Foto Friday 3/8

[George Thomas]

A portion of the unfinished railroad cut on 2nd Bull Run Battlefield

 

[Jimklag]

2nd Manassas battlefield

 

[jcrook]

Fort Fisher - withstood 40,000 cannon balls across two engagements.

 

[Jimklag]

My Vicksburg photos are all on 35mm film which I never had digitized. Who has some good Vicksburg trench/earthwork photos? Calling @7th Mississippi Infantry and @bdtex .

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

My Vicksburg photos are all on 35mm film which I never had digitized. Who has some good Vicksburg trench/earthwork photos? Calling @7th Mississippi Infantry and @bdtex .

Thanks, but I'm the last one you want to provide quality photos of Vicksburg or anywhere.

We have many great photographers on this site, and it's impossible to say which one is the best.

I always defer to @mt155 first, and then let all of our photographers sort it out in the contests.

 

[bdtex]

My Vicksburg photos are all on 35mm film which I never had digitized. Who has some good Vicksburg trench/earthwork photos? Calling @7th Mississippi Infantry and @bdtex .

 

[lelliott19]

Well-preserved earthworks of the Confederate line at Dam No. 1 (1862 Peninsula Campaign) Newport News Park, Virginia. This was the first battle for Cobb's brigade and the 16th Georgia. Eli Pinson Landers (Co H/16th GA) wrote to his mother: "It did not frighten me as bad as I expected it would but I tell you when the bullets would whistle around my head I felt sort of ticklish."

Well-preserved fortification at Lee's Mill (1862 Peninsula Campaign) Newport News, VA.
WARNING: Earthworks at Lee's Mill are much larger than they appear in this photo below. They are much more impressive in person. Must be something about the angle from which the picture was taken.

At Lee's Mill, Confederate engineers Isaac St. John and Alfred Rives took advantage of the natural landscape to situate the earthworks along the Warwick River and three redouts above, on the heights. They utilized their training and knowledge from the book Triest on Field Fortifications by 19th century American engineering professor, Dennis Hart Mahan (West Point, class of 1824; instructor of engineering 1830-1870.) The fortifications at Lee's Mill were of two types: the breastwork and the redout. The breastwork was a chest high parapet and interior ditch, built to protect infantrymen. Also quite evident in the breastworks at Lee's Mill are numerous communication channels. The redout was constructed for mounting artillery pieces. This many sided fortification provided protection from enemy fire and slowed their advance.

 

[bdtex]

Cold Harbor
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Cold Harbor is awesome. I went there on a cold Monday morning in January 2016. Pretty much had it to myself.

 

[Blessmag]

DeVall's Bluff Arkansas.

 

[James N.]

I'm wondering about the other defenses at the works. When you see the measures taken to defend their positions (not just dirt, but deadly looking wooden 'spears' embedded in the ground) at times they look impregnable to me. I'd say not a few injuries occurred because of these, but how on earth did they overrun them?

Despite how deadly all this LOOKS I'd say most of the injuries were likely more in the imagination of second-hand chroniclers like the illustrator of these popular 1960's bubblegum cards! There were basically two types of these, fraises or chevaux-de-fraise below and the sharpened palings above. Of course this was in the pre-barbed wire age, and the period equivalent that is seldom seen represented was abatis which was nothing more than piles of cut brush or even tree limbs with the twigs and branches left on but sharpened and pointing towards the enemy. Abatis was the most common and effective obstacle used on Civil War battlefields, mainly due to its easy availability and simplicity of manufacture. Creation of fieldworks like gabions, sap rollers, and chevaux-de-fraise were both time-consuming and labor-intensive.

These two are notably preposterous for a couple of reasons: the impaling above is physically impossible (and cavalry wouldn't be charging fieldworks in the first place); the scene below is equally unlikely due to the weight of the chevaux-de-fraise, easily several hundred pounds. These were normally placed out in front of prepared works and were intended to do two things: break up linear formations of assaulting battlelines; and slow those lines down so they could be pounded by artillery within the "killing zone" at close range appropriate for that most deadly anti-personnel projectile, canister.

 

[James N.]

My Vicksburg photos are all on 35mm film which I never had digitized. Who has some good Vicksburg trench/earthwork photos? Calling @7th Mississippi Infantry and @bdtex .

Likely NOT what you had in mind, but the above shows the reconstructed section of trench outside the NPS headquarters and Visitors' Center; below, all that remains of the Union trenches on the south end of the battlefield adjacent to I-20:

 

[Cavalry Charger]

View attachment 296049

Despite how deadly all this LOOKS I'd say most of the injuries were likely more in the imagination of second-hand chroniclers like the illustrator of these popular 1960's bubblegum cards! There were basically two types of these, fraises or chevaux-de-fraise below and the sharpened palings above. Of course this was in the pre-barbed wire age, and the period equivalent that is seldom seen represented was abatis which was nothing more than piles of cut brush or even tree limbs with the twigs and branches left on but sharpened and pointing towards the enemy. Abatis was the most common and effective obstacle used on Civil War battlefields, mainly due to its easy availability and simplicity of manufacture. Creation of fieldworks like gabions, sap rollers, and chevaux-de-fraise were both time-consuming and labor-intensive.

View attachment 296053

These two are notably preposterous for a couple of reasons: the impaling above is physically impossible (and cavalry wouldn't be charging fieldworks in the first place); the scene below is equally unlikely due to the weight of the chevaux-de-fraise, easily several hundred pounds. These were normally placed out in front of prepared works and were intended to do two things: break up linear formations of assaulting battlelines; and slow those lines down so they could be pounded by artillery within the "killing zone" at close range appropriate for that most deadly anti-personnel projectile, canister.

View attachment 296059

James N. thank you so much for this informative and somewhat 'entertaining' post! Now I know the terms for these defenses and understand their uses better. I think alot of people, including myself, imagine troops potentially being impaled on these as they charged at the enemy (as shown in your images). As you say, cavalry were unlikely to charge such fieldworks, but I'd imagine a huge psychological barrier for those who were required to do so. Once again, much appreciated.