American Civil War

GMT Games' Blue vs. Gray Deluxe Edition is playable in two to three hours, unless the South gets really lucky. At least several times I have been able to take Washington in the first turn. (1 in 6 chance) However, the objectives and game balance are still fairly well tuned and accurately reflect the historical strengths and weaknesses of each side represented in the conflict.

The mechanics of the game are quite simple, and the game offers a wonderful adventure into the American Civil War. I highly recommend this game.

Anecdote # 2: CAMELS:

This incident is only slightly related to the American Civil War because of its relationship to Jefferson Davis and the time period in which it occurred. Apparently, the distraction of the Civil War is what caused the great Camel Experiment to fail.

For several years before the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the U.S. Army conducted an experiment using camels as pack animals in the Southwest. This desert region's punishing climate and terrain took a terrible toll on the horses and mules upon which the Army had always depended.
 

This idea belonged to 2nd Lieut. George H. Crossman, a veteran of the Seminole wars in Florida. Crossman's arguments were that the camel was stronger, was patient in loading and unloading, and tolerant of little food, water or rest. Their feet were well suited for grassy or sandy plains, rough, rocky and hilly paths, and they required no shoeing.
 

Crossman befriended Henry C. Wayne, a Quartermaster and fellow officer. It was Wayne who convinced Jefferson Davis, a senator from Mississippi, of the camel's value to the Army. When Davis was appointed Secretary of War in 1852, he made an official recommendation to give camels a trial. On 3 March 1855, Congress appropriated $30,000 for the project. The ship USS SUPPLY, commanded by LT David Dixon Porter, set sail from New York 3 June 1855. Wayne, also aboard, was charged with procuring the camels. After weeks of searching, they finally found a plentiful supply of healthy camels in Egypt, and there purchased 30 camels.

After two months at sea, the first camels arrived at Indianola, Texas on 29 April 1856. They were given several weeks of rest to adapt to the climate and new diet. The herd was then moved to permanent quarters at Camp Verde, 60 miles west of San Antonio, Texas. Another herd of 41 camels arrived the following year.
 

The camels were well suited for arid, rocky, sandy and hot areas. They were able to carry loads up to four times as heavy as a mule, for longer distances and with less food and water. The soldiers, however, were not as happy. Camels had a strong smell that did not wash off easily. The horses and mules were frightened of them, and often bolted. The camels were also known to bite and spit.  Over the next several years, the camels were put to several tests, used alongside mules for comparison, on extended trips throughout west Texas and as far west as California. LT. Edward Beale led an exploration party from El Paso to California and took 25 camels, plus the normal pack animals, and 44 men.
 

"My admiration for the camels increases daily. The harder the test, the more fully they seem to justify all that is said about them. They pack water for others for days under a hot sun and never get a drop. They pack heavy burdens of corn and oats for months and never get a grain. They eat worthless shrubs and not only subsist, but keep fat." From the Journal of Lieutenant Edward F. Beal
 

By 1860, the nation's mind was on the imminent Civil War, and the camels were all but forgotten. In November 1863, the California herd was put up for public sale, most going to zoos, circuses, mining companies and a few individuals, such as Edward Beale. Beale allowed his camels to live out their lives in comfort on his Texas ranch. The Texas herd was auctioned off in 1865, but some were released into the desert.  For years after the dissolution of the U.S. Camel Corps, camels wandered at will across the American desert. Bactrian camels, who had been bought and later set loose by a mining concern in British Columbia, drifted south to Nevada and Idaho. Many Arabian camels roamed through Texas, California, and Arizona. The last authenticated sightings of camels in the wild occurred in the early 1900s.
 

This particular innovation probably would have proven beneficial had it been properly supported and objectively tested. Unfortunately, the camel has become little more than a footnote in the history of the Army.

Added note:

Company B of the 43rd Mississippi regiment (Confederate) managed to secure a camel and used it to transport the baggage for the officers' mess.  Its driver was under standing orders to stop the camel outside of camp to keep from frightening the camp's horses.  In fact, in one forced march, prior to the battle of Corinth, the camel blundered into the line resulting into spooked horses, a stampeded, and several injured men.   No record remains of the animal's name and the creature is simple called "the camel" in surviving documents.  The animal was killed by a minie ball during the siege of Vicksburg.
 

Anecdote # 3 Russia & The American Civil War:
 

Did the Russian Czar frighten Britain from being more involved for the Confederacy?

Rumors had it that England, its textile industry growing desperate for the cotton that the South was having problems getting to England was considering offering additional support. In the fall of 1863 two Russian fleets entered American waters, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific. They put into New York and San Francisco harbors and spent the winter there, and the average Northerner expressed both surprise and delight over the visit, assuming that the Russian Czar was taking this means of warning England and France that if they made joined the war in support of the South, the Czar would offer aid to the Union. Russia at the time was in some danger of getting into a war with England and France, for reasons unconnected with the Civil War in America. The Czar was probably doing little more than preventing his fleets from becoming icebound in Russian waters. If war did come, they would be well placed to raid both British and French commerce.
 

For many years most Americans believed that for some inexplicable reason of his own the Czar had sent the fleets as a demonstration of support for the Union. Years later, some history books recorded that the sell of Alaska to the United States for a little more than 7 million dollars was payment for that service. Whether the Czar had dual reasons for his actions or not, he surely must have made the Brits sit up and reconsider their possible involvement.
 

Anecdote # 4 - World's Worst General:

Perhaps the world's worst general was Ambrose Burnside. It seemed that no numerical or tactical advantage was so great that the Union General Burnside could not find a way to snatch defeat out of the the jaws of almost certain victory. For example, during the Battle of Antietam, he ordered his command to cross a bridge that spanned the Potomac River in order to engage the Confederate forces. His men marched across the b5ridge two abreast. Unfortunately for the boys in blue they formed perfect target for Confederate gunners. Like Marlon Brando's character in "Apocalypse Now" he must have shuddered as he whispered "the horror, the horror." Especially when he finally realized that the river was very quite shallow, only waist deep in most places, and could have been safely crossed at almost any other point along the river without facing enemy fire..
Ambrose Everett Burnside was also famous for his heavy side-whiskers, which were soon given the apt nickname 'sideburns'.
 

President Lincoln considered religion as a stabilizing force in the Union army, and did sought to insure that the spiritual welfare of all troops was provided for. On May 4, 1861, regimental commanders were ordered to appoint chaplains for their units. The Chaplain was required to be an ordained minister of a Christian denomination, (No Jewish or Muslim Chaplains were considered) and each was to receive an officer's salary. Lincoln also provided support and access to the troops to the United States Christian Commission, an inter-denominational organization that was dedicated primarily to the spreading of the Gospel among the Union troops.

Though some Confederate troops appointed chaplains and were also paid an officer's salary, there was no real effort to make certain that each regiment had a chaplain.  Still, it should be noted that many Southern Generals and officers were quite concerned about the spiritual well-being of their troops. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was known to his troops as the "praying general." Lee and Jackson did all within their power to encourage the spreading of the Gospel in the Army of Northern Virginia. Jackson himself encouraged the troops to keep the Sabbath holy and attend worship services. He regularly attempted to try to avoid battle on the Lord's Day. He regularly prayed both before, during, and after battles. He was faithful to acknowledge God as granting any victory he achieved.

Similarly, Union General George B. McClellan decreed that the North's "holy cause" justified divine services every Sunday morning that military necessity would allow. Union General Oliver O. Howard, commonly referred to as "the Christian General," would himself preach to the troops when a regular chaplain or minister was not available. In the West, Union General William Rosecrans, a devout Catholic, made it a policy to never fight on Sundays. Even during the battle of Stone's River, after fighting a desperate battle all day on Saturday, he rested his army on Sunday before re-engaging the enemy on Monday. God evidently honored Rosecrans' faithfulness, for the Confederate army retreated.

Although revivals took place throughout the war, it was during the late Fall of 1863 through the Spring and Summer of 1864 that what was subsequently called the "Great Revival" occurred. Although this event is best documented for Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, it actually took place in both northern and southern armies in both the Virginia and the Tennessee theatres of the war. According to J. William Jones, Confederate Chaplain and author of one of the best documentaries of the Great Revival, virtually every Confederate brigade was affected--and approximately ten percent of the soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia accepted Christ. Night after night troops participated in prayer meetings, worshipped, and listened to ministers proclaim the good news. Virtually every gathering ended with soldiers responding to an altar call and becoming involved in a conversion experience or simply rededicating their lives to Christian service. When a pond or river was nearby, the soldiers would ask to be baptized, with little consideration for the frigid temperature of the waters. During the revival, Jones told of how Confederate soldiers would form "reading clubs," in which soldiers would pass around a well-worn Bible, sharing the Gospel. Always hungry for scarce Testaments and religious tracts, the soldiers would see Jones approaching camp and cry out "Yonder comes the Bible and Tract man!" and run up to him and beg for Bibles and Testaments "as if they were gold guineas for free distribution." Jones would quickly exhaust his supply of reading material, and sadly have to turn away most of the men. "I have never seen more diligent Bible-readers than we had in the Army of Northern Virginia."

The United States Christian Commission records show that similar events were occurring in the North, among the Army of the Potomac. Brigade chapels were so full that many men were frequently turned away.

The revival spirit continued for the Union troops in Ringgold, Georgia, where hundreds of men were baptized in Chickamauga Creek.

During their retreat from Dalton, Georgia, Rev. C. W. Miller tells of a Confederate brigade called together for worship in a field. They read the Bible aloud, sang a song of praise, and began to pray. While one of the soldiers was praying aloud, and his comrades were kneeling in silence, they all heard the distant report of artillery and were soon greeted with the burst of a 32-pound cannon shell overhead. More shells shrieked towards them, and shrapnel fell nearby, but the men continued their prayers as if there was no danger. Finally the chaplain pronounced the benediction and everyone calmly sought cover.
 

The revivals even continued among Sherman's troops as they marched burned, raided, and plundered their way across across Georgia and through the Carolinas. When the soldiers stopped for the night, they frequently assembled in local churches and worshipped.
 

It is estimated that over 100,000 Confederate and somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 Union troops experienced religious conversions (accepted Christ) during the Civil War--roughly ten percent of the men engaged. There are many accounts of the change that took place in the men, both during the war and afterwards, as a result of the many revivals and movement of the Holy Spirit.
 

In every war there are always those "foxhole conversions" but the fact remains that not only the experience of war, but the religious experiences that these men felt during their military service helped shape their character and conduct for years to come.
 

Anecdote # 5 Arlington Cemetery:

In 1862, the Union government seized Arlington House by authority of the "Act for the Collection of Direct Taxes in the Insurrectionary Districts within the United States" and held it against payment of $92.07 in taxes, plus penalties. The government insisted the taxes be paid in person by a member of the Lee family, either the General or Mrs. Lee. Because crossing the" line" between North and South would mean capture and detainment for the duration of the war, the Lees had no choice but to allow the tax commissioners to give the property to the government for "war, military, charitable and educational purposes."
Instrumental in the confiscation of Arlington House was a man who had harbored a strong jealousy for Robert E. Lee for a number of years and wanted to punish him for joining the Confederacy (though he himselfwas a native of Georgia.) Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs , quartermaster general of the army, was assigned to find more burial sites for the mounting number of war dead. He believed that grave sites on the Lee estate would forever prevent General Lee and his family regaining possession, so he chose Arlington. On May 13, 1864, Private William Christman of the Pennsylvania Infantry became the first person to be buried in the cemetery.
A large vault containing the bodies of 2,111 unidentified Union soldiers was erected in the rose garden, only yards from the main house. At the end of the war, many Confederate soldiers who had died as prisoners of warwere moved from Arlington to be reinterred in their home states leaving only 409. More than 16,000 Union casualties had been buried in the cemetery.
General Lee died in 1870 and Mrs. Lee's died three years later. George Washington Custis Lee inherited the Arlington House and estate. His legal support was his grandfather's will as a claim on the property, and he filed suit to regain his ancestral home. For five years the matter was fought in court and burials continued at the site. Then the Supreme Court ruled in Lee's favor; the federal government was found to be trespassing and was ordered to leave. Faced with the tremendous, if not impossible, task of removing the dead and restoring the house and grounds to their former elegance, the government met Lee's demand for $150,000 in exchange for the deed to the property. On March 3, 1883 Congress appropriated the funds and on March 31 the deed was signed.
General Lee's citizenship was still in question, however. His civil rights were suspended and he was barred from holding public office. His civil rights were to be returned to him once he completed and signed a loyalty oath to the Union. He did so, but was not granted his restored rights or citizenship. Why? Apparently, either due to carelessness or malice, the signed and notarized oath was lost until the 1970's. It was President Gerald Ford who signed the papers restoring General Lee's citizenship, more than a hundred years after the loyalty oath was signed and delivered to Washington.
 

Anecdote # 6 Medical officers:

In 1862, a group of captured Union medical officers signed a release agreement in which they promised to approach the secretary of War and request the return of captured confederate medical officers.
 

Winchester, Va May 31, 1862 The document read:

We surgeons and assistant surgeons, United States Army, now prisoners of war in this place do give our parole of honor on being unconditionally released to report in person, singly or collectively, to the Sec. of War as such and our best efforts that the same number of medical officers of the Confederate States Army now prisoners or may hereafter be taken be released on the same terms. And furthermore we will on our honor use our best efforts to have this principle established -- the unconditional release of all medical officers taken prisoners of war hereafter.
 

The importance of this document is that it established a principle of returning captured medical officers to the other side. It was not universally followed, but did become a general rule of thumb.