Battle of Antietam Page

The Rohrbach Bridge at Antietam (Image by Phil Spaugy) 














Among the Wounded at Antietam (15th Massachusetts)





















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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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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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Days of Constant Vigilance and Fighting: The 8th Texas Cavalry and the Opening of the Stones River Campaign

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G eneral John Wharton’s cavalry brigade, tasked with guarding the left flank of the Army of Tennessee’s position in middle Tennessee, saw plenty of action in the opening days of the Stones River campaign as remembered by Chaplain Robert F. Bunting of the 8 th Texas Cavalry. “The old year, freighted with momentous events, is numbered with the mighty past,” he wrote to the editor of the Houston Tri-Weekly Telegraph . “It’s blended hopes and fears, its mingled sighs and tears, its victories and defeats are all among things that were. 1863 has been born amid the stirring scenes which will have a prominent record in history. The second battle of Murfreesboro has been fought, a glorious triumph has followed our arms and the sounds of victory were sounding forth along the lines of the Army of Tennessee. That brilliant achievement was the last legacy which the departing year could give to our bleeding country.” In this excerpt from Chaplain Bunting’s lengthy account of the campaign, he de...
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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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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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The Forlorn Hope at Vicksburg

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“The forlorn hope.” The very words are chilling and evoke a desperate and deadly military enterprise which has little or no chance of success; a guaranteed ticket to the grave. On May 22, 1863 outside Vicksburg, Mississippi, 150 volunteers from General Frank Blair’s division of William T. Sherman’s 15 th Army Corps signed up for just such a desperate endeavor. The men were to carry logs, planks, and ladders. Their mission was to approach Stockade Redan near the northeast corner of the Vicksburg fortifications and bridge the ditch in front of the fort so that the onrushing Union infantry behind them could reach the works. The end goal was worth the sacrifice: the capture of Vicksburg was the primary aim of Grant’s army and here existed an opportunity to seize the jewel prize of the campaign. The Forlorn Hope at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863             Among the 150 volunteers were two men from Co. I of the 30 th Ohio Volunteer Inf...
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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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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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It is a Rough Life: Taking New Orleans with the 12th Connecticut

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F irst impressions often make lasting impressions, and for Sergeant Charles Evans of the 12th Connecticut, the first impression made by the citizens of New Orleans boils down to one word: surly. One example of this was when his regiment disembarked on the afternoon of May 2, 1862, the 12th Connecticut being among the first Union troops to occupy the city.  “Late in the afternoon of May 2 nd , we were ordered to land in the midst of thousands of secessionist soldiers and citizens,” he wrote his brother back home in Connecticut. “As each company descended from the ship to the dock, they were brought to a front and ordered to load which gave the Rebels to understand what they had to deal with in case of a street fight. And we confidently expected it. The bitterness exhibited by the vast gathering boded nothing else. The women were more insulting than the men owing, I suppose, to the worldwide reputation of gallantry on the part of Yankee soldiers. The taunts were intolerable and onl...
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