hide Sorting

You can sort these results in two ways:

By entity
Chronological order for dates, alphabetical order for places and people.
By position (current method)
As the entities appear in the document.

You are currently sorting in ascending order. Sort in descending order.

hide Most Frequent Entities

The entities that appear most frequently in this document are shown below.

Entity Max. Freq Min. Freq
William T. Sherman 60 0 Browse Search
Washington (United States) 58 0 Browse Search
George G. Meade 48 0 Browse Search
United States (United States) 48 0 Browse Search
Petersburg, Va. (Virginia, United States) 39 1 Browse Search
Abraham Lincoln 38 0 Browse Search
Ulysses S. Grant 38 0 Browse Search
George B. McClellan 37 1 Browse Search
Richmond (Virginia, United States) 33 1 Browse Search
Virginia (Virginia, United States) 30 0 Browse Search
View all entities in this document...

Browsing named entities in a specific section of John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life. Search the whole document.

Found 51 total hits in 24 results.

1 2 3
Hatcher's Run (Ohio, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
d steadiness. No swaying motion was visible. To one passing across with a column of troops or wagons no motion was discernible. It seemed as safe and secure as mother earth, and the army walked them with the same serene confidence as if they were. I remember one night while my company was crossing the Appomattox on the bridge laid at Point of Rocks that D. Webster Atkinson, a cannoneer, who stood about six feet and a quarter in boots-dear fellow, he was afterwards mortally wounded at Hatcher's Run,--being well-nigh asleep from the fatigue of the all-night march we were undergoing, walked off the bridge. Fortunately for him, he Poplar Grove Church. stepped — not into four or five fathoms of water, buta ponton. As can readily be imagined, an unexpected step down of two feet and a half was quite an eyeopener to him, but, barring a little lameness, he suffered no harm. The engineers, as a whole, led an enjoyable life of it in the service. Their labors were quite fatiguing wh
Fredericksburg, Va. (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
n thirteen fathoms of water. The engineers began it during the forenoon of June 14, and completed the task at midnight. It was built under the direction of General Benham for the passage of the wagontrains and a part of the troops, while the rest crossed in steamers and ferry-boats. But ponton bridges were not always laid without opposition or interference from the enemy. Perhaps they made the most stubborn contest to prevent the laying of the bridges across the Rappahannock before Fredericksburg in December, 1862. The pontoniers had partially laid one bridge before daylight, but when dawn appeared the enemy's sharpshooters, who had been posted in buildings on the opposite bank, opened so destructive a fire upon them that they were compelled to desist, and two subsequent attempts to continue the work, though desperately made, were likewise brought to naught by the deadly fire of Mississippi rifles. At last three regiments, the Seventh Michigan, and the Nineteenth and Twentie
Antietam (Maryland, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
ion of regulars comprising three companies. They started out with McClellan in the Peninsular Campaign, and from that time till the close of the war were identified with the movements of this army. These engineers went armed as infantry for purposes of self-defence only, for fighting was not their legitimate business, nor was it expected of them. There were emergencies in the history of the army when they were drawn up in line of battle. Such was the case with a part of them at least at Antietam, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness, but, so far as I can learn, they were never actively engaged. The engineers' special duties were to make roads passable for the army by corduroying sloughs, building trestle bridges across small streams, laying pontoon bridges over rivers, and taking up the same, laying out and building fortifica- Corduroying. tions, and slashing. Corduroying called at times for a large amount of labor, for Virginia mud was such a foe to rapid transit that miles upon m
Virginia (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
oughs, building trestle bridges across small streams, laying pontoon bridges over rivers, and taking up the same, laying out and building fortifica- Corduroying. tions, and slashing. Corduroying called at times for a large amount of labor, for Virginia mud was such a foe to rapid transit that miles upon miles of this sort of road had to be laid to keep ready communication between different portions of the army. Where the ground was miry, two stringers were laid longitudinally of the road, ana large number of wagons loaded with intrenching tools with which to supply the troops when their services were required as engineers. The building of trestle bridges called for much labor from the engineers with the Army of the Potomac, for Virginia is gridironed with small streams. These, bear in mind, the troops could ford easily, but the heavily loaded trains must have bridges to cross on, or each ford would soon have been A trestle bridge, no. 2. choked with mired teams. Sometimes
Petersburg, Va. (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
butts pinned to the ground; the Praise, a defence of pointed sticks, fastened into the ground at such an incline as to bring the points breast-high ;--all these were fashioned by the engineer corps, in vast numbers, when the army was besieging Petersburg in 1864. But; the crowning work of this Chevaux-de-frise. corps, as it always seemed to me, the department of their labor for which, I believe, they will be the longest remembered, was that of pontonbridge laying. The word ponton, or pontheir officers' quarters were marvels of rustic design. The houses of one regiment in the winter of ‘63-4 were fashioned out of the straight cedar, which, being undressed, gave the settlement a quaint but attractive and comfortable appearance. Their streets were corduroyed, and they even boasted sidewalks of similar construction. Poplar Grove Church, erected by the Fiftieth New York Engineers, a few miles below Petersburg, in 1864, still stands, a monument to their skill in rustic design
Gettysburg (Pennsylvania, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
lars comprising three companies. They started out with McClellan in the Peninsular Campaign, and from that time till the close of the war were identified with the movements of this army. These engineers went armed as infantry for purposes of self-defence only, for fighting was not their legitimate business, nor was it expected of them. There were emergencies in the history of the army when they were drawn up in line of battle. Such was the case with a part of them at least at Antietam, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness, but, so far as I can learn, they were never actively engaged. The engineers' special duties were to make roads passable for the army by corduroying sloughs, building trestle bridges across small streams, laying pontoon bridges over rivers, and taking up the same, laying out and building fortifica- Corduroying. tions, and slashing. Corduroying called at times for a large amount of labor, for Virginia mud was such a foe to rapid transit that miles upon miles of thi
Po River (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
e pontons were suitably hinged to form a wagon A canvas pontoon boat. From a Photograph. body, in which was carried the canvas cover, anchor, chains, and a due proportion of other bridge materials. This kind of bridge was used by the volunteer engineers of the Army of the Potomac. I recall two such bridges. One spanned the Rapidan at Ely's Ford, and was crossed by the Second Corps the night of May 3, 1864, when it entered upon the Wilderness campaign. The other was laid across the Po River, by the Fiftieth New York Engineers, seven days afterwards, and over this Hancock's Veterans crossed — those, at least, who survived the battle of that eventful Tuesday-before nightfall. But all of the long bridges, notably those crossing the Chickahominy, the James, the Appomattox, which now come to my mind, were supported by wooden boats of the French pattern. These were thirty-one feet long, two feet six inches deep, five feet four inches wide at the top, and four feet at the bottom
Savannah (Georgia, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
the Potomac. They were used in the western army, however, somewhat. General F. P. Blair's division used them in the Vicksburg campaign of 1863. Another ponton which was adopted for bridge service may be described as a skeleton boat-frame, over which was stretched a cotton-canvas cover. This was a great improvement over the tin or copper-covered boat-frames, which had been thoroughly tested and condemned. It was the variety used by Sherman's army almost exclusively. In starting for Savannah, he distributed his ponton trains among his four corps, giving to each about nine hundred feet of bridge material. These pontons were suitably hinged to form a wagon A canvas pontoon boat. From a Photograph. body, in which was carried the canvas cover, anchor, chains, and a due proportion of other bridge materials. This kind of bridge was used by the volunteer engineers of the Army of the Potomac. I recall two such bridges. One spanned the Rapidan at Ely's Ford, and was crossed by
Richmond (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 21
their labors they did not even wait to pull up anchors, but cut every cable and cast loose, glad enough to see their flotilla on the retreat after the army, and more delighted still not to be attacked by the enemy during the operation, -so says one of their number. One writer on the war speaks of the engineers as grasping not the musket but the hammer, a misleading remark, for not a nail is driven into the bridge at any point, When the Army of the Potomac retreated from before Richmond in 1862 it crossed the lower Chickahominy on a bridge of boats and rafts 1980 feet long. This was constructed by three separate working parties, employed at the same time, one engaged at each end and one in the centre. It was the longest bridge built in the war, of which I have any knowledge, save one, and that the bridge built across the James, below Wilcox's Landing, in 1864. This latter was a remarkable achievement in ponton engineering. It was over two thousand feet long, and the ch
Xerxes (search for this): chapter 21
ld such bridges are called by the French pontoniers. In fact, the system of ponton bridges in use during the Rebellion was copied, I believe, almost exactly from the French model. The first ponton bridge which I recall in history was built by Xerxes, nearly twenty-four hundred years ago, across the Hellespont. It was over four thousand feet long. A violent storm broke it up, whereupon the Persian got square by throwing two pairs of shackles into the sea and ordering his men to give it threther to serve as a kind of floor or solid bottom; all which they covered over with earth, and added rails or battlements on each side that the horses and cattle might not be frightened at seeing the sea in their passage. Compare this bridge of Xerxes with that hereinafter described, and note the points of similarity. One of the earliest pontons used in the Rebellion was made of India-rubber. It was a sort of sack, shaped not unlike a torpedo, which had to be inflated before use. When thu
1 2 3