Knapsacks in Battle?

[Manassas 1861]

Where knapsacks and bedrolls worn in battle? I've heard that they were dropped before a regiment was sent in, but was this always the case?

 

[RedRover]

In a battle, it was customary to discard all equipment which impeded movement, and got in the way of loading and firing...

From Billings, "Hardtack and Coffee."

After the National Tribune printed the following picture in 1908 showing Union soldiers as if at the cornfield at Antietam, Homer Calkins, late of the 12th Illinois Cavalry, who served there with McClellan's headquarters guard, responded.

Calkins:
"But he could not recognize that cornfield scene in your issue of Sept. 24, simply from the dress represented on those soldiers.
Why are our soldiers in battle represented as on parade or in marching order? Why, at Antietam, as was the custom generally in regularly set engagements, the men divested themselves of pretty much everything "that was loose." So many threw the old hat or cap high in the air on their first charge. In the morning the knapsacks, blankets and with most their jackets were piled up in the rear with a regimental guard over them. Sometimes, of course, they never saw them again, as was the case in so many instances during the seven days. Many regiments lost all such impedimenta the first of those days at Mechanicsville. But they would prefer to lose them than be so incumbered in battle. Of those men in the cornfield probably not many had a coat or cap on, most assuredly not one with a ponderous blanket hanging around his neck. The artillerymen that day were stripped almost to the buff, and looked more like devils than men working in the battery smoke. So, Mr. Editor, if you desire to convey an idea to the generations that have and are growing up since those days, please forbear loading down American soldiers with all their supposed belongings in such engagements as was Antietam, especially on so warm a day as was that 17th of September, 1862." [National Tribune, Wash. DC, 10-22-1908.]

From the 1st Massachusetts at First Manassas in 1861:

...

Thomas Wise Durham of Wallace's Zouaves at Fort Donelson, February 15, 1862:

From the 102nd Pennsylvania at Seven Pines in May, 1862...

At Gettysburg...

...

Pickett's charge...

Henry N. Blake, regarding Mine Run in late 1863:

Willcox's Division of the Ninth Corps at Ream's Station in 1864;

Billings noted that in 1861 etc. the Army of the Potomac particularly had their knapsacks distinctly marked with regimental numbers, etc. But on throwing them off in action, and getting new ones, etc. there was less interest in doing so...

The Battlefields would be littered with equipment discarded in battle...

 

[RedRover]

In France Ardant Du Picq commented on the difficulties of fighting in ranks with knapsacks...

From the Battle of the Alma, in the Crimea... 1854.

From the Battle of Magenta, Italy, 1859:

From the battle of Solferino, 1859, same...

After the war with Spain of 1898, Col. Charles Regan of the 9th US Infantry observed...

 

[captaindrew]

If there was time they would drop knapsacks and leave a few guys behind to guard them. BUT as guys would learn the hard way they wouldn't always return to the same spot and/or the enemy would take control of that spot and all their possessions would be gone. They would also be prey to friendly units coming from behind, if guys would be in need of something it would be fair game. So many veterans would be reluctant to part with their possessions and just keep them on.

 

[John Hartwell]

Sometimes impediments left behind were never seen again.

James Madison Stone, in his Personal Recollections, says of his 21st Massachusetts, just before the desperate fight at Chantilly (2nd Manassas): "Toward dusk we moved off to the left in double quick time. We stopped and left our knapsacks in a little grove as we went along. We knew then there was business ahead." (p.66) A few weeks later, after storming across Burnside's Bridge at Antietam, and ascending the steep hill opposite. Stone writes, "The Confederate infantry was behind a stone wall part way down the hill from the artillery. One of the Johnnies killed behind that wall had my knapsack on his back. He had found it in the little grove beside the road near the Henry House Hill on the Bull Run battlefield, and carried it into Maryland. The knapsack was found and identified by the man who painted the initials of my name, company, regiment and state on the side of it. He was a Company K man who was detailed in the hospital department. He found it in going over the field gathering up the wounded and burying the dead after the battle." (pp.91-2)

Over a year later, in December 1863, while the Mass. 21st was engaged in the siege of Knoxville, Tenn. "The 1st South Carolina regiment, of Longstreet's corps, … sent word over the line to the 21st Massachusetts regiment, that if they wanted their old knapsacks, they should come and get them."

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

In a battle, it was customary to discard all equipment which impeded movement, and got in the way of loading and firing...

From Billings, "Hardtack and Coffee."

View attachment 536491
View attachment 536492


After the National Tribune printed the following picture in 1908 showing Union soldiers as if at the cornfield at Antietam, Homer Calkins, late of the 12th Illinois Cavalry, who served there with McClellan's headquarters guard, responded.

View attachment 536489

Calkins:
"But he could not recognize that cornfield scene in your issue of Sept. 24, simply from the dress represented on those soldiers.
Why are our soldiers in battle represented as on parade or in marching order? Why, at Antietam, as was the custom generally in regularly set engagements, the men divested themselves of pretty much everything "that was loose." So many threw the old hat or cap high in the air on their first charge. In the morning the knapsacks, blankets and with most their jackets were piled up in the rear with a regimental guard over them. Sometimes, of course, they never saw them again, as was the case in so many instances during the seven days. Many regiments lost all such impedimenta the first of those days at Mechanicsville. But they would prefer to lose them than be so incumbered in battle. Of those men in the cornfield probably not many had a coat or cap on, most assuredly not one with a ponderous blanket hanging around his neck. The artillerymen that day were stripped almost to the buff, and looked more like devils than men working in the battery smoke. So, Mr. Editor, if you desire to convey an idea to the generations that have and are growing up since those days, please forbear loading down American soldiers with all their supposed belongings in such engagements as was Antietam, especially on so warm a day as was that 17th of September, 1862." [National Tribune, Wash. DC, 10-22-1908.]

From the 1st Massachusetts at First Manassas in 1861:

View attachment 536498
...

View attachment 536499

Thomas Wise Durham of Wallace's Zouaves at Fort Donelson, February 15, 1862:

View attachment 536497

From the 102nd Pennsylvania at Seven Pines in May, 1862...

View attachment 536514


At Gettysburg...

View attachment 536501

...

View attachment 536502

Pickett's charge...

View attachment 536503


Henry N. Blake, regarding Mine Run in late 1863:

View attachment 536495


Willcox's Division of the Ninth Corps at Ream's Station in 1864;

View attachment 536512

Billings noted that in 1861 etc. the Army of the Potomac particularly had their knapsacks distinctly marked with regimental numbers, etc. But on throwing them off in action, and getting new ones, etc. there was less interest in doing so...

View attachment 536493
View attachment 536494


The Battlefields would be littered with equipment discarded in battle...

View attachment 536500

Excellent post @RedRover. You thoroughly answered the question at hand.

 

[The Ninth Ohio]

The Ninth Ohio and much of the rest of the brigade lost their knapsacks at Chickamauga, dropping them and leaving them guarded on the 19th, then losing that ground. They also had much of their stuff stolen by friendly troops when put in storage in Nashville late '62.

With that in mind, I think I would have been one of the folks that carried everything he owned in a blanket roll, come hell or high water.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Where knapsacks and bedrolls worn in battle? I've heard that they were dropped before a regiment was sent in, but was this always the case?

I read somewhere that one particularly religious Confederate soldier, when discarding his knapsack, etc. always stuffed his Bible down inside his belt, inside the front of his pants. It was the one thing he refused to discard!

 

[Old Soldier]

So the answer to the question was - often and 'by the book', but not always.

 

[nc native]

At First Manassas, the men of the 18th Virginia Infantry threw their knapsacks and equipment aside when it was ordered forward to charge a Union battery which was captured. After the battle a thunderstorm soaked the battlefield and the men of the 18th Virginia feared that the equipment they had left behind had been soaked and was useless due to the rain. Robert Dabney who was the chaplain of the 18th Virginia before he became chief of staff for General T. J. Jackson had gathered the discarded knapsacks, equipment and personal items and covered them up keeping them dry while the men were away much to the relief and joy of the soliders of this regiment

 

[Rhea Cole]

Knapsacks Won the Battle of Stones River On Their Own!

On December 31st 1862 as the winter sun settled onto the cold dripping cedars, Patrick Cleburne's division came howling out of the cedar break, The Nashville Pike & the Nashville & Chattanooga Rail Road, Rosecrans' only connection back to Nashville lay before them. One last burst of violence & victory would be theirs.

As the well dressed lines entered the intervening field, the Cleburne's veterans on the right flank stopped & stared. An entire regiment of the 14th Corps was lying in ambush right across their flank. As the the sergeants began to recoil from the threat in confusion, men in the line accordioned, stumbled, turned on a dime & broke into a howling retreat.

Cleburne's account of being nearly trampled in the stampede is amusing. As night fell around him, Cleburne recognized that there was no rallying his men. The one great chance to win the Battle of Stones River had been defeated by a line of knapsacks & great coats dropped in a field by a regiment before going into line of battle.

Western army knapsacks were far & away more ferocious than those fancy effete Eastern backpacks.

Note: Mark Twain was fond of saying that the difference between history & fiction is that fiction has to make sense.

 

[RedRover]

A few more observations of stripping for action.

86th Indiana at Perryville...

81st Indiana Volunteers at Murfreesboro...

Walker's Texas Division, at Pleasant Hill.

New Market Cadets, Battle of New Market...

1st Tennessee, Battle of Resaca:

From the Battle of the Crater, 1864:

 

[Rhea Cole]

A few more observations of stripping for action.

81st Indiana Volunteers at Murfreesboro...

View attachment 536605
View attachment 536606


Walker's Texas Division, at Pleasant Hill.

View attachment 536607

New Market Cadets, Battle of New Market...

View attachment 536603

1st Tennessee, Battle of Resaca:

View attachment 536604


From the Battle of the Crater, 1864:

View attachment 536601

Excellent job rooting out the references. Oddly enough, my wife's great grandfather was there. He was in the 3rd Georgia, a part of the Georgia Battalion. Sometimes I am struck by how the Civil War was not that long ago & that some of us had skin in the game.

 

[wtexas]

At the Battle of Mansfield (8 April 1864), there area number of sources that mention a pile of knapsacks behind the battle line. Additionally, there are soldier sources that also mention piling their knapsacks before moving forward into battle.