The Civil War Soldier: 700 Key Weapons, Uniforms, & Insignia by Rizzoli International Publications

U N ION A ND C ONFED E RAT E OF F I CE RSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; HANDGUNS 1 and 2 Pair of Colt Model 1851 Navy revolvers, .36 caliber; of Major General John Schofield 3 Butterfield Percussion Army revolver, .41 cal 4 Colt Model 1849 Pocket revolver engraved; of Captain J. N. Derby

13 Colt Model 1851 Navy revolver, .36 caliber 14 Savage-North Navy revolver, .36 caliber 15 Starr Model 1863 Army revolver, .44 caliber 16 Remington-Beals Army revolver, .44 caliber

5 Pettengill Army revolver, .44 caliber

17 Colt Model 1848 Army .44 revolver, 1st Model

6 Joslyn Army revolver, .44 caliber

18 Perrin and Company revolver, .45 caliber

7 Starr Model 1858 Navy revolver, .36 caliber 8 Allen and Wheelock Lipfire Army revolver, .44 caliber 9 Le Mat 2nd Model revolver, .41/45 cal, of Captain J. N. Maffatt of the Confederate Navy 10 Adams Patent revolver 11 Colt Model 1850 Army revolver, .44 caliber, engraved; of Major General George B. McClellan 12 Whitney Navy revolver, .36 caliber, of Colonel Julius W. Adams

6 | THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG

THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG | 7

O P P O SI TE Regulation drums

from New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts regiments. Base and snare drums were the basic types and army records indicate that more than 3,200 were purchased during the Civil War. Associated accoutrements were slings, beaters, and sticks. Bands were played for parades, guard mount, morning colors, reviews, and funerals. During battle, the musicians sometimes served as stretcher-bearers and surgeonsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; assistants in hospitals. After the battle they gathered and buried the dead.

LEF T An unidentified Union

drummer boy photographed on a sixth plate tintype

12 | THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG

THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG | 13

16 | THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG

UNION AMMUNITION AND ACCOUTREMENTS

2 and 3 Percussion caps as issued

16 Packet of .31 caliber paper cartridges

4 Lawrence primers for the Sharps carbine

17 Packet of .44 caliber paper cartridges

5 .58 caliber ball paper cartridge

18 Open packet of .44 paper cartridges

1 Percussion cap box

6 Muzzle-loading .69 caliber ball paper cartridge 7 .50 caliber Smith cartridge 8 .52 caliber Sharps cartridge 9 .54 caliber metal cartridge for a Burnside carbine 10 .50 caliber metal cartridge for a Maynard carbine 11 .52 caliber Sharps and Hankins metal cartridge 12 .44 caliber metal cartridge for Henry repeating rifle 13 Tin of British-made Eley brand percussion caps for Colt pistols 14 Pistol bullet mold 15 Pistol tool

THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG | 17

AB O VE LEF T The Confederate National Flag, First Pattern, was

adopted by the Provisional Congress of Confederate States on March 4, 1861. It was never authorized by law. AB O VE Flag of 57th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry, at one

time a unit of General Bragg’s corps, Army of Mississippi/Army of Tennessee. The shape of the large pink border around the flag, and the twelve six-pointed stars, indicate that this is the second pattern flag of Bragg’s corps. The first had been smaller and squarer. LEF T Flag of 57th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry, at one

8 | THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG

AB O VE LEF T Flag of 8th Regiment Virginia Volunteer Infantry,

presented to the unit by General P. G. T. Beauregard in recognition of the valor displayed by its members at the Battle of Balls Bluff (Leesburg), Virginia, October 21, 1861. AB O VE Virginia state seal flag, unit unknown, proudly boasting

Sic Semper Tyrannis (“Ever Thus to Tyrants”) beneath the figure of “Liberty.” LEF T Believed to be the flag of the North Carolina Infantry

Regiment (second bunting issue), captured by Federal troops at the Battle of Chancellorsville.

THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG | 9

10 | THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG

Drums and The Drum Corps Armies would regularly recruit young boys for service as drummers, well into the nineteenth century. This wasn’t just to provide music, as the drums performed an important role in the battlefield communications system, with various rolls signaling different commands. Recruiting boys for the work freed men for combat duty, and as the boys got older they could be regularly enlisted in the ranks. Drummer boys were usually treated as something of a mascot by the troops, and often entrusted to the good offices of the regimental chaplain. Since they had few military duties to perform, the life of a drummer boy appeared rather glamorous, and so as would be expected, boys of all ages tried to enlist, often running away from home. Officially there were age restrictions, but these were often ignored, and boys as young as ten were occasionally found beating the “long roll” which called the men into action. Needless to say, drummer boys—in Confederate regiments they were sometimes black—were often in the thick of the fighting, becoming casualties on a regular basis. Many lie in unknown graves, such as the heroic boy who fell at the head of Confederate Col. James C. Tappan’s 13th Arkansas in an unnamed skirmish along the Arkansas River.

A number of drummer boys greatly distinguished themselves in action, and several became rather well known. The most famous drummer boy of the Civil War was undoubtedly John Clem (1851 - 1937), who added “Lincoln” as his middle name in 1861. At the age of ten little Johnny ran away from home in Newark, Ohio, and tried to enlist in various regiments, until the 24th Ohio took him on. He served at Shiloh, earning the nickname “Johnny Shiloh” for his steadiness. Later transferring to the “22nd Michigan”, Clem drummed the long roll at Chickamauga -- where he earned the nickname “The Drummer Boy of Chickamauga” -- and at Chattanooga and several other battles, occasionally finding the time to lend a hand with the fighting as well. After the war he attempted to win an appointment to West Point, but having been otherwise occupied when most children his age were in school, he was a “bit weak” academically. With the support of President Ulysses S. Grant, in whose army he had drummed at Shiloh, and Maj. Gen. George “The Rock of Chickamauga” Thomas, for whom he had drummed on that disastrous occasion, Clem was given a direct commission into the army as a second lieutenant in 1871, retiring 45 years later as a major general, the last Civil War veteran on active duty.

LEFT The Drump Corps of the 93rd New York Infantry at

Beatleton, VA in August 1863.

THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG | 11

4 | THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG

C O N FE D E R AT E O FFI C E R S ’ C A M P E Q U I P M E N T 1 Frock coat of Brigadier General James Connor

19 Field glasses of General Pierre Beauregard

2 Connor’s English Model 1822 infantry sword

20 Cavalry gauntlets

3 Camp chair used by General Robert E. Lee, 1863

22 Hat of Captain John Hudgins, 30th Virginia Infantry

4 Boots of J. McKenna

23 Confederate tobacco

5 Bourbon whiskey bottle

24 Carved dogwood pipe

6 Walnut wine chest 7 Ammunition box

25 Shaving glass of Brigadier General Henry Wise

8 Wooden trunk of General Joseph Johnston

26 Velvet housewife of Colonel Nathan Davis

9 and 10 Saddle roll and valise 11 Leather brogans

27 Wooden inkwell of Governor John Gary Evans, S.C.

12 Leather dressing case

28 Evans’ pen

13 Belt and plate of Captain William Wright

29 Pearl-handled dagger

14 Colt 1860 Army revolver of Dr. H. McGuire

31 Field desk of General “Jeb” Stuart

15, 16 and 17 Boot pullers

32 Walnut desk of Lieutenant General Richard Ewell

18 Dressing case of Major General Robert Ransom Jr.

21 Officer’s sash

30 Bone-handled knife

33 Wooden cane

THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG | 5

2 | THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG

THE BLOODY ANGLE 1864 After the Battle of the Wilderness, the armies raced for the crossroads town of Spotsylvania, located on the main road to Richmond. Lee won the race, but by the slimmest of margins. His dismounted cavalry held off the Union army just long enough for the Confederate infantry to arrive. At the time of the battle, Spotsylvania itself was little more than a cluster of buildings, along with the courthouse shown in the above image. For two weeks, the opposing armies parried and thrust on the outskirts of Spotsylvania. The worst day was May 12, 1864, when the Union Second Corps managed to break the Southern line at what came to be called the “Bloody Angle.” For twenty-three straight hours, the two sides struggled against one another in the longest period of sustained combat of the war. That evening, Lee withdrew from the Bloody Angle, taking up a shorter line just south of the scene of the fight on May 12, 1864. The carnage of the Bloody Angle left many a combatant nearly speechless. According to a Massachusetts soldier, “I cannot begin to tell you the horrors I have seen . . . the rebels are piled up in heaps three or four deep and the pit is filled with them piled up dead and wounded.” The fighting at Spotsylvania continued, but the worst was over. On May 20–21, 1864, after the Battle of Harris

Farm, the crippled armies abandoned their lines outside the town and began moving south toward Richmond. During the march, Grant’s headquarters were briefly located on borrowed pews outside Massaponax Church. The church retains its wartime appearance today.

LEF T Two days after recording the dead of Harris Farm,

Timothy O’Sullivan captured the Union high command sitting on pews taken outside Massaponax Church. In this image, the overall commander of the Union armies, Ulysses S. Grant, can be seen looking over the shoulder of the seated George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac. In the background, wagons emblazed with the Maltese cross emblem of the Fifth Corps can be seen traveling south toward the North Anna River.

THE CIVIL WAR KIT-BAG | 3