7thWisconsin
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2014
That's why trench foot didn't get them; the 'gators did! Seriously, war was very much a seasonal sport in the 1860s. With only rare exceptions, warfare was conducted during the generally dry months so that you could move wagons and guns on the roads. Civil War soldiers were not exposed to the round-the-clock pressure of modern warfare. Many men were quite used to going barefoot during the summer, or wearing their shoes without socks, even when doing hard walking or outside labor. They just didn't, as a whole, experience the 4-5 days without being able to take your boots off.
@ Hussar Yeomanry: The rotation for troops at Petersburg war shorter than the 4 day tour of duty troops did in the trenches. It was literally march out to the position, relieve the troops, stand duty, be relieved all in the same day. Infantry didn't occupy the same continuous offensive posture in a Civil War siege that they did in the Great War.
@ Hussar Yeomanry: The rotation for troops at Petersburg war shorter than the 4 day tour of duty troops did in the trenches. It was literally march out to the position, relieve the troops, stand duty, be relieved all in the same day. Infantry didn't occupy the same continuous offensive posture in a Civil War siege that they did in the Great War.