Before I retired from my position as Assistant Director and Curator of the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum at Lincoln Memorial University I developed and curated the exhibit Tennessee and the Civil War. Each segment (Cavalry, Infantry, Naval, Artillery, Sergeant Benjamin Trail, and others) examined their role in a war that resulted in some 700,000 casualties or 2% of the nation’s population at the time. The Civil War 1861-1865 might be considered America’s crucible.
Cavalry
Men on horseback have been fighting in conflicts for more than two millennium and may be considered the romantic arm of any army. It took Union cavalry several years to achieve the same competency of their Confederate foes. Freed from their mundane duties of patrol, escort, and courier service later in the war, Union cavalry, generally armed with carbines, sabers and pistols, were more than a match for their enemy as the war progressed.
Infantry
At the start of the war the American Army totaled just 16,000 officers and men, mostly assigned to the West. During the war more than 2,600,000 soldiers served in the Union army, most as infantry. This arm was a mighty extension of the Union’s will to preserve the Union. Infantry were grouped in companies, regiments, brigades, divisions, corps, and armies. Armed with rifles, smoothbore muskets, and bayonets, the common foot soldier was the hammer of Union forces. In the beginning they were simply organized amateurs. By 1863 there were one of the most powerful armies in the world.
Naval
On April 19, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a naval blockade of the Confederacy. Achieving this blockade required a substantial growth in a tiny Union Navy. As the war progressed both sides developed ironclads (ships partially or nearly completely covered in armor), naval mines (then called “torpedoes”), and for the Confederacy submersibles (similar to submarines but sailing with a portion of their hulls above the water line). Steam-powered warships faced each other on the high seas and America’s rivers. One of the most iconic battles was between the ironclads U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia on March 9, 1862. This event helped to establish the supremacy of armored warships.
Artillery
A Confederate general once remarked “Give me Confederate. Infantry and Yankee artillery and I’ll whip the world.” Union artillery came in several forms, field artillery (largely to support infantry), siege artillery including huge mortars (to be used against large, fixed positions), and coastal artillery, to protect against enemy warships. Guns (the standard term for cannon) came in a variety of sizes including smoothbore muzzle loaders, rifled cannon, and breech loaders. They fired cannonballs, shells (referred to as “bolts”), cannister (virtually large shotgun shells), and exploding shells and balls. It’s estimated that 8 to 12% all battle-related wounds or deaths were attributable to artillery.
Sergeant Benjamin Trail
On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, stating that on January 1, 1863, all slaves in states or portions of states still in rebellion at that time, would be free. Reacting to this document, free blacks such as Benjamin Trail of Henry County Indiana, enlisted in the Union army. By the end of the war some 200,000 free blacks and former slaves served in the Union army and navy. Trail became a sergeant-major in the 28th Infantry Regiment of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). Wounded at the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864, Trail died of his wounds shortly thereafter.
