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| The change from theory to practice Wall-tents, such as appear in this photograph of 1861, were not seen for long in the Confederate army. At the beginning, no less than three wagons conveyed the impedimenta of a company of the Fifty-fifth Virginia—one having been provided by private subscription to transport the knapsacks! The rest of the transportation was in proportion. The regimental train, as it left the Rappahannock, would have sufficed amply for the use of at least a brigade. But a few months later, just after the ‘Seven Days,’ all this was changed and the soldiers began for the first time to realize what actual soldiering meant and to find out how very few were the articles one needed in his kit when he had to transport them on his person. An inkling of this had been gained before, however, when the brigade retained as an outpost at Fredericksburg, after Johnston's army went to Yorktown, evacuated that position before the advance of McDowell's Corps, which was moving overland to join McClellan north of the Chickahominy and complete the investment of Richmond on that side. This movement relegated to the rear the capacious mess-chests and wall-tents which had hitherto been regarded as requisite or necessary paraphernalia for field service. The soldiers in the field were permitted to retain only the ‘flies’ belonging to the tents. |
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[165]
Review of Reviews. New York. 1912.
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