The Redleg
Volume 2, Issue 1: December 1999
The Redleg: The Newsletter of Battery B, 4th U.S. Light Artillery, Inc.
The Newsletter of
Battery B, 4th U.S. Light Artillery, Inc.
Publisher: Cpt. Eric Peterson.
Editor: Sgt. Steve Adams.

Redleg Office:
Sgt. Steven T. Adams, Editor
1303 Mulford Street
Evanston, IL  60202
(847) 475-5327
josteve@ibm.net

In This Issue...

Into Battery... With Captain Eric Peterson.

Greetings Fellow Redlegs!

By now you should all have your schedules for the 2000 season. You will note something a little different from previous years in that instead of selecting a specific battle or place to commemorate, each event has a camp scenario specified. I have done this to give direction to our non-drill time in camp, and to focus a theme for the spectators. In years past it has been difficult to get any other units to agree on a particular period of the war to play. At many encampments we might be doing late war impressions while others are doing early war or vice versa. I think this will help direct attention to our unit at the encampments, and if done well, it will direct recruits to the unit as well as entertain and educate the public.

Of all the events listed on the schedule, I think the most important is the Artillery School at Lake Mills. We should have full member participation. Those who are already safety certified need not pay the $10 registration fee, as you will be working as a cadre at this school. Those not safety certified should register with me and pay their $10 fee. This is a fine opportunity for our unit to enhance its reputation and for those who are not already certified to get their safety card. In fact, this will be the most convenient opportunity for certification for at least two years because the school will be held in St. Louis next year.

I look forward to seeing all of you this coming season. We have a lot of work to do. We must do spring maintenance on our trailer, and plan to finance and build our own limber. One way to finance the limber is with a raffle that was discussed at the annual meeting. I encourage all of you to participate in that. The real lifeblood of the unit treasury is through paid events. I strongly encourage each of you to attend as many of those as possible. This is the way we finance all the camp niceties and more especially our cannon and gunpowder expenses. As I write this, there are several members who have yet to pay their dues. The battery dues are the second largest source of income for our unit. If you have not already done so, please send in your dues immediately. I am waiting to send in our registration to the 2nd Wisconsin Association until all dues are in.

Finally, I want to thank each of you for your support during my tenure as your commander over the past eight years. I want each of you to seriously think about who you wish to command this unit in 2001. I have decided to resign as battery commander after the end of this season. I am working on developing an impression of General George Thomas in the future. I will be commanding all the federal forces in two re-enactments this year, and probably more in the future. I have come to believe that re-enacting has developed to a point where we are strangely absent our command structure during our encampments and it shows. I am speaking of the federal forces in total and in no way mean to imply that this is a case within our own unit.

My intention for 2001 and beyond is to combine my impression with a unit that would portray a general staff at the corps level. This staff will be a working staff and not just for show. We will plan and coordinate the federal forces on the battlefield and in camp so that rather than the mob violence we currently have at many re-enactments there is a planned and coordinated attack or defense of combined arms. If this idea catches on, and I’m sure it will, we will add a dimension to encampments that I think the public is aching for. They can see all the army branches work in a coordinated fashion; infantry, cavalry, and artillery, as well as medical, signal, ordnance, and even the provost and chaplain’s corps. The public will see the staff planning and coordinating the battles, and conducting counsels of war and briefing the commanders.

If you know of anyone interested in assisting with what I am tentatively calling “The Federal Corps HQ” please contact me to discuss this endeavor. I will be looking for people versed in tactics, who display strong leadership qualities and professionalism! Enlisted and Commissioned Officers of all branches and various ranks will be needed.

Cedat Fortuna Peritis!

 

Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.
-Sun Tzu, a philosopher-general of ancient China.

 

The Alleged Vulnerability of Artillery

Many modern commentators have supposed that the short-and medium range use of artillery in the Civil War was a logical impossibility-or at best an expression of suicidal bravery- simply because the gunners were vulnerable to the new small-arms fire. It has often been alleged that field guns lost their pre-eminence in battle as soon as the invention of the rifle musket had placed them within range of enemy infantry. According to this analysis the Napoleonic tactic of the artillery charge to canister range had been made obsolete because infantry weapons could at last reach out further than canister could fire.... Hence the only practicable gunfire on the Civil War battlefield is often assumed to have consisted of largely useless potshots at ranges above 1,000 yards. This doctrine is utterly misleading in every way, since not only did Civil War batteries frequently open fire at ranges well below 1,000 yards, and had an important tactical effect at those ranges, but they also suffered relatively few casualties as the price of their temerity. Far from dominating the battlefield, in fact the unhappy infantry could rarely do very much to stop gunners from moving precisely where they wished or tormenting whomsoever they chose at whatever ranges they cared to select.

It is not uncommon to read of batteries, engaged continuously in hot action for several hours, which ‘surprisingly’ suffered a negligible number of casualties. At second Manassas one Union battery, alone and unsupported, even managed to beat off infantry as near as 65 yards without incurring any loss to itself. Admittedly, it was more normal for losses to rise if the enemy could come so close, but it was very rare indeed for a battery to lose more than 10 percent of its strength, or an average of approximately two men per gun.

The figure of 5-10 percent gunner casualties may be contrasted with an average of at least 14 percent overall casualties in the twenty-five major battles which I have analyzed, and an almost routine acceptance of 30 percent casualties among infantry regiments which were heavily engaged. It was not at all unknown for infantry units to lose 60-70 percent, and at Gettysburg the 1st Minnesota suffered no less than 82 percent killed and wounded.... Ironically the heaviest artillery casualties occurred when the soldiers were taken away from their guns and thrown into the fighting as infantry. The 1st Maine Heavy Artillery had the dubious distinction of suffering the highest losses of any Union regiment during the war, including the highest casualties in a single battle. At Petersburg on 18 June 1864 this regiment lost 632 out of 900 engaged-and that just a month after it had lost 476 men at Spotsylvania.

Out of the losses suffered by artillery when fulfilling its normal role, at least as many were likely to be caused by counter-battery fire as by infantry. Hence a battery of 100 men might typically lose 5 men to musketry and 5 to long range cannonading. (Paddy Griffith; Battle Tactics of The Civil War)

Battery B Schedule 2000
* Maximum effort

The Redleg Editorial

So yet another season is about to begin, and Battery B is going to be very busy this year. Our first order of business is the Artillery Safety School; Terry Brown and Gary Van Kauwenbergh have been hard at work doing the ground work for this event. Its success will be due to their efforts. I know that you join me in thanking them. As the time draws closer we must all be ready to lend a hand when Gary and Terry give the word. I am confident that this artillery school will be the best to date.

Sadly, Eric has decided to relinquish command of the battery, and his leadership will be missed. The battery, however, will move on and we must start the process of electing a new commander. To that end I will throw my hat into the ring. I believe that I can pick up the gauntlet and take command of this battery, and serve the membership well, but we have many months to scrutinize all candidates.

I will not use this newsletter to advance my candidacy from this date on, in order to maintain a level playing field for all candidates.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all, Steve.

AN ARMY CORPS ON THE MARCH
Walt Whitman

With its cloud of skirmishers in advance,
With now the sound of a single shot snapping like a whip, and now an irregular volley,
The swarming ranks press on and on, the dense brigades press on,
Glittering dimly, toiling under the sun—the dust-cover’d men,
In columns rise and fall to the undulations of the ground,
With artillery interspers’d—the wheels rumble, the horses sweat,
As the army corps advances.

 

Artillery Horses

Description: Age at time of purchase, 5 to 7 years; height, 15 hands 3 inches allowing a variation of 1 inch. They should be well broken to harness, free from vice, perfectly sound in every respect, full chested, shoulders sufficiently broad to support the collar, but not too heavy; full barreled, with broad deep loins; short coupled, with solid hindquarters; and their weight as great as is consistent with activity, say from 1,100 to 1,200 pounds when in good condition. In purchasing special attention should be directed to the feet, to see that they are perfectly sound and in good order, with hoofs rather large, and that the horse submits willing to be shod.

Long-legged, loose-jointed, long-bodied, or narrow-chested horses should be at once rejected, as also those which are restive, vicious, or too free in harness.

A draught horse can draw 1,600 pounds 23 miles a day, weight of carriage included. Artillery horses should not be required to draw more than 600 pounds each, including the weight of the carriage, but excluding that of the cannoneers.

A horse travels the distance of 400 yards at a walk in 4 1/2 minutes; at a trot in 2 minutes; and at a gallop a gallop in 1 minute. He occupies in the ranks a front of 40 inches, and a depth of 10 feet; in the stall, a front of 5 feet; at the picket, a front of 3 feet, and a depth of 9 feet. Stalls for artillery stables should be 6 feet.

Forage: The daily allowance of oats, barley, and corn is 12 pounds; that of hay, 14 pounds; that of straw for bedding, 100 pounds per month. The average weight of good oats is 40 pounds to the bushel; of barley, 48 pounds; of corn, 56 pounds.

Water: The daily allowance for a horse is 4 gallons. Pure, soft running water is the best. When drawn from wells in warm weather it should, if practicable be allowed to stand until the chill is taken off before being given to the horses. If this is not practicable, a handful of meal or bran, if it can be procured, should be thrown into each bucket of water.

Leather buckets are provided for watering horses on a march. When water is drawn from wells, or has to be dipped from a stream, much time is consumed in the operation; it would, therefore, be well to have one bucket for each pair of horses. These buckets form part of the equipment of the carriages, and the chief of each carriage is responsible to the chief of the piece that they are returned and properly secured after being used. (Field Artillery Tactics; 1864)

Now you know!

 

Upcoming Events:
January 22: The Battery Meeting at Burlington, WI
January 29: The Association Meeting at Allenton, WI

 

The next issue of The Redleg will be published in February 2000.

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