BATTLEFIELD BACKSTORY: Crisscrossing the battlefield, remnants of trenches are easily seen today at Cold Harbor. The horror that happened here in early June 1864 is largely left to our imaginations. Beyond these crude Rebel earthworks, wounded Union soldiers lay for hours in no-man's land, unable to be rescued by comrades nearby for fear of being shot by sharpshooters. Soon, the big, ugly birds came. "Black against the pale, hot sky," Ernest B. Furgurson wrote in his excellent book about the battle, "they drifted into sight by ones and twos, floating high above the overgrown creek bottoms and zigzag trenches. Gradually there were dozens of them, wheeling, banking, slowly spiraling lower, slipping down toward the fields so thickly dotted with Union blue." The vultures came to feast on the wounded and the dead. (Click at upper right to enlarge and click here for all posts on this blog.)
Thursday, March 31, 2016
COLD HARBOR: Trenches, vultures ... and death
BATTLEFIELD BACKSTORY: Crisscrossing the battlefield, remnants of trenches are easily seen today at Cold Harbor. The horror that happened here in early June 1864 is largely left to our imaginations. Beyond these crude Rebel earthworks, wounded Union soldiers lay for hours in no-man's land, unable to be rescued by comrades nearby for fear of being shot by sharpshooters. Soon, the big, ugly birds came. "Black against the pale, hot sky," Ernest B. Furgurson wrote in his excellent book about the battle, "they drifted into sight by ones and twos, floating high above the overgrown creek bottoms and zigzag trenches. Gradually there were dozens of them, wheeling, banking, slowly spiraling lower, slipping down toward the fields so thickly dotted with Union blue." The vultures came to feast on the wounded and the dead. (Click at upper right to enlarge and click here for all posts on this blog.)
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2 comments:
What strikes me when I read this is the sheer horror these folks faced. Their way of life in GENERAL was tough. Today, we get upset if our cell phones dont flip to Google fast enough. Sheesh. Makes me feel ashamed for the things that bug me. Those were REAL men, whether they wanted to be or not.
It was at Cold Harbor that military tactics caught up with the advanced weaponry of the time. Union Units were trying to advance across the field using Napoleonic Line of battle formations, where the whole unit would make a shoulder to shoulder line 4 columns deep. This worked well when soldiers carried smooth bore muskets, which could not be aimed with accuracy and the formation created a shotgun effect. In the Civil War, the rifled musket and the Minnie Ball came together to make the rifle accurate at longer range. The confederates knew how to use the rifle and fortified with logs and head logs(a log stacked on top of other logs with a small firing port) that prevented causalities from head wounds. Entire Union Units would fall away before reaching their objective. A bright Union Captain changed the formation used to charge the Confederates. Instead of a large unit (an easy target) men starter charging in a formation of 6 men, shoulder to shoulder, with 20 columns of men following them. As the men in front were killed, the hole would be filled by the next man. If worked and, while brutal, reduced causalities while allowing units to engage and make it to their objectives.
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