Impressions Question for Confederate re-enactors?

[Bruce Vail]

How would a lieutenant in the ANV be armed in a battle situation? Is his job to actually fight, or direct the actions of the private soldiers?

 

[Youngblood]

Im not a reenactor but i do believe even jr officers would have a sword and pistol.

 

[thomas aagaard]

A lieutenant in a standard infantry company would serve as a file closer. His basic job was to help keep the men in line and stop them from running away.

The 1st LT would in few cases give orders but the 2nd LT had no actual command job. Only if the Captain and 1st LT was lost did the 2nd LT get to give orders.

All officers where to carry a sword as their sidearm .(and symbol of authority)
And many officers also carried some sort of revolver.


Just to expand on what a LT did...
A company can be run by the captain and the sergeants and the LTs are sort of extras.
As Kautz tell us:
"23. In reality one officer is quite sufficient to attend to all the duties requiring the presence of a
commissioned officer, and if the Company would always be sure of an officer competent to do
his duty, there would probably be no Lieutenants; but it is to provide against the Company being
left without an officer that the law has provided Lieutenants.

24. The position of Lieutenant is, therefore, more one of probation and instruction, and he may
be required by the Captain to attend to all the practical duties incumbent upon the Captain himself.
The daily routine is to be present at all the principal roll-calls, drills (....)"

Their most important jobs where not in battle but during the day to day routine where they did jobs like officer of the guards and leading fatigue and working parties...

They could also be the Battalion Adjutant. Begin the one dealing with a lot of the paperwork.

 

[Bruce Vail]

A lieutenant in a standard infantry company would serve as a file closer. His basic job was to help keep the men in line and stop them from running away.

The 1st LT would in few cases give orders but the 2nd LT had no actual command job. Only if the Captain and 1st LT was lost did the 2nd LT get to give orders.

All officers where to carry a sword as their sidearm .(and symbol of authority)
And many officers also carried some sort of revolver.


Just to expand on what a LT did...
A company can be run by the captain and the sergeants and the LTs are sort of extras.
As Kautz tell us:
"23. In reality one officer is quite sufficient to attend to all the duties requiring the presence of a
commissioned officer, and if the Company would always be sure of an officer competent to do
his duty, there would probably be no Lieutenants; but it is to provide against the Company being
left without an officer that the law has provided Lieutenants.

24. The position of Lieutenant is, therefore, more one of probation and instruction, and he may
be required by the Captain to attend to all the practical duties incumbent upon the Captain himself.
The daily routine is to be present at all the principal roll-calls, drills (....)"

Their most important jobs where not in battle but during the day to day routine where they did jobs like officer of the guards and leading fatigue and working parties...

They could also be the Battalion Adjutant. Begin the one dealing with a lot of the paperwork.

So, if the Capt. was on leave or wounded, then the 1st Lt. would fill in for him?

 

[Michael_Schaffner]

I have a journal somewhere of an ANV adjutant who was killed while firing back at the enemy but, as a general rule, if your numbers are such that an officer has time to shoot rather than supervise, you probably don't have enough men for them to need an officer.

 

[Bruce Vail]

A lieutenant in a standard infantry company would serve as a file closer. His basic job was to help keep the men in line and stop them from running away.

The 1st LT would in few cases give orders but the 2nd LT had no actual command job. Only if the Captain and 1st LT was lost did the 2nd LT get to give orders.

All officers where to carry a sword as their sidearm .(and symbol of authority)
And many officers also carried some sort of revolver.


Just to expand on what a LT did...
A company can be run by the captain and the sergeants and the LTs are sort of extras.
As Kautz tell us:
"23. In reality one officer is quite sufficient to attend to all the duties requiring the presence of a
commissioned officer, and if the Company would always be sure of an officer competent to do
his duty, there would probably be no Lieutenants; but it is to provide against the Company being
left without an officer that the law has provided Lieutenants.

24. The position of Lieutenant is, therefore, more one of probation and instruction, and he may
be required by the Captain to attend to all the practical duties incumbent upon the Captain himself.
The daily routine is to be present at all the principal roll-calls, drills (....)"

Their most important jobs where not in battle but during the day to day routine where they did jobs like officer of the guards and leading fatigue and working parties...

They could also be the Battalion Adjutant. Begin the one dealing with a lot of the paperwork.

The same for a Lt. in the artillery?

 

[captaindrew]

So, if the Capt. was on leave or wounded, then the 1st Lt. would fill in for him?

Yes, at the company level they would take over if the captain went down. They would be armed with a field officers sword, more designed to direct traffic than fight. They may have a pistol if they felt like lugging it around.

 

[thomas aagaard]

So, if the Capt. was on leave or wounded, then the 1st Lt. would fill in for him?

Exactly.

 

[thomas aagaard]

The same for a Lt. in the artillery?

No. In the artillery a battery (company) of 4 or 6 guns was split into 2-gun sections under the command of an Lt.
So they actually did have an active command role during combat.

 

[Chattahooch33]

If the Lt. of the company is actually fighting you are in quite the mess.

 

[Bruce Vail]

If the Lt. of the company is actually fighting you are in quite the mess.

Yeah...my guess is that my Lt. found himself in that position in 1864, when his company was reduced to very small size and fighting Sheridan's army in the Valley.

 

[lelliott19]

Yeah...my guess is that my Lt. found himself in that position in 1864, when his company was reduced to very small size and fighting Sheridan's army in the Valley.

Yeah pretty much the same for all Early's command at that point. Which of your relatives is this?

 

[Bruce Vail]

Yeah pretty much the same for all Early's command at that point. Which of your relatives is this?

Lt. Ward of the 3rd NC Infantry.

The regiment was greatly reduced at the Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania. It was consolidated with the 1st NC and transferred into Grimes Brigade for Gen. Early's 1864 Valley campaign. Lt. Ward missed the first half of the campaign while recovering from his Spotsylvania wound, but had returned to duty for the fighting at 3rd Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek.

 

[Don Dixon]

I'll deviate from the Army of Northern Virginia in answering your question. An undated inspection report – probably from August 1864 near Atlanta – states that some of officers of the 24th Mississippi Infantry and the 29th and 30th Mississippi Infantry (Consolidated) were carrying rifles like their soldiers. At the time, both regiments were involved in the Siege of Atlanta. (Confederate Inspection Reports, NARA) This was probably sufficiently unusual that the Inspector General commented upon it. An officer's job was, and is, to lead, not to shoot back at the enemy.

Regards,
Don Dixon

 

[thomas aagaard]

I know that during the 7 year war company officers in British the light infantry companies sometimes carried muskets and did other things to look more like the men.
Some older officers did not like this at all, since, as pointed out, the officers job is to command, not fire a musket.

But a big part of the reason was the nature of the fighting on the undeveloped frontier where the offices could often be targeted if they looked to much like an officer. So it helped them blend with the men.

 

[AUG]

Not a reenactor, but I'll add my two cents. Junior-grade officers were not supposed to fight unless they had to, but I have read of many instances where they were in the thick of the action under desperate circumstances or on their own account - not just fighting but also doing such things as picking up their regiment's colors or capturing an enemy flag. I wouldn't say it was the norm but it did happen.

For one example, Brig. Gen. Cadmus Wilcox says the following in his report of the battle of Glendale/Frayser's Farm, where his brigade got into some intense hand-to-hand combat in a charge on a battery:
"The sword and bayonet are freely used. Capt. W. C. Y. Parker had two successive encounters with Federal officers, both of whom he felled with his sword, and beset by others of the enemy he was severely wounded, having received two bayonet wounds in the breast and one one in his side and a musket wound breaking his left thigh. Lieutenant [T. J.] Michie had a hand-to-hand collision with an officer and having just dealt a severe blow upon his adversary he fell, cut over the head with a saber-bayonet from behind, and had afterward three bayonet wounds in the face and two in the breast, all severe wounds, which he survived, however, for three days."

 

[Bruce Vail]

No. In the artillery a battery (company) of 4 or 6 guns was split into 2-gun sections under the command of an Lt.
So they actually did have an active command role during combat.

Another relative was a Lt. in a heavy artillery unit stationed near Wilmington. After the fall of Fort Fisher, his battalion became part of the "Red Infantry" employed in the final stage of the war in NC, including at the battle of Bentonville.

 

[Tailor Pete]

These fine gentlemen are correct. As a rule, even Jr. Grade officers had a more active role in maintaining the physical structure of the regiment / company than actually fighting. However, when the shooting starts...

One scene (of many) in Gettysburg that wasn't exactly right, was the 20th Maine on Little Round Top. In one of his post war reminiscences, J. L. Chamberlain mentioned that several of his officers (ranks not mentioned) including his brother, took up arms from the dead and wounded and fought on the line as infantry.

Similar situations undoubtedly occurred throughout the war, and events such as these have been cited as an explanation for seeing colored troops on the line with Confederate regiments and integrated into Federal Regiments as well. When the fighting starts, all bets are off.

As a reenactor, I would stick to a pure officer impression in bearing and function, but if you can coordinate with one of your pards and set-up a scenario where you pick up his rifle and fight in desperation, than all the better, but don't plan on doing this at every event. Its our charge to present history accurately, not theatrically.

 

[thomas aagaard]

Another relative was a Lt. in a heavy artillery unit stationed near Wilmington. After the fall of Fort Fisher, his battalion became part of the "Red Infantry" employed in the final stage of the war in NC, including at the battle of Bentonville.

Heavy artillery was trained to man big guns, but also to use muskets. The reason is that where light artillery was always posted with infantry or part of a larger force with infantry and they could provide the pickets, and guards.
Heavy artillery was often on their own in some fort. So they needed to be able to post guards and similar on their own.

And many units ended up being used at infantry at some point.