The littlest things...

[Ara Oko]

I thought this might be interesting and fun.
During the civil war, what examples can be found when the littlest things had the biggest consequences?
A bit of a teaser I know, but they happen all the time in war. I might cite the loss of 191, but it sounds like it was left there to be found to my mind.
Dredging your deep knowledge, what other examples do you know of?

 

[LoyaltyOfDogs]

I have no deep knowledge to draw on for examples, but Gettysburg attorney David Wills' letter inviting Abraham Lincoln to give "a few appropriate remarks" at the dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery in November 1863 has always seemed to me to be one of these little things leading to large consequences. Since Lincoln wasn't meant to be the main speaker, was he invited merely as a courtesy? A formality? Maybe even an afterthought?

 

[Kurt G]

Ultimately the littlest things that caused the biggest consequences would be the various bacteria and other pathogens that lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides . I would also think that little lead ball fired by Booth had tremendous consequences .

 

[Ara Oko]

I have no deep knowledge to draw on for examples, but Gettysburg attorney David Wills' letter inviting Abraham Lincoln to give "a few appropriate remarks" at the dedication of Soldiers' National Cemetery in November 1863 has always seemed to me to be one of these little things leading to large consequences. Since Lincoln wasn't meant to be the main speaker, was he invited merely as a courtesy? A formality? Maybe even an afterthought?

It was maybe fated. Soldiers are/were notoriously fatalistic.
I think tho he would be high on the list of anyone's guest speakers, and what a coup to get him. And out of this little thing...
I'm sure this qualifies.

 

[Ara Oko]

Ultimately the littlest things that caused the biggest consequences would be the various bacteria and other pathogens that lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides . I would also think that little lead ball fired by Booth had tremendous consequences .

I like the literal take, but you're right. I think a lot of men survived surgery, but died for want of penicillin.
Other diseases killed many others. Mostly sanitation related one way or another.
Why was a little thing like sanitation allowed to strip the ranks bare?

 

[wbull1]

A crewman on the Planter put Captain Charles J. Relyea's wide-brimmed straw hat on Roberts Smalls and joked about how much the slave resembled the Captain while wearing the hat. That sparked an idea that ultimately resulted in Smalls the crew and their families stealing the ship (then carrying a load of Confederate cannons) from the Charleston harbor, passing Confederate Fort Johnson on James Island, saluting a gunboat by whistle, offering the signal needed to pass Confederate-occupied Fort Sumter and running up a white flag for Union ships before safely reaching union-controlled water.

 

[Cavalry Charger]

There is the story of a stray bullet inadvertently causing a pregnancy

I'd say that's a little thing having rather big consequences

 

[Ara Oko]

A crewman on the Planter put Captain Charles J. Relyea's wide-brimmed straw hat on Roberts Smalls and joked about how much the slave resembled the Captain while wearing the hat. That sparked an idea that ultimately resulted in Smalls the crew and their families stealing the ship (then carrying a load of Confederate cannons) from the Charleston harbor, passing Confederate Fort Johnson on James Island, saluting a gunboat by whistle, offering the signal needed to pass Confederate-occupied Fort Sumter and running up a white flag for Union ships before safely reaching union-controlled water.

I have genuinely heard of this escapade, but did not know the seed of it lay in a prank with a hat!
I think this would have Zeus and Mars arguing about whose fault it was!

 

[Ara Oko]

There is the story of a stray bullet inadvertently causing a pregnancy

I'd say that's a little thing having rather big consequences

I assume the man was of the cloth, a Canon perhaps... Going on to produce a son of a gun!