plus 27,000 wounded, and 11,000 captured/missing.

There would have to be a lot of Gettysburg-size battles to add up to 600,000 deaths!

OK, OK Lets look at it differently.
Some say that 1/3 or 2/3 of those wounded eventually died from their injuries.
1/3 X 27K injured = 9,000 delayed deaths    Or     2/3 X 27k = 18,000 delayed deaths
That's a potential of up to 26,000 total, (8K immediate & 18K delayed deaths) at Gettysburg, if you eliminate the "missing".

There would still have to be a to of Gettysburg-size battles to add up to 600,000 deaths.


When asked about that, many Park Rangers say the missing were assumed to be deaths whose bodies were not counted or found. 
Plus, many died from diseases not related directly to battle. 
But, they don't have numbers readily available.

Well, that might be worth exploring! 


You can call me a little skeptical or even critical...
but, instead of assuming that all those missing or unaccounted fellows died, I think it is also likely that when the going-got-tough, the less-than-tough got going (i.e. home).

I don't argue that it was a horrible war,
just that people are using numbers that are unlikely to be correct.

Chickamauga: perhaps the greatest battle you haver never heard of!

Can you imagine a battle of 120,000 men 
(yes, ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND men) 
meeting each other across a small field in norther Georgia?

That's what happened over 2 days, a little south of the great 
Confederate railroad town of Chattanooga, Tennessee,
in the middle of September of 1863.

It is just 2 1/2 months after the defeat of the Confederates at Vicksburg AND at Gettysburg.
Desperate for a re-gain of control, the Confederates amass their troops here, with the absolute need to reconquer their railroads at Chattanooga, just a few miles away.

The Union send out it's troop and General Bragg orders his Confederates to attack at sunrise.
But, at 9:30 AM the battle has not begun: 
the leader in charge of beginning the attack is found having breakfast with a local farmer.
The Confederate military does to think much of Bragg. 
They think he is a political appointment, not a military leader. 

So the Union attacks from behind these trees. 

A raging battle ensues. 
But in the end, the Union has to retreat back to their safety in Chattanooga.

Why is it that the Confederates win this battle despite their altered plans? 
Is it their determination to save their cause? 
Or is it their better leadership?

It does not matter. 
This is only a Pyrrhic victory.

Look at these numbers:

The Confederates have lost too much: they have no further reinforcements of men, horses, or supplies. 
They have just about spent all they had.


Shortly after that, they try to capture Chattanooga, with the advantage of having control of the hill.
They fail.

So, it is now clear that the summer of 1863 has changed it all.
The Union, who had not had a significant victory since the beginning of the war in '61, is now on a roll!

(Next time we'll talk about Gettysburg and what gave the Union it's advantage).

Our Civil War Tour begins at Vicksburg, Mississippi

It's the beginning of a turn in the war, into the Union's advantage.

All other major Confederate ports north of here had been recently conquered.
President Lincoln had said this was the most important campaign of the war.
Once Vicksburg was captured, it would deny the South access to all the supplies and food sent to it form Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas.

It was a long siege, though.
It took Ulysses Grant from March 29 to July 4, 1863 to capture the city.

This picture gives you a hint of why.

Vicksburg is up on a hill and the Mississippi is quite wide at this point.

Attacks from the north over land had failed.

Grant took his troops across the river and tried using mortar cannons (mounted on schooners) to quiet the artillery being used against him from the city on the hill.

These guys weighed 17,000 pounds each and fired 12 inch explosive bombs.

He also used 6 armor-clad ironsides to sail down the river and fire up at the city.
These ships burned 2,000 pounds of coal per hour to travel at their peak of 8 mph.
Can you imagine the heat those 175 sailors experienced in a vessel sheathed with steel, without windows, in Mississippi's May heat?

Here is one that has been recovered from the river bottom.

But, no luck. They didn't quiet the Confederate's hill top cannons bombarding him on the river.

So, Grant moves downriver and tries to cross and attack form the south. 
He fails in capturing and crossing at Grand Gulf.
But, a slave tells him that 10 miles further downriver a crossing by the army might be possible.

He is correct. Grant crosses the river without opposition and marches east all the way to the capital at Jackson. 
He conquers that and several other Confederate sites. 
He then attacks Vicksburg by land from the east and lays siege on May 18.

With no supplies coming in, and nearly starving troops, the Confederates concede Vicksburg on July 4, 1863.

Almost 5,000 men have died and another 15,000 wounded (in similar numbers for each side) since the beginning of this campaign in March 29th.

The choice of Independence Day as the surrender day of 29,000 men was a tactical move by the Confederate's General Pemberton. 
He is hopeful Grant will be lenient and not punish his soldiers severely.

And indeed Grant lets them go free. 
He does to want prisoners to feed.
He figures the return home of the worn-out, nearly starved  soldiers will be a psychological knife that will take the will-to-fight out of Confederates in the small towns.

But, just like in our recent Guantanamo experience, many of those soldiers are back on the line, fighting the Union at the battle we might discuss on our next blog: 

The battle of Chickamauga,  just 2 1/2 months after Vicksburg.

Our Civil War Tour

As we mentioned yesterday, we are in what I call "Our Civil War Tour".

We did't take this trip because we had an interest in the war. 
We were just tagging along with friends who happened to have relatives who fought in these battles.

We have found that there's a lot of info running around. 
And some of it just doesn't make sense. 
In fact numbers often quoted just seem to be exaggerations. 

So, if you have nothing to do, keep an eye out for posts over the next few days.
We might all learn a little something

Who owned the land of Arlington Cemetery?

From the picture above, I bet you have figured out that we are at Arlington Cemetery, in Washington DC.

It's part of what I call our Civil War Tour. More about that another day.

The history of the cemetery is quite interesting. 

It turns out that the land was the home of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate General. When he left his land for the war, the Union took over it and made it part of their military complex. Near the end of the war there had been so may deaths close-by that they needed a place to bury those soldiers. So the Union donated 200 acres of Lee's property for a burial site. Then they added more and more acres over the years. 

(P.S. After the War, the US Govt. recompensed the Lee Family for appropriating the property, but I do not know the term of that payment.)

Anyway, Did you know that George Washing also had something to do with this? Well, in an indirect way

Here are the details: Robert E. Lee got the land form his wife when they got married.

But Robert E. Lee's wife was the granddaughter of George Washington….(by way of being the daughter of Martha Washington's son form her prior marriage, whom George had  adopted as a son).

So there you have it. 
An original leader of our nation and a leader of the Confederacy both had to do with Arlington Cemetery.

An eerie picture

This picture is a little eerie. 

I took it across form the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Wash. DC.

It's the Korean Memorial.

It has the faces of soldiers form that "war",

etched on a black wall. 

And the reflection of the ralaxed passers-by really reinforce the meaning of a quote on a facing wall, 

"FREEDOM IS NOT FREE".