I 'd just go to Canada and smoke pot till the war was over.
But there were no battles in the west coast so that's why I'd pick California! Then again, there was that whole Arizona expedition. Screw it, I'd go enlist with DanF and his Gunjah Wallah Guard.But there was no battles in the west coast so that's why pick Maine.
For a Union soldier, it would seem a bit contradictory to say he was fighting for his state. The Union cause was that there was something greater than an individual state which deserved one's primary loyalty.
Not many of them, most fought in State regiments raised by the States.
Wrong. This is a basic historical fact. They were recruited by states, but they didn't fight for states. They fought for the national entities. Union soldiers were mustered into United States national service and confederate soldiers were mustered into confederate national service.
pfcjking - ' NC troops were very well supplied in terms of clothing ' - this fact is slightly controversial, as I have only recently learnt that Governor Vance of North Carolina hoarded 92,000 Uniforms + vast quantities of blankets & shoe leather at a time when troops from other Confederate States went short ! NC's 42 textile factories gave her twice the output of the rest of the Confederacy put together,and yet her belief in States' Rights meant that she could see no further than supplying her own 'Sons'.The South really screwed up by having the weird supply system that was run by states. Uniforms of all different color and cut supplied by the state you came from. If you were a North Carolinian, you were dressed well. Since NC was a hot bed for blockade runners, NC troops were very well supplied in terms of clothing.
Kentuckians were actual orphans, as were Texans, Arkansans and Louisianians who were East of the Mississippi River after it was closed to service.
I have read of Texans wearing there pants torn off at the knee as early as Sharpsburg. A functional pair of boots was said to draw stares in Hood's Texas Brigade.
U.S. Navy on a blockading warship, safer then the army. Add to that there's no marching.