Battle of Antietam Page

The Rohrbach Bridge at Antietam (Image by Phil Spaugy) 
















Among the Wounded at Antietam (15th Massachusetts)






















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Arming the Union: Federal Contract Model 1861 Springfield Rifle Muskets

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A t the outset of the Civil War, the Federal government ran into a serious issue when the Confederacy occupied Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, the home of one of the nation’s two armories, and carted the gun making equipment off to Richmond, Virginia. This left just the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts as the sole government-operated entity to produce longarms for the Union army.           But it quickly became apparent that production at Springfield would have to be supplemented, so the War Department pursued two tracks to increase the weapons supply. Agents were dispatched to Europe to purchase suitable weapons from England, France, Austria, Belgium, and Prussia. Over time, these agents acquired hundreds of thousands of European arms of different designs and origins that equipped Federal regiments in the first years of the war.           In the meantime, operations at the Springfiel...
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Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

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     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on t...
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Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

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       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true ...
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The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

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     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on se...
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With a Yell and a Charge: Captain Morton’s Artillery Charge at Brice’s Crossroads

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A mong the more extraordinary incidents of the Battle of Crossroads was the artillery charge by Captain John W. Morton and his battery. The 21-year-old, General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s chief of artillery, recalled the charge in a letter to his father a few days after the engagement.           “About 1 o’clock, everything, artillery and all, was ordered to charge,” he noted. “Our line moved promptly with a deafening shout and hail of bullets and balls which told terribly upon the enemy which broke their lines and put them in perfect confusion and rout. I charged with the batteries nine times. Once I had two pieces a little in advance of the others and with them in a charge was 20 or 30 yards in advance of our line when we drove the enemy. Just before we captured their wagons, they made a desperate stand and with their reserves concentrated, charged our right flank which gave way and fell back upon the two right pieces of my battery. The en...
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A Different Vista on the Civil War: An "Ohio" Marked Lorenz Rifle

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          While the focus of this blog has been almost exclusively on chronicling the services of Ohioans during the Civil War through their own words, once in a while it is worthwhile to look into object-based history to help further illuminate the times. Object-based history provides a different vista through which to view past events, by studying the manufacture, use, and history of the objects themselves. Today's post marks my first entry into studying the Civil War through its relics and objects. Unidentified Yankee private holding a Lorenz rifle and Colt revolver (Library of Congress)            I recently acquired an Ohio-marked M1854 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifle from a longtime Civil War collector. When I decided to purchase the rifle, I knew little beyond the fact that I had come across dozens of references to this usually well-regarded longarm in my research over the years and it was one of the more att...
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Grant's Bodyguard: An Illinois Trooper at Fort Donelson

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Continuing on last week's theme of brushes with the legends of the Civil War, this week's post features a letter from Illinois trooper Private George M. Bradley of Co. A, 4th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. Bradley, a native of Akron, Ohio, enlisted September 26, 1861 in the 4th Illinois Cavalry and served three years as a Private, mustering out November 3, 1864.  Perhaps one of the most noteworthy things about his service was the time he spent as a bodyguard for General Ulysses S. Grant during the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. Interestingly, Bradley joined up with the 2nd Iowa Infantry on February 15, 1862 and participated in their celebrated attack that broke the Confederate right and precipitated the surrender of the fort on the following day. The charge of the 2nd Iowa will be the feature of my next blog post as I have a number of accounts from Ohioans who participated as members of the 2nd Iowa. Bradley's letter saw print in the March 13, 1862 issue of the...
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With the Regulars at Stones River

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     For the 15th U.S. Infantry, the Battle of Stones River was a confusing and very bloody affair. As part of the newly formed Regular Brigade of the Army of the Cumberland, the regiment waded into the dark cedar forest on the morning of December 31, 1862 and promptly found themselves in a swirling cauldron of smoke, bullets, falling tree limbs, and shrieking Confederates. As related in this extraordinary account written by Sergeant Frank Reed of Co. H, the 15th U.S. took heavy losses before they were able to extract themselves from the mess, losses totaling a third of regiment. The 27 year-old former school teacher from Harrison County, Ohio was later captured September 19, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga and died from smallpox as a POW at Danville, Virginia on February 5, 1864. (Thanks Kim Torgler!)       Reed's account was originally published in the January 30, 1863 issue of the Ohio Democrat of New Philadelphia, Ohio. Regular Brigade Monume...
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72nd Ohio Infantry Flag Captured at the Battle of Shiloh

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72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Flag at Shiloh  This afternoon, I had the opportunity to visit the Sandusky County Historical Museum in Fremont, Ohio. Among the artifacts scattered throughout the museum is the original regimental battle flag of the 72nd O.V.I. This flag was captured during the battle of Shiloh and there is a fascinating story of the flag being lost, then returned to the survivors of the regiment in October 1896. This flag was presented to the regiment by the mayor of Fremont in January 1862 as the regiment was leaving Camp Croghan to head south to war. It was entrusted to Sergeant Gustavus H. Gessner of Co. H. During the skirmish at Crump's Landing on April 4, 1862, Gessner received a neck wound and went into the hospital; the flag was left furled in his tent. At the outset of the Battle of Shiloh two days later, Co. H was on picket duty and the company commander Captain Samuel A.J. Snyder (who under arrest for shooting a squirrel in camp and consequently...
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Arming the Empire State: Arms Issues to New York Infantry Regiments in 1861

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     During the Civil War, the state of New York provided more than 400,000 men to the Union army, the highest number of soldiers of any state, and as can be imagined, the task of arming those hundreds of thousands of volunteers was a very difficult one. At the outbreak of hostilities, the state militia numbered 19,000 men but the state possessed only about 8,000 long arms nearly all of which were utilized to arm the eleven militia regiments which left the state in the earliest days of the war. The state dispatched an agent to England on April 24 th to purchase 25,000 Enfield pattern rifle muskets but upon his arrival, he found those weapons hard to find as Confederate agents had already been busy buying up the stock. Eventually, he was able to secure 19,000 Enfields at a cost of $335,000; these weapons arrived in bits and pieces over the next several months and were issued out soon after their arrival to newly formed regiments.  A perusal of the adjutant general’...
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