Shamed

ErnieMac

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Sometime before leading his 11th Connecticut Infantry into the attack on the Burnside Bridge that would claim his life, Colonel Henry W. Kingsbury informed his command that the names of "every coward and skulker" would be published. Though Colonel Kingsbury did not live to see his threat carried out, the regiment's acting Adjutant saw to it that his wishes were met. This article was published in the October 14, 1862, edition of the Hartford Courant.

Edit: Cited newspaper.
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I only hope that the men listed there really were guilty of cowardice or desertion -- that's a helluva thing to be falsely accused of.
No doubt community and peer pressure were a big part of maintaining discipline and coherence in CW regiments and companies. You can pretty much imagine the reaction at home when this was published. We can only hope that since the article was published nearly a month after the battle that any 'misunderstandings' would have been clarified.
 
In Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming flees from battle in terror but eventually returns as as a standard bearer. The book was based on interviews with veterans.
I have read accounts by soldiers from WWII that sometimes men on the front line would have a tearful breakdown from the constant high level of stress. There was no shame in it. They were sent to the rear for a hot meal, coffee, and a little rest, and then come back to the foxhole. The only shame was in not returning.
The same AOP that broke and ran at Bull Run fought bravely in other battles.
Any one of these cowards at Antietam might act differently on another day in different circumstances. Lincoln commuted the sentences of soldiers who ran from battle, remarking that we shouldn't punish boys for doing the sensible thing.
 
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What was the extent of the crime of being a "straggler"?

Did that mean he stopped to tie his shoe and let the regiment march on?
Or instead of running to the rear, he sat down and refused to move?

A book was written from letters of the Colonel of the 22nd Mississippi Regiment who I would term a "hospital rat". He lead his regiment bravely in Shiloh but after that he was absent for more than a year; returned and then left again. Was there a "punishment" for an enlistedman for being a hospital rat?
 
The 'social media' of its day! I imagine it would have impacted greatly on these men, their families, and their futures. It would also have held other men in place, as intended. The misery inflicted by the CW has many faces it seems...
You said it, @Cavalry Charger! It would be interesting to know what became of some of these men, and if there were any who wrote home about their comrades being publicly shamed in this way.
 
You said it, @Cavalry Charger! It would be interesting to know what became of some of these men, and if there were any who wrote home about their comrades being publicly shamed in this way.
Yes, it would be interesting to know how much sympathy might have been shown by the men standing beside them, as opposed to the folks at home who had not had to confront the realities of battle. Fight and flight are the options we are given when confronted with life or death situations...neither one guarantees survival. As far as the CW goes, if you got caught there was a good chance you would be shot for desertion and end up dead anyway. Caught between a rock and hard place, what would you choose? Neither is inviting :frown: and both could prove deadly...
 
Sorry, I changed my post when I realized that it was not written by a reporter. It's a problem of reading comprehension.

That is amazing. Thanks for posting it. I have read that there were over 17,000 U.S. Army soldiers who went AWOL in France. I have also read that towards the end of the Civil War their were thousands of Confederate soldiers who had deserted. This is the first time I have seen cowards publicly shamed. It probably kept some soldiers in line. You would never get a "nice girl" to marry you back home, if you were deemed a coward.
 
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Yes, it would be interesting to know how much sympathy might have been shown by the men standing beside them, as opposed to the folks at home who had not had to confront the realities of battle. Fight and flight are the options we are given when confronted with life or death situations...neither one guarantees survival. As far as the CW goes, if you got caught there was a good chance you would be shot for desertion and end up dead anyway. Caught between a rock and hard place, what would you choose? Neither is inviting :frown: and both could prove deadly...
And freeze, but that could be every bit as deadly as the first two. It makes me admire Civil War soldiers even more, thinking about their human strengths and frailties.
 
And freeze, but that could be every bit as deadly as the first two. It makes me admire Civil War soldiers even more, thinking about their human strengths and frailties.
Freeze, I am guessing, is like the proverbial 'deer caught in the headlights'. I would imagine this was also a common response, and how these men found the wherewithall to manage the reloading of muskets (with all the intricacies that were involved in that process) while under fire is beyond my comprehension. Truly remarkable.
 
Freeze, I am guessing, is like the proverbial 'deer caught in the headlights'. I would imagine this was also a common response, and how these men found the wherewithall to manage the reloading of muskets (with all the intricacies that were involved in that process) while under fire is beyond my comprehension. Truly remarkable.
Exactly! I remember in my first few reenactments the rush of sensations and emotions. Even though the logical part of my brain knew it was pretend, emotions and senses don't always respond to logic, even when logic sends the engraved invitation on the fancy cardstock. One can only imagine what it must have been like when it was the real thing! And how the men could respond to any commands at all during those moments, along with loading and firing....simply amazing.
 
There seems to be a degree of sympathy for these men (not saying this is wrong - just probing further). I found a roster of the 11th Connecticut on Ancestry.com. With two exceptions in Company K, the men listed as deserters were all shown on those rosters as having deserted around the time of the Battle of Antietam. One, Asa Stevens of Company A, was convicted of desertion in the face of the enemy and sentenced to life imprisonment. I was unable to find how long he actually served.

On the other hand, the two Company K exceptions, George Grover and William Lewis, both reenlisted as veterans in 1864. Grover died in a Confederate POW camp in 1864 and Lewis received a disability discharge in early 1865. The acting Adjutant, Samuel Barnum was official given the Adjutant position in October, 1862. He would die of wounds received at Cold Harbor in June, 1864.

Does knowing these facts change anyone's perceptions about calling these men out in public?
 
In my reenacting company, I would often portray the 'coward' who ran from a fight.

At one Perryville, KY, reenactment, my company was deployed as skirmishers and came under heavy fire from advancing rebel troops. I yelled at the top of my lungs (so the crowd of spectators could hear) "Boys! We're betrayed! We're going to be flanked!"

I then threw off my musket and leathers (anything that would slow me down), and I ran for the rear as fast as I could (a friend who remained in the ranks had agreed to watch over my musket and gear).

Members of the public who were watching the reenactment from a hillside shouted, "Look at that! He's running! He's running away!" I considered that time one of my best reenactment moments.

Not every man stood and fought or held his ground. The storm of battle can be quite terrifying and such acts should be portrayed, in my own view.

One time as a Confederate soldier, I did the same act, but was caught and placed before a firing squad for execution. I was fortunate that the officer in charge of the firing squad stood off to one side of me and at his command of "Ready! Aim! FIRE!," he was shot down by his own men while missing me, permitting me to run for my life. (The crowd loved it).

Unionblue
 
Remember reading a study somewhere on how, as high as casualties were in Pickett's Charge, they should have been higher? This author had worked our numbers, etc. He conjectured a vast number of men hit a certain spot and just, plain could not force their heads to tell them to move forward. He said sometimes the human brain disallows it- obviously not always but for these men, yes. No cowardice and gosh, if there was ever a time you could see would overwhelm a man's brain, it would be that.

Who knows who will be affected, in what way? I'm not sure I could ' blame ' anyone for not being able to fulfill one's function as a soldier in these conditions. They all knew they were being asked to get killed. It's a LOT. It's all they had and perhaps others counting on them, at home not to be killed.
 
In just a quick look at the pensions index on fold3.com, I find that of 15 men listed here as "deserter," eight would eventually receive pensions (2 of whom were KIA, and 3 served multiple enlistments). This accords with what we've frequently observed, that many, probably most reported desertions, are remarkably temporary, the men being found back on duty usually within a week or so, and never actually charged. It makes the decision to so prominently publish the names of "deserters" an unfortunate one. A single mistake could be a terrible injustice. The simple threat to do so would probably have been effective as a deterrent.
 
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In my reenacting company, I would often portray the 'coward' who ran from a fight.

At one Perryville, KY, reenactment, my company was deployed as skirmishers and came under heavy fire from advancing rebel troops. I yelled at the top of my lungs (so the crowd of spectators could hear) "Boys! We're betrayed! We're going to be flanked!"

I then threw off my musket and leathers (anything that would slow me down), and I ran for the rear as fast as I could (a friend who remained in the ranks had agreed to watch over my musket and gear).

Members of the public who were watching the reenactment from a hillside shouted, "Look at that! He's running! He's running away!" I considered that time one of my best reenactment moments.

Not every man stood and fought or held his ground. The storm of battle can be quite terrifying and such acts should be portrayed, in my own view.

One time as a Confederate soldier, I did the same act, but was caught and placed before a firing squad for execution. I was fortunate that the officer in charge of the firing squad stood off to one side of me and at his command of "Ready! Aim! FIRE!," he was shot down by his own men while missing me, permitting me to run for my life. (The crowd loved it).

Unionblue
Couple of great stories right there! I normally don't go in for reenactments, but I'd like to have seen both events!
 
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