Civil War Witness Trees

[Merc]

How technology changes the way orders are supposed to be carried out. In a modern era with radios and airpower, those soldiers would be instructed to seek cover and request a fire mission before resuming the advance. In the lack of such technologies, wars needed to be fought very differently, with the expectation that an order received is executed until completion or until the utmost of human endurance is reached, because there is no practical way to get new orders out there in the middle of a firefight. Wars aside, much of 19th century industrial society was organized around a similar principle of discipline towards executing the plan.

Improvements in technology in the 19th century did happen. The one that had the greatest impact on the Civil War was the increased accuracy of the rifled musket that changed all aspects of warfare. For once, a soldier could hit an aimed target. Developments in communications technology would take another 80 years.

[TAXICAT]

A buddy and I took a tour with a guide. It was great. They only cover one third of the battlefield per tour. I drove and we went to all the places of importance in that area and than got out and walked around and he described in detail what happened in that exact spot. I am really glad I took that tour.

[RED]

Just another hook, line, and sinker. Nothing new here, there are so called "witness trees," everywhere in the south, some near me where the battles of Prairie Grove and Pea Ridge in Arkansas took place, (Note: in 1862 the number of slaves in that area could have been counted on the toes of my left foot... that would be 4 at the most.)

Togor does this both here and the gun talk forums. On the gun talk forums he is an award winning marksman, and expert on every rifle ever made. In actuality, he is a trained propagandists and posts like this are designed to make his lies appear to be in line with the American dream. So what is the American Dream:

...the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.

That idea is repugnant to togor and his lackeys. "You didn't build that, the Government did." His entire utopian hope is the same as what was put forth by Carl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Mao Zedong. These dream schemes don't work, they have never worked, and millions have died wherever and whenever they have been tried.

BTW. How are God and togor different? God never claims to be togor.

[Merc]

A buddy and I took a tour with a guide. It was great. They only cover one third of the battlefield per tour. I drove and we went to all the places of importance in that area and than got out and walked around and he described in detail what happened in that exact spot. I am really glad I took that tour.

I also took tours of the Battlefield years ago and they were responsible for getting me hooked on the Civil War. There’s too much going on to gain very much of an understanding of the Battle on your own. These guys really bring it to life.

Great post, lots of fun.

[free1954]

I have walked nearly every part of the Battlefield, especially the grounds of Picketts Charge and often wondered how Lee thought he could take Cemetery Ridge. Over a mile of wide open space, his men marching shoulder to shoulder. They were perfect targets for artillary, musket and canister fire. There is a reprint of an 1864 map of the Battlefield by Elliott that’s available on Amazon that shows where all of the original graves were located. I’ll have to see if the book you mentioned is still in print.

there are quite a few of those books on ebay. cheaper than I paid for it. when you walk across pickets charge from the Virginia monument to the copse of trees you realize how out of sight attackers and defenders were from each other. until they began to pile up against the fence. when you look at that burial map you see how many horses were killed by meads headquarters.

[musketshooter]

The museum of the Confederacy in New Orleans has a piece that is imbedded with numerous iron balls from canister shot.

[Merc]

The several skirmishes that were fought in western Virginia (later West Virginia) early in the Civil War were insignificant compared to Gettysburg and Antietam, but they did leave behind some of the implements of war on what is now mostly private land.

With permission of the land owners, and using metal detectors, we searched the hillsides surrounding the small town of Gauley Bridge, WV where one of the larger fights took place. We primarily found lead minie and musket balls. We obtained maps from a museum in Pittsburgh of the locations of the various Union positions when they were engaged by the CSA soldiers. The Union held the high ground which is were we concentrated our efforts since it was all still a wooded area. Modern housing now occupies the Rebel positions.

This photo shows all fired minie balls of various sizes. Notice there are some 3 ring .69 and .58 caliber minie balls. Some had 2 rings and Enfield balls had no rings. These were found on the Union held positions and were fired at them by the Rebel soldiers.

5EB91889-A776-4CFA-BC07-0D93CD479764.jpg

This group of musket and minie balls were not fired, so they were either dropped or discarded by the Union soldiers. The minie balls were for a standard issued .58 caliber Springfield rifled musket The musket balls and buckshot were used in what was known as a “buck n’ ball” load. Usually, there were three buckshot and one musket ball per load. This combination was fired by a smoothbore musket and was effective at close range.

43DD1735-29F4-4915-8545-B01FF4C4111E.jpg

I mounted this last group of items in a shadow box and it contains both fired Rebel minie balls and dropped Union minie balls from Gauley Bridge. The exploded artillery shells, canister bal, horse shoe and kettle handle came from Camp Bartow near Marlinton, WV where the two sides engaged in an artillery dual.

A0E2AAC1-B6D6-4002-98E3-1065BB7C5AB8.jpg

[togor]

Too cool! At what depth did you find these artifacts?

[Merc]

Too cool! At what depth did you find these artifacts?

The lead we found were anywhere from 2” to 4” below ground. We were working the side of a steep hill that require us to wear golf spikes to stay stationary or to hang onto small trees to keep from sliding down the hill. We also saw what looked like rifle pits that were dug into the hillside.

Gauley Bridge, WV is situated at the confluence of the New River and Gauley River that form the Kanawha River and is only a few miles from the “New River Bridge” that’s pictured on the West Virginia state quarter. It’s a good 4 hour drive from home but it’s worth the trip.

We could always tell whose minie balls we were digging. Rarely, the Rebs would have a .58 cal. rifled musket unless it was from a captured Springfield. At that time during the war, they used whatever they had and mostly fired .69 cal., ringless Enfields and round balls from old smoothbores.

[togor]

Thank you for the posts. Very enjoyable reading.

[lyman]

The lead we found were anywhere from 2” to 4” below ground. We were working the side of a steep hill that require us to wear golf spikes to stay stationary or to hang onto small trees to keep from sliding down the hill. We also saw what looked like rifle pits that were dug into the hillside.

Gauley Bridge, WV is situated at the confluence of the New River and Gauley River that form the Kanawha River and is only a few miles from the “New River Bridge” that’s pictured on the West Virginia state quarter. It’s a good 4 hour drive from home but it’s worth the trip.

We could always tell whose minie balls we were digging. Rarely, the Rebs would have a .58 cal. rifled musket unless it was from a captured Springfield. At that time during the war, they used whatever they had and mostly fired .69 cal., ringless Enfields and round balls from old smoothbores.

interesting,


I have a coworker that digs, he showed me some stuff he dug up in eastern Va a few weeks ago,,
buttons, (some looked like new, a couple from VMI) coins etc,
the area he was in is 'multi historical' as in per colonial, colonial, and CW all in that area (like most of VA)


re the Gauley,

did anyone notate the rifle pits? and let someone (historical society type) know what you found,
some historians may want to know,

we have similar areas here on the South bank of the James the CSA dug to defend from the Union,



also, kinda off topic, have you ever rode the Gauley in season?

the upper is a blast

[Merc]

You’re lucky to live where the layers of early American history are so rich and dense.

The only person we told about the rifle pits was the property owner. I doubt if he ever contacted anyone about them.

We’ll be metal detecting private property this spring in western MD along the Potomac that was part of Lee’s retreat from Gettysburg. In this case, everything we find will be turned over to the property owner who is a lecturing historian.

The Gauley is a well known for white water rafting. Never tried it.

[lyman]

you should, at least once,

did the upper lower combo once,
double upper a couple times (upper, stay on the river overnight, and back to the top a 2nd time the next day)
and a few single upper trips,

good times