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Southerners: Taken on May 10, 1861, this photo shows the Clinch Rifles, a militia unit from Richmond County, Georgia, the day before it was mustered into Confederate service as Company A, 5th Georgia Infantry Regiment. This unit fought throughout the war in the Western theater. At the Battle of Chickamauga (September 19, 1863), the 5th Georgia suffered 194 casualties out of 317 men present for duty—a loss of over 60%.
Northerners: Company K, 6th Vermont Infantry Regiment was raised in Franklin County, Vermont, in September 1861 and entered Federal service on October 15, 1861. Throughout the war, it served in the Vermont Brigade in the Eastern theater with the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Vermont Infantry Regiments. Over the course of the war, the 6th Vermont lost 418 officers and men, roughly half from combat and half from illness (a fairly typical proportion).
With officers in front, the 2nd Michigan Infantry Regiment stands ready for a review. Infantry regiments were supposed to maintain a strength of around 1,000 men. Illness, combat losses, and difficulties in recruitment, however, meant that most regiments in the field carried perhaps half that number, with some veteran regiments having even less. This photograph is interesting because it shows a Civil War infantry regiment very much as it would have appeared before advancing forward to attack—in a long line, two men deep (in combat, however, regiments tended to lose their cohesion). Although officers sought to employ the linear tactics of the 18th century, the democratic individualism of the soldiers and the murderous effectiveness of the new rifled arms made such tactics increasingly difficult to implement.
A battery of the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, around 1863. Note how many men, horses, and caissons are required to support a single battery of six guns.
Taken by a Northern photographer during the Peninsular Campaign, this image captures a portion of the Army of the Potomac as it advanced on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, in the spring of 1862. Look at all the tents, wagons, and horses. Imagine how much food, clothing, supplies, weapons, and ammunition these men require. Think of all the services required to keep an army of 120,000 men mobile and effective—people like doctors, blacksmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, bakers, and teamsters to name a few. No wonder George McClellan, the Army of the Potomac's commander, sought to advance up the peninsula formed by the James and York Rivers—that way, he could easily draw supplies from a water route. A water route promised faster, more consistent transportation and could not be cut by the Confederates.
Monitors as a class took their name from their archetype, the USS Monitor, the North's first turreted ironclad which appeared in 1862. This is a picture of the USS Sangamon, a later monitor, as it patrolled the James River during the siege of Petersburg in 1864. Heavy, awkward, underpowered, hot, and barely seaworthy (note the low deck), these vessels were nonetheless the first of the modern warships. On this photo, one can clearly see the turret with two portholes for firing the vessel's guns. Behind the turret, one can also see the smokestack for the steam engine that drove this monster.
In August 1861, the Federal army ordered seven ironclad gunboats for service along the Mississippi River. Known as the "city class" of gunboats (they were all named after Northern river ports), these gunboats sported ten 8-inch guns and 2 1/2-inch armor. This is one of those gunboats, the USS Carondelet. Although these vessels were also underpowered and awkward, they saw a great deal of service along the Mississippi as Federal forces attempted to cut the Confederacy in two. Note the two smokestacks for the steam engine.
The US Military Rail Road (USMRR) took responsibility for building and maintaining the railroads that supplied Federal armies throughout the South. A factory in Taunton, Massachusetts manufactured this locomotive (named the "General Haupt" after the commander of the US Military Rail Road) for the USMRR.
Alexandria, Virginia: A USMRR yard full of rails to maintain Federal rail lines.
Stockpiles of artillery shells at a Federal government arsenal in Washington, DC. Right in front of the gentleman standing at left are "bolts" for rifled artillery. Note the elongated shape and grooves on the sides of these munitions.
Members of the Federal army's Signal Corps pose as they erect a pole and string some telegraph wire. The telegraph, invented in the 1840s, allowed President Lincoln and his various generals to communicate with one another very rapidly over great distances.
In 1864, at City Point, Virginia, a steamboat empties its freight on a dock occupied by boxcars that will bring war material to the Federal forces besieging Petersburg, Virginia.
The rail terminus of the USMRR at City Point, Virginia. From here, trains brought war material to the Federal forces besieging Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864. Note the barges on the river in the background.
In 1864, after the original railroad bridge over Potomac Creek burned down, Federal engineers working for the USMRR built this improvised structure in a matter of days.
As the Confederates abandoned their capital at Richmond, Virginia in April 1865, they set fire to a number of war-related buildings—the arsenal, iron works, factories, various mills, and the like. The fire spread and consumed much of the industrial section of town near the James River. A Northern photographer took this image shortly after Federal forces captured the city. Note the American flag flying from the Virginia State House.
This photograph shows the earthworks and trenches surrounding Petersburg, Virginia. Petersburg was a crucial rail junction that linked Richmond to the rest of the Confederacy. In 1864, seeking to destroy Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and capture the rebel capital, Federal forces under Ulysses S. Grant conducted siege operations against the town. In April 1865, when they threatened to finally cut the last rail line into Petersburg, the Federals compelled Confederate forces to relinquish Richmond and retreat to the west where Lee's army eventually surrendered.
Antietam, Maryland, September 17, 1862: These Confederates, mostly from Louisiana, died in the early morning of the battle while defending the left flank of the Confederate position which ran along the Hagerstown Turnpike. More Americans died or received mortal wounds on September 17, 1862—around 6,000—more than any other day in American military history.
Chancellorsville Campaign, Virginia, May 3, 1863: A Southern soldier who died attempting to hold the Confederate line on Marye's Heights overlooking Fredricksburg, Virginia. Note the rifle across the soldier's body—photographers loved to place weapons on bodies to add drama to the image.
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 1-3, 1863: A Federal shell appears to have disembowelled this Confederate soldier.
Spotsylvania, Virginia, May 19, 1864: This Southern soldier died in a Confederate attack that sought to prevent the Federals from outflanking the heavily entrenched Southern position near Spotsylvania Court House.
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Copyrighted by Hugh Dubrulle, 2003.