question for the board - Night Battles

[ole]

In night fights, the advantage was on the side of those who knew the ground. Even so, night maneuvers were risky.

ole

[clara_barton]

As to the sub-topic in this thread concerning night blindness, Civil War Medicine Challenges and Triumphs by Alfred J. Bollet, M.D.

http://www.galenpress.com/021.html

Some excerpts from pgs. 356-359:

Officially called "nyctalopia", it was rarely diagnosed in the early years of the war, but the rate of occurrence increased as the war progressed. Civil War physicians recognized that night blindness often accompanied scurvy, as evidenced by the discussion of both as "dietic disease" in Medical and Surgical History. ... they describe an outbreak of night blindenss during Sherman's Atlanta campaign, when scurvy was especially widespread.

Surgeon J.C. Norton, who was in Sherman's army, reported "its [scurvy's] extensive prevalence in summer of 1864 in the 3rd Div. of 4th Army Corps." The first case of night blindness he saw appeared on:

"May 8, 1864, after a hard day's march from Ringgold to Buzzard's Roost, Georgia ... After this several other cases occurred, and as the campaign advanced the diseases
appeared to rage as an epidemic. Some regiments had to lead thirty or forty blind men every night."
...
Sixty years later, night blindness was shown to be an early manifestation of vitamin A deficiency.
...
Although Civil War physicians had only a rudimentary understanding of nutrition, they knew enough to prevent malnutrition. So why did the cases of malnutrition increase as the war progressed? First, men were kept in the field for long periods --- up to four successive years --- with erratic supplies of fresh food and, particularly, a lack of fresh vegetables. Second, military commanders disregarded the surgeons' advice. They considered ammunition more important than fresh vegetables, unaware that the food would preserve their army's fighting ability. Third, transportation disruptions during the war made delivering fresh vegetbles to the armies difficult.
...
Dr. Frank Hastings Hamilton, professor of surgery at Bellevue Meadical College in New York and an intermittent volunteer medical inspector for the surgeon general ...

"In the Army of the Potomac, under major-General McClellan, ... soon after the Battle of Fair Oaks [May 31 and June 1, 1862], scurvy began to manifest itself and continued to increase until we left the peninsula. For a period of five or six months probably not one full ration of fresh vegetables had been issued to the troops. In the latter part of August, a few days before we left Harrison's Landing on the James River, vegetables were supplied in abundance, but they came too late to put the army in condition for another advance upon Richmond."

Hamilton stated that when the peninsula was abandoned, many men were too weak to march to the transports for transfer back to the Washington area. The surgeons of the 4th Corps turned over 2,000 men in this condition to the Sanitary Commission. Hamilton wrote:

"In about the same ratio ... all the other corps were depleted. Most of the men, we believe, were in some degree scorbutic. It is our confident belief that 20,000 men might have been saved to General McClellan's army during this unfortunate campaign, if the men had been furnished at all times with a reasonable amount of fresh vegetables".

During General Sherman's Atlanta campaign, the incidence of scurvy and night blindness progressively increased in his troops. ... Sherman documented this in his memoirs:

"I now recall the extreme anxiety of my medical director, Dr. Kittoe, about the scurvy, which he reported at one time to be spreading and imperiling the army. This occurred at a crisis about Kennesaw [June 1864], when the railroad was taxed to its utmost capacity to provide the necessary ammunition, food and forage, and could not possibly bring us an adequate supply of potatoes and cabbage, the usual anti-scorbutics".

[ole]

So glad you are here to help us out, Clara.

ole

[clara_barton]

ole,

You're kidding, right? The post just substantiated what all you folks knew anyway, but it's nice to keep in touch!

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by ole

In night fights, the advantage was on the side of those who knew the ground. Even so, night maneuvers were risky.

ole

Night manuevers have been known to cause child support and even death. In the case of Franklin, it was pure horror. Listening to screams in the night must have been far worse than open battle where a man could at least hope for and find a place to duck.

[ole]

You're kidding, right? The post just substantiated what all you folks knew anyway, but it's nice to keep in touch!

Nope. We are aware of the abysmal supply and diet situation; we rarely get to see substantiation in print.

ole

[larry_cockerham]

Battle of Franklin, US Capt. Shellenberger, 64th Ohio, Conrads Brigade:

"(The rebels) kept up the vain struggle until long after dark, but finally elevated their hats on the ends of their muskets... as a signal to us, and called over that if we would stop shooting they would surrender. When our firing then ceased many of them came over and surrendered, but many more took advantage of the darkness and confusion... to slip back to their own lines."