Snow and Civil War Operations

[kevikens]

AS I sit here in NJ getting buried under a blizzard, I started to think about troops having to operate in conditions like this. In the Revolutionary War, the attack by Montgomery and Arnold on Quebec in late 1776 was very much affected by the blizzard conditions the Americans had to attack in. At about the same time an ice and snow storm made a surprise attack by Washington on the Hessians at Trenton possible and in the Civil war an ice storm in front of Nashville in December of 1864 almost wrote "finis" to the career of George Thomas. And in WW II, snow and cold fog facilitated German surprise and grounded Allied aircraft. So to go back to our Civil War, were there any other battles where snow and ice (not mud) made a significant impact on the fighting of a battle?

 

[7th Texas Mounted Rifles]

The snow played a key role at this legendary 'gray on gray' battle!

You could say that if it hadn't of snowed, the battle would never have occurred...

One of the greatest ACW quotes ever to have been recorded came out of the intense fighting too!

"I would rather have caught that d@mn little Captain than to have killed the biggest man in the Yankee Army."

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/a-desperate-snow-battle.html

 

[kevikens]

How about that! A battle where the Confederate soldiers both won and lost at the same time. You know, in some cases those guys were still just kids.

 

[AUG]

The snow played a key role at this legendary 'gray on gray' battle!

You could say that if it hadn't of snowed, the battle would never have occurred...

One of the greatest ACW quotes ever to have been recorded came out of the intense fighting too!

"I would rather have caught that d@mn little Captain than to have killed the biggest man in the Yankee Army."

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/a-desperate-snow-battle.html

Here's a previous thread on some of the snowball battles in both the ANV and AoT:
http://civilwartalk.com/threads/alabama-troops-attacked-by-north-carolinians.80888/

But for the OP, when there was heavy snowfall the troops were usually in winter quarters; of course the favored campaigning seasons were spring and summer. However, there were still a few campaigns that were conducted during the winter, those that come to mind being: Fort Donelson & Henry, Stones River, Fredericksburg, Hood's Tennessee Campaign, Pea Ridge, and the New Mexico Campaign. All were effected by winter weather, however I believe Fort Donelson was the only one out of those that saw actual fighting in the snow.

 

[7th Texas Mounted Rifles]

Thanks for the 'snowball fights' info, AUG351!

All the personal correspondence in my possession from my ancestors out of the NM campaign, and the others that i have read - the most-repeated agony was the 'freezing/frigid winds'.

Afterthought: One good thing to come out of those Union boys torching the confederate supply train at Cañoncito - at least some troops were warm for a bit!

 

[AUG]

Thanks for the 'snowball fights' info, AUG351!

All the personal correspondence in my possession from my ancestors out of the NM campaign, and the others that i have read - the most-repeated agony was the 'freezing/frigid winds'.

Yep, when most think of the New Mexico Campaign freezing winds and snow is probably the last thing they imagine, but there were Texans literally freezing to death and marching through ice and snow barefoot! And for many Texans serving east of the Mississippi or up in the Ozarks, that first winter must have been tough as well.

 

[7th Texas Mounted Rifles]

Yep, when most think of the New Mexico Campaign freezing winds and snow is probably the last thing they imagine, but there were Texans literally freezing to death and marching through ice and snow barefoot! And for many Texans serving east of the Mississippi or up in the Ozarks, that first winter must have been tough as well.

Absolutely!