Gel'in

[timewalker]

Bare feet and hands do not do well in the cold winter months but in the warm months of Spring, Summer and early fall they work fine.

A note: Most if all of us on this board have not grown up with people who walk around in bare feet outside anymore so our judgement is skewed when it comes to going shoeless..

I have searched the web trying to find foot care during the Civil war and have found nothing, except the the union spent 45,000 dollars to take care of foot issues for 15,000 soldiers.

I can not believe no one has not research this bare feet issue during the civil war because I know our modern army makes a big deal out of foot care today.

If 19% of regiments are sending men to the rear because no shoes, this is a big issue then of an army. Now I wonder: How many soldiers happen to become shoeless before a big battle if not having shoes got you sent to the rear?

Wondering out loud....

Was it simply not having shoes that got you sent to the rear, or having foot-related problems as a result of not having shoes that got you sent to the rear, but the records "abrieviate" this as "no shoes."

And lo and behold! We have identified another potential doctoral dissertation! I hope the aspiring history profs are reading the boards. We are giving them some great ideas for papers.

 

[5fish]

Rocks and stones...

Was it simply not having shoes that got you sent to the rear, or having foot-related problems as a result of not having shoes that got you sent to the rear, but the records "abrieviate" this as "no shoes."

And lo and behold! We have identified another potential doctoral dissertation! I hope the aspiring history profs are reading the boards. We are giving them some great ideas for papers.

Timewalker,

You may be more right then you know. In my search about foot care I came across the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Fredrick, MD. I called them and talk to a acknowledge-able gent and he told me that there is nothing publish on the subject but they(museum) has had lectures there about it.

Again, I am surprise that no one has looked into it much deeper then a lecture paper. An army marches on it stomach and its feet and it seems everyone has forgotten the feet.

The gent did know a lot about the the subject and to summarize it like this:

1)If you needed shoes your commander tried is best to get you some.

2) You were on your own when it came to taking care of your feet.

3) If you were in bare feet you still marched with the army but in battle some commander's did send bare feet soldiers to the rear even if it was a large portion of one's command.

4)Callused feet did work a little except in the winter and on certain surfaces. Shoes were needed because of all the different surfaces soldiers walk on. Callous feet do not do well on rocky surfaces like chip rock roads, cobble stone road, and brick roads.

5) Rocks, stones and cold weather are bad for unprotected feet even with calluses the feet could still get bruises on them.

There was much more to our conversation but I just wanted gave you all the highlights.


An end to a search.....

 

[timewalker]

Wowzer!

Thanks for the info.

 

[Elennsar]

Wonderful. Now, all we need is someone ambitious to write this up as a good paper or article and submit it somewhere.

So the next question is...can anyone determine if Johnson's Brigade having 19% of its men out of the fight at Chickamauga is unusually high, unusually low, or around average?

Because if Bragg's army on the whole had say, 10% of its otherwise PFD strength absent from the firing line, that is a grevious drain...particularly after adding the "can't keep up" soldiers, too.