From: tbarnes@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: smoothbores, foriegn soldiers and enlistments
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 01:56:18 GMT

To add my .02 cents (Union) to several threads, I am posting several
factoids I remember from various things I have read.

Smoothbores - Many units were issued with really crummy weapons at the
start of the war, especially in the North, where more troops were being
raised, where militia companies were scarcer and where U.S. arsenals
were less well equipped. (It is a point of debate as to whether
pro-secession government officials in the waning days of the Buchanann
administration stripped Northern arsenals of their guns and sent them
South in anticipation of a war.) Some units started out armed with only
Pikes! Buyers for both sides dredged the arsenals of Europe for any
weapon they could buy, many of which were of suspect quality.
   As the war progressed, units probably were reequipped with better
weapons or got very good at "misplacing" their old weapons and
scavenging new ones.
   An archeological dig of a number of unmarked union graves inside the
Confederate lines at Vicksburg (presumably men who died in the initial
attempts to storm the place and were close enough to the Confederate
lines that the Confederates could gather them up and bury them) show
several with "buck and ball" (1 smoothbore ball and several smaller
balls like deer shot) loads, which could only be fired from a smoothbore
musket or shotgun. (I believe this comes from Civil War Times
Illustrated within the last 2 years). Since Vicksburg was besieged by
Grant in 1863, that confirms that at least some men were still using
them in 1863. 
   Many cavalrymen also liked shotguns (with the butt and/or barrel cut
off) as a close in weapon in melee . I guess the trick was to not hit
your friends with it.

Foriegners - I read in a book of traditional Irish songs that 50% of the
union army and 30% of the CSA army were Irish. I am very skeptical
though. I can believe that 50% of the Army of the Potomac could have
been of Irish DESCENT, but I don't buy those numbers as they stand.
   I know of at least one Russian officer who served as a commander with
the AotP (Turgin?, Turchin?). Appearantly he had been cashiered from the
Russian army and had emigrated.

Women - There was a woman (whose name I can't remember, of course) who
served as a surgeon with the AotP. She was one of the few women doctors
around at the time, and I guess that doctors were scarce enough that the
powers that be didn't turn her away because she was a woman. She was
never commissioned, but designed a military style woman's uniform for
herself that was practical in the field. After the war she was awarded
the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism in tending the wounded
under fire. She is the only woman so honored in U.S. history.
   Then of course there is Florence Nightingale and many other women who
acted as nurses, often in terribly dangerous conditions (from disease,
not bullets).

Enlistments - I do not know how replacements were integrated into
existing regiments. The impression I get is that there was little formal
attempt made to organize a "repple depple" on either side. I have read
that the politics of the time made it more politically sound to
commission a VIP and let him raise a new regiment than to recruit
replacements for existing regiments. That way state governors got to
give away commissions as political favors and presumably looked good
because their state had raised yet another regiment. 
   Some officers (especially the cowards and the physically infirm) were
sent back home to recruit replacements for regiments recruited from the
home region. My G-G-Grandfather joined the 100th Ohio in it's second
recruitment campaign (1862). Many "90 days" USV regiments topped off
their strength with a second recruiting campaign in 1862 when they
converted from "3 month volunteers" to 3 year volunteer regiments.
   Conscripts in 1864, I believe, were integrated into existing units.
These existing units were redesignated into new Corps and worn-down old
corps "had their number retired". The mixture of battle-weary vets and
poor quality "bounty men" created great friction, both on and off the
battlefield. Confederate Units that were worn down were amalgamated with
equally chewed up regiments, and retained in the same Division and
Corps.
    On both sides, out of a nominal TO & E strength of about 1000 men
when the regiment was raised, perhaps 700 survived training and camp
life (disease killed more men than bullets) to get into the field.
This green regiment was quickly reduced to about 500 - 300 men.
Confederate units, with higher desertion and disease rates, often were
down to 200 - 100 men by the war's end. At least one Union attack around
Petersburg succeeded because the CS regiments facing them could only put
one man every 50 feet along the parapets.                       

Hope you enjoy,

Tom 

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