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William Schouler, A history of Massachusetts in the Civil War: Volume 2 1,245 1,245 Browse Search
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing) 666 666 Browse Search
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Massachusetts in the Army and Navy during the war of 1861-1865, vol. 2 260 260 Browse Search
Brigadier-General Ellison Capers, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 5, South Carolina (ed. Clement Anselm Evans) 197 197 Browse Search
George P. Rowell and Company's American Newspaper Directory, containing accurate lists of all the newspapers and periodicals published in the United States and territories, and the dominion of Canada, and British Colonies of North America., together with a description of the towns and cities in which they are published. (ed. George P. Rowell and company) 190 190 Browse Search
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1. 93 93 Browse Search
The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 8: Soldier Life and Secret Service. (ed. Francis Trevelyan Miller) 88 88 Browse Search
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 30. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones) 82 82 Browse Search
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1. 79 79 Browse Search
Hon. J. L. M. Curry , LL.D., William Robertson Garrett , A. M. , Ph.D., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 1.1, Legal Justification of the South in secession, The South as a factor in the territorial expansion of the United States (ed. Clement Anselm Evans) 75 75 Browse Search
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Browsing named entities in John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life. You can also browse the collection for 1861 AD or search for 1861 AD in all documents.

Your search returned 13 results in 9 document sections:

John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 3 (search)
o serve three years, unless sooner discharged. At once thousands of loyal men sprang to arms — so large a number, in fact, that many regiments raised were refused until later. The methods by which these regiments were raised were various. In 1861 a common way was for some one who had been in the regular army, or perhaps who had been prominent in the militia, to take the initiative and circulate an enlistment paper for signatures. His chances were pretty good for obtaining a commission as to a critical examination as to soundness. Those men who, on deciding to go to war, went directly to a recruiting office and enlisted, had but this simple examination to pass, the other being then unnecessary. It is interesting to note that in 1861 and ‘62 men were mainly examined to establish their fitness for service; in 1863 and ‘64 the tide had changed, and they were then only anxious to prove their unfitness. After the citizen in question had become a soldier, he was usually sent at<
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 4 (search)
e Dog or Shelter Tent. Just why it is called the shelter tent I cannot say, unless on the principle stated by the Rev. George Ellis for calling the pond on Boston Common a Frog Pond, viz: because there are no frogs there. So there is little shelter in this variety of tent. But about that later. I can imagine no other reason for calling it a dog tent than this, that when one is pitched it would only comfortably accommodate a dog, and a small one at that. This tent was invented late in 1861 or early in 1862. I am told it was made of light duck at first, then of rubber, and afterwards of duck again, but Inever saw one made of anything heavier than cotton drilling. This was the tent of the rank and file. It did not come into general use till after the Peninsular Campaign. Each man was provided with a half-shelter, as a single piece was called, which he was expected to carry on the march if he wanted a tent The dog or shelter tent. to sleep under. I will describe these more
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 8 (search)
m quite sure, however, that the verses were different. For some weeks before the battle of Wilson's Creek, Mo., where the lamented Lyon fell, the First Iowa Regiment had been supplied with a very poor quality of hard bread (they were not then (1861) called hardtack). During this period of hardship to the regiment, so the story goes, one of its members was inspired to produce the following touching lamentation:-- Let us close our game of poker, Take our tin cups in our hand, While we gathregiment. But all of this was in the tentative period of the war. An Army oven. As rapidly as the needs of the troops pressed home to the government, they were met with such despatch and efficiency as circumstances would permit. For a time, in 1861, the vaults under the broad terrace on the western front of the Capitol were converted into bakeries, where sixteen thousand loaves of bread were baked daily. The chimneys from the ovens pierced the terrace where now the freestone pavement joins
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 10 (search)
IX. A day in camp. I hear the bugle sound the calls For Reveille and Drill, For Water, Stable, and Tattoo, For Taps--and all was still. I hear it sound the Sick-Call grim, And see the men in line, With faces wry as they drink down Their whiskey and quinine. A partial description of the daily of the rank and file of the army in the monotony of camp life, more especially as it was lived during the years 1861, ‘62, and ‘63, covers the subjectmatter treated in this chapter. I do not expect it to be all new to the outside public even, who have attended the musters of the State militia, and have witnessed something of the routine that is followed there. This routine was the same in the Union armies in many respects, only with the latter there was a reality about the business, which nothing but stern war can impart, and which therefore makes soldiering comparatively uninteresting in State camp — such, at least, is the opinion of old campaigners. The private soldiers in every<
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, X. Raw recruits. (search)
burden and responsibility of the closing wrestle for the mastery necessarily fell largely on the shoulders of the men who bared their breasts for the first time in 1861, ‘62, and ‘63. I have thus far spoken of a recruit in the usual sense of a man enlisted to fill a vacancy in an organization already in the field. But this sehe advantage of pecuniary and other inducements, without which many would not have been made. For patriotism unstimulated by hope of reward saw high-water mark in 1861, and rapidly receded in succeeding years, so that whereas men enlisted in 1861 and early in ‘62 because they wanted to go, and without hope of reward, later in ‘621861 and early in ‘62 because they wanted to go, and without hope of reward, later in ‘62 towns and individuals began to offer bounties to stimulate lagging enlistments, varying in amount from $10 to $300; and increased in ‘63 and ‘64 until, by the addition of State bounties, a recruit, enlisting for a year, received in the fall of ‘64 from $700 to $1000 in some instances. It was this large bounty which l
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 15 (search)
re is an extensive demand are the articles which invention will improve upon until they arrive as near perfection as it is possible for the work of human hands to be. Such was the case with the materials of warfare. Invention was stimulated in various directions, but its products appeared most numerous, perhaps, in the changes which the arms, ammunition, and ordnance underwent in their better adaptation to the needs of the hour. The few muskets remaining in the hands of the government in 1861 were used to equip the troops who left first for the seat of war. Then manufacturing began on an immense scale. The government workshops could not produce a tithe of what were wanted, even though running night and day; and so private enterprise was called in to supplement the need. As one illustration, Grover & Baker of Roxbury turned their extensive sewing-machine workshop into a rifle-manufactory, which employed several hundred hands, and this was only one of a large number in that sectio
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 16 (search)
smugglers, at from eight to eleven dollars each. But the main source of supply for the Western States, where they are very generally used, for the South, and for the government, during war time, was Kentucky. When the war broke out, efforts were made by Governor Magoffin of that State-or rather by the Legislature, for the Governor was in full sympathy with the Rebels--to have that commonwealth remain neutral. For this reason when the general government attempted to purchase mules there in 1861, they were refused; but in the course of a few weeks the neutrality nonsense was pretty thoroughly knocked out of the authorities, Kentucky took its stand on the side of the A six-mule team. Union, and the United States government began and continued its purchase of mules there in increasing numbers till the close of the war. What were these mules used for? Well, I have related elsewhere that, when the war broke out, thousands of soldiers came pouring into Washington for its defence, a
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 17 (search)
, about twenty inches apart. If boards were wanting, two good-sized poles were cut and used instead. Between these was the passage for the surgeons and nurses. Behind the boards or poles a filling of straw or fine boughs was made and covered with blankets. On these latter could be placed twenty patients, ten on either side; but they were crowded. When six single cots were put in one of these tents, three on each side, ample space was afforded to pass among them. In the latter part of 1861, the government, realizing its pressing needs, began to build general hospitals for the comfort A two-wheeled ambulance. and accommodation of its increasing thousands of sick and wounded, continuing to build, as the needs increased, to the very last year of the war, when they numbered two hundred and five. Before the civil war, the government had never been supplied with carriages to convey the sick and wounded. Only two years before, a board, appointed by the secretary of war, had ado
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 20 (search)
superseded the stoves, and many other comfortable but unnecessary furnishings disappeared from the baggage. Not how little but how much could be dispensed with then became the question of the hour. The trains must be reduced in size, and they must be moved in a manner not to hamper the troops, if possible; but the war was more than half finished before they were brought into a satisfactory system of operation. The greater number of the three-years regiments that arrived in Washington in 1861 brought no transportation of any kind. After McClellan assumed command, a depot of transportation was established at Perryville on the Susquehanna; by this is meant a station where wagons and ambulances were kept, and from which they were supplied. From there Captain Sawtell, now colonel and brevet brigadier general U. S. A., fitted out regiments as rapidly as he could, giving each six wagons instead of twenty-five, one of which was for medical supplies. Some regiments, however, by infl