quote:

Originally posted by Gerrypeters375:
David:

I have been reading (in Shelby Foote's fine history) a story about General Polk ("The Bishop") and one heck of a good officer. It seems that at one very confused point in the fighting at Murfreesboro in the woods, that General Polk spotted an apparent Confederate regiment firing on Confederate troops. He galloped over on horseback and began to berate the regimental colonel and ordered him to stop firing. (Apparently, General Polk could be a rather intimidating figure) He demanded to know the name and rank of the officer in front of him. The officer responded: "Colonel{ so and so}, 87th Indiana. And who are you,sir?" General Polk realized at this point that he was actually in the middle of a Federal regiment. What I loved about the story was that Polk proved why he was entitled to wear the stars of a major general. He shouted back, "never mind who I am, Sir, you will hear from me at day's end. I order you to stop firing." With this, he wheeled the horse -and realizing that if he tried to gallop, that he would be shot, slowly moved away. He even met Union infantry that he would tell them :" Stop firing" -and the men obeyed with a "Yes Sir". He said afterwards that he had a constant prickling of his neck hairs and was mentally calculating how many bullets could land between his shoulder blades even as he rode the horse-very slowly -but edging back to the Confederate lines. I like that story! (As a side note - I had a brother who did "Advanced" infantry training at what was then Camp Polk. Sorry to inform you Rebs but Camp Polk was spoken of with awe in the early US Army of WW2 -as hell on earth - the heat,the mosquitoes, the snakes. I guess the US Army meant that if you can survive Camp Polk you can handle anything the Germans can throw at you! (Too bad, because Polk was a pretty good general and a decent man)

quote:

Originally posted by L. David Keith:
Gerry, I guess you could say I have relived that war many times, having served in the Confederate Marines before joining the 1st Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, rising from a private to Lt General in the Confederate High Command. Re-enacting mind you but it's the closest thing to being there one can ever experience.

It will get your attention when your charging 15,000 Federals behind a stone wall with artillery booming all around you. Smoke so thick you taste sulfur with every breath. I've walked over many battlefields and most weren't in Nat'l Parks. Very few American's care about preserving Civil War history anymore. I've scoured the ground with my metal detector while dodging the bulldozer. We rush to save history before each new Target, Walmart and parking lot gets laid.

As for snipers, you should read about sharp shooters on both sides. I live very near Ike Shaw homeplace, one of General Cleburne's CS sharp shooters. His description of the Battle of Franklin is remarkable. He had a .45 Whitworth target rifle, one of 20 that made it through the blockade. He took high toll on the Federal Artillerist's that day before his unit was recalled; before Hood's bad choice of a frontal charge over 2 miles of open ground. By Nashville they were reduced to only 16. I have been fortunate enough to dig 5 Whitworth bullets from the Confederate Sharp Shooter positions at Nashville (3 dropped cylindrical and 2 fired hexagonal). They are the longest small arms projectile of the war: 1.41" long and 525 grains in weight. The war cost over 650,000 lives, but most died of illness.
LDK