Drill: Now vs Then
Members of the First Confederate Battalion doing unarmed battalion
drill at Brandywine.
by Philip Katcher
"Reenactor drill stinks," one long-time observer of the reenacting
scene once commented. His view, he went on to explain, is that the drill
as seen on reenacting fields, when compared to as it would have actually
been performed by soldiers of the Civil War on both sides, was sloppy and
poor. A disgrace, in fact, to the memory of those who actually soldiered
under the flags and in the uniforms seen on both sides during the war. His
reason for this belief was based in his own experience in a military school,
coupled with the long hours of drill so faithfully recorded in history books
as having taken place during the war years.
Is this a fair comment? Do military academy cadets and members of the regular
armed forces who practice drill to any extent drill at the same level as
seen by active soldiers during the Civil War, while reenactors who spend
a couple of hours a month on the field amble about, relatively speaking?
Are we are little more than slobs in uniform on the drill field?
First, one has to look at who was commanding on the drill field during the
Civil War. There were relatively few officers at the beginning of the war,
certainly at company drill level, who had much experience in drill. These
new officers and non-commissioned officers had little more than the often
confusing and unclear manuals to work from, and the initial results were
poor. As a result, they had to learn even while they were putting their
new privates through their first steps. "Nor was it in the ranks alone
that a rigid course of instruction in arms was pursued," recalled a
member of the 8th Vermont Infantry about when the regiment was first formed,
"the commissioned officers, too, needed lessons, and several evenings
each week they assembled at the headquarters of the colonel, and were taught
the manual of arms and the various regimental movements."1
This sort of activity happened in most regiments on both sides, not only
for officers, but NCOs as well. "I acted as second Sergt. this P.M.
& was sharply berated by the Col for not knowing my business,"
a new NCO of the 2d Michigan told his diary of one of his first drills.
"I very soon learned it however & shall shall not be caught again
on that point."2
These classes were not actually required by either army, however. It was
not until George McClellan took over the Army of the Potomac that on 4 August
1861 he ordered: "The Brig Genls will at once establish school of instruction.
They will personally instruct & drill all the field officers, &
as many of the Capts & Lts as possible, at least one hour every day.
They will require these officers to recite to them in the tactics, regulations,
duties of outpost, guards & sentinels, forms of parade, inspection,
guard mounting, reviews, etc; they will instruct them thoroughly as to the
various reports & customs required by existing regulations; drill them
in the school of the soldier; occasionally drill the companies & battalions,
always enforcing the instruction given by their subordinates, & paying
especial attention to the drill for skirmishers, that with the bayonet,
& target practice. Whenever the Colonels or other regimental officers
are already competent the Brig Genls will establish subordinate schools
of instruction, always taking care that the company officers & n.c.
offs are theoretically instructed every day."3
Even with these hours of instruction, many officers did not learn their
drill that well. The 2d Michigan sergeant noted in May 1861, "We had
battalion drill in the afternoon. I was pleased to see Capt. Charles May
of Co. K & Prosecuting Atty. of our county. He knew nothing abt the
drill & was compelled to trot up & down through the mud for 2 hours
in great heat, vexation & confusion."4
Even after some time in uniform, many officers still didn't "get it,"
to the great amusement of their men. A corporal in the 4th California, whose
company had had over half a year's experience with a great deal of drilling,
recalled one incident in his diary in 1862: "Drilled under Lt Davison,
and here's a speciment [sic] of his 'drill.' We were drawn up in close Order.
He gave the commands, 'Charge Bayonets,' 'Charge against Infy,' 'Charge
against Cavalry,' 'Ground arms,' and 'Secure Arms,' all of which could not
be found as military when in 'Close Order.' Then ordered us to 'Rest' from
a 'Shoulder.' This was done in the presence of Capt Scott, Lt Garden, and
Asst Surgeon Tompkins. Had such movements been executed in 'Regtl drill'
under the eye of a Military Shcolar [sic] Lt Davison would have gotten what
he deserved, a severe rebuke.'5 Later that month, he noted, "Clothing
Inspected to-day. Capt had his Officers and Sergeant brought to the front
before 'Opening Ranks,' leaving no one to 'Dress' the 'Rear Rank.' Then
he had us 'Unsling Knapsacks' before 'About Facing' the Front rank.' Such
baulks are so common as to scarcely illicit [sic] comment."6
One of the comments the observer who complained about the poor quality of
reenacting drill made is that in his military academy, as well as in the
active military, the troops being drilled actually feared those in command
and this fear provided them with an outstanding motivation to perform well,
accurately, and sharply. The fact is, however, Civil War volunteers did
not fear their officers and NCOs as do cadets or regulars in today's military.
Not only did they mock their officers' screw-ups, as did the Californian,
but they knew them before the war, as the Michigan NCO knew his captain.
And, in military service, familiarity bred contempt at worst, and tacit
agreement to obey what made sense at best. As a soldier in the 21st Georgia
recalled after the war, "Who had not heard the famous military command:
'Gentlemen of the Banks County Guard! Will you please shoulder arms?' Then
and there, was this unique order issued. The 2nd Georgia Infantry was camped
on the Fair Grounds. Its companies were all well drilled, save one, the
Banks County Guards, commanded by old Captain Daniel Gill Candler, a gentleman
of the old school, and a planter.
"His company was composed of his old neighbors' sons, his personal
friends and social equals. He could not bring himself to speak to such as
these abruptly."7
Even with often barely able officers, however, the average soldier of the
Civil War should have put in so many hours on the drill field, he should
have been quite sharp, feels the observer. The question, then, is how many
hours did they put in drilling during the Civil War? This varied by how
long the unit had been in service and where it was stationed, with what
duties it had to perform.
At the beginning of the war, and every time a unit found itself basically
in garrison duty, the hours spent were often many. "I usualy [sic]
drill with the sergeants from 11 to 12 Each day," a sergeant in the
33d Massachusetts wrote home from a camp of instruction in his home state
in July 1862. "We have to get up at 5 oclk, wash and clean up the quarters
by six, drill until 7, Breakfast at 7, then drill from 8 1/2 till 10, dinner
at 1 oclk, Battalion drill, that is, all of the Regiment, from 4 1/4 till
6, undress parade at 1/4 past 6, Supper at 7, Tattoo at 9; that is all men
in their quarters, Taps at 1/2 past 9, that is lights all out and all noise
hushed."8 A member of the 14th New Jersey wrote home in August 1862,
shortly after that regiment was formed, "We have to drill 6 hours every
day and then have 2 dress parades every day."9 On 17 November 1863
General Order No. 57 of the Volunteer Engineer Brigade of the Army of the
Potomac called for infantry drill every day from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and
then again from 3 to 4 p.m., followed by a dress parade at 4:30.
In May 1864, after a large number of recruits joined the Brigade, General
Orders No. 19 increased the amount of drill, assigning 6:30 to 7:30 in the
morning and 3 to 6 in the afternoon as times for "recruit drill,"
while drill for everyone took place from 8:30 to 10:30 in the morning and
again from 3 to 5 in the afternoon. 10
Indeed, the entire Army of the Potomac was so swamped with recruits that
the early spring of 1864 saw it drilling as much as it had in its very first
days, something its men had gotten out of the habit of doing. "We are
busy drilling and getting ready for the field," Private Fred Pettit
of the 100th Pennsylvania wrote home 18 April 1864. "There are about
900 men in our regiment and more coming. Our company has about 100 men about
80 of whom are present. We have no arms for our recruits yet."11
Even the elite U.S. Sharpshooters saw extra amounts of drill, although,
as Major Charles Mattocks of the regiment noted in his diary, "We are
excused from all Brigade drills, and do not ourselves drill in battalion
movements. Target practice and skirmish drill constitute the sum and substance
of our daily military existence." Even so, he noted on 22 April, "I
still keep up the recitations in Tactics. The officers recite Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays to me. The Sergeants are put through by Capt. Aschmann on Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays. Lieut. Rilliet, Acing Adjutant drills the officers
in Bayonet Exercise each day from 11 to 12. So among us all, officers, Sergeants
and Privates get but little rest."12
So there were times, especially times in camp, when the armies spent a great
deal of time on the drill field. The question is did that time make them
as sharp as military academy cadets? The observer who thinks reenactors
do not represent the drill ability of the day well, believes that reenactors
are not as motivated as soldiers were then, especially motivated by fear
of their officers. We have already seen that quite often that they were
not quite as afraid of their officers and NCOs as are modern military personnel
or cadets. Moreover, many men simply either got out of drill whenever possible
or went through the motions. General Orders No. 60, dated 4 December 1863,
of the Volunteer Engineer Brigade demonstrate that: "The Comd'g General
has noticed a great want of attention to the Infantry drills, and in future
it is especially directed that the Comd'g Officer of the Regiment shall
see that each Company of his command which goes out to drill is accompanied
by or - is under - the command of a Commissioned Officer. If there [are]
not enough men to make a comy. Officer - command, the squad must be attached
to another company and not sent out under a non-comy. Officer, - and in
the case of the deficiency of comr. officers so that one such officer cannot
be assigned to each Co. - two or more companies will be united as far as
may be necessary for this purpose."13
Even soldiers who enjoyed drill, did not necessarily enjoy it because of
the feeling of being in a precision drill unit. Private William Miller,
75th Indiana, admitted to his diary on 7 May 1863, "It is still cold
and rainy but we drilled as usual and dont stop for rain. It is exercise
for us and I like it better than loafing around camp. Some of our men complain
about the drill."14
Then there was always the problem of soldiers in less than perfect physical
and mental shape on the drill field. "In Drilling Beer evidently had
the Best of some who were fortunate in steering clear of the Guard house,"
recalled the California NCO.15 Even the best drill master has a problem
making men under the influence into a sharp drill team.
Finally, there was the problem that veterans knew that most drill was essentially
useless on the battle field in any but the most basic sense, and that largely
on the regimental level. Recruits thought their drill was making them better
front line soldiers, but it didn't take long for them to learn the opposite.
"I supposed a battle was carried on in the same order and style of
a first-class drill, knees all bent at the same angle and at the same moment,
guns leveled on a line that was even as a floor, and every trigger pulled
at one moment making a single report," recalled Sergeant Barry Benson,
1st South Carolina, after the war. "For a battlefield is not a drillroom,
nor is a battle an occasion for drill, and there is the merest semblance
of order maintained. I say semblance of order, for there is an undercurrent
of order in tried troops that surpasses that of the drillroom;--it is that
order that springs form the confidence comrades have in each other, from
the knowledge that these messmates of yours;, whether they stand or lie
upon ground, close together or scattered apart, in front of you three paces,
or in the rear of you six, in the open or behind a tree or a rock,--that
these, though they do not 'touch elbows to the right,' are nevertheless
keeping dressed upon the colors in some rough fashion, and that the line
will not move forward and leave them there, nor will they move back and
leave the line.
"A battle is entered into, mostly, in as good order and with as close
a drill front as the nature of the ground will permit, but at the first
'pop! pop!' or rifles there comes a sudden loosening of the ranks, a freeing
of selves from the impediment of contact, and every man goes to fighting
on his own hook..."16 Both officers and men learned that much in the
drill manuals was not of use on the battlefield.
Generally, however, when writing of their abilities on the drill field,
both officers and men of both armies, when they bothered to mention it at
all, felt that they did well. We should then look to observers who both
saw Civil War units on the drill field and knew something about excellence
in drill.
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Fremantle, Coldstream Guards, one of the best
drilled units in the world at that time, and a Confederate fan, saw an Arkansas
brigade on parade in 1863: "I expressed a desire to see them form square,
but it appeared that they were 'not drilled to such a maneuver' (except
square two deep). They said the country did not admit of cavalry charges,
even if the Yankee cavalry had stomach to attempt it."17
William Watson, a native of Scotland who came to America a couple of years
before the war, joined the 3d Louisiana in 1861. When he wrote his memoirs
years after the war, he had to admit that his unit was less than stellar
on the drillfield, something he explained away. "They might not attain
that clockwork precision which looks so well on parade, but which is quite
unnecessary in actual warfare, but they could be made thoroughly efficient
for practical purpose."18
Fitzgerald Ross, an Englishman who became a professional soldier as an officer
in the Austrian Army, visited the Confederacy in 1863. His book was strongly
pro-Confederate, and in it he recalled observing a parade held by the garrison
of Wilmington, N.C., a garrison which would have had little to do but improve
their drill. "The men--chiefly North Carolinians--are a fine-looking
race, and went through their evolutions unexceptionably."19 In other
words, they didn't make any real errors, but they lacked the snap of a superior
drilled unit.
Finally, in late 1863 a party of officers of the Brigade of Guards then
stationed in Canada went south to join the Army of the Potomac for the Mine
Run campaign. One later reported to his fellow officers his impressions
of the seasoned Union troops he saw: "The men, though rough and dirty,
look business-like, hardy, and in good condition. But their discipline appeared
to me to be rather that of men who had learned by experience the necessity,
for their own sakes, of obeying their leaders under certain circumstances,
than to spring from that unquestioning obedience to authority that should
exist through all ranks of an army.
"They take an evident pride in their drill, and do their best to show
themselves to advantage in this respect; and though the movements I saw
were slow, and always confined to marching past and deploying from a double
column of companies into line and vice versa, they were more steadily executed
than I expected,--quite equal, I should say, to those of our own Volunteers
at home."20
Before thinking that the Union troops must have been good drillers indeed
were they the equals of the British Rifle Volunteers of the 1860s, one should
realize that their drill manual began: "Volunteer corps will be composed,
for the most part, of men whose time is much occupied with their ordinary
pursuits, and who consequently will not be able to spare many hours for
drill..."21 In other words, the average Union veteran units of 1864
in the field drilled as well as British Rifle Volunteers who spent only
a couple of hours a month on drill: And that sounds a lot like the average
reenactor. So, reenactor drill is quite likely very much of the same quality
as drill of soldiers of the Civil War in terms of snap and precision.
1. Carpenter, George N., History of the Eighth Regiment Vermont Volunteers
1861-1865, Boston, 1886, p. 21.
2. Sears, Stephen W., ed., For Country, Cause & Leader, New York, 1993,
p. 3.
3. Sears, Stephen W., ed., The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan,
New York, 1989, p. 76.
4. Sears, Stephen W., ed., For Country, Cause & Leader, op cit., p.
2.
5. Barth, Gunter, ed., All Quiet on the Yamhill, Eugene, OR, 1959, p. 35.
6. Barth, Gunter, ibid., p. 39
7. Nisbet, James Cooper, 4 Years on the Firing Line, Jackson, TN, 1963,
p. 10
8. Cate, Jean, ed., If I Live To Come Home, Pittsburg, 1995, p. 4.
9. Olsen, Bernard A., Upon the Tented Field, Red Bank, NJ, 1993, p. 26.
10. Order Book, Volunteer Engineer Brigade, Army of the Potomac, author's
collection.
11. Gavin, William Gilfillan, Infantryman Pettit, Shippensburg, PA, 1990,
p. 142,
12. Racine, Philip N., ed., "Unspoiled Heart," Knoxville, TN,
1994, pp. 126-127.
13. Order Book, Volunteer Engineer Brigade, op cit..
14. Willey, R., ed., "I Soldiered for the Union," privately published,
no date or place given, p. 64.
15. Barth, Gunter, op cit., p. 20.
16. Benson, Susan W., ed., Berry Benson's Civil War Book, Athens, GA, 1992,
p. 22.
17. Lord, Walter, ed., The Fremantle Diary, New York, 1960, p. 125.
18. Watson, William, Life in the Confederate Army, New York, 1888, p. 135.
19. Ross, Fitzgerald, Cities and Camps of the Confederate States, Urbana,
IL, 1958, p. 187.
20. C.L.P., "A short campaign with the Federal Army," The Journal
of the Household Brigade for the year 1863, London, p. 20.
21. The Secretary of State for War, Drill and Rifle Instructions for the
Corps of Rifle Volunteers, London, 1859, p. 5.