Regulars by God!

In my hobby of reenacting, I've chosen to fall into line with a group portraying the 4th United States Infantry, Company G. It is a regular army unit, as opposed to a volunteer regiment, like the 20th Maine, for an example.

I chose this group for a few different reasons, including:
1) Most of the people I knew in the reenacting world at the time were members of this unit.

2) It has a local history here in Oregon and Washington, which has some awesome interpretation opportunities.

But the most meaningful and important reasons is:
3) No one ever talks about or portrays the regular army during the Civil War, much less the regular infantry.

This is regrettable, because quite honestly, when reenactors or enthusiasts miss out on recreating or remembering the regulars, they are missing out on a huge gem in American military history.
We've all read the books and seen the movies, and none of them ever mention the regulars at all. For example: God's and Generals focuses on one general in the confederate army, and in the Union army, on the Irish brigade and the 20th Maine. Gettysburg focuses on the 20th Maine. Glory focuses on the 54th Massachusetts.

Now, I'm not saying that volunteer units are lousy, or second rate troops. They indeed won their stripes and did a swell job. But I am saying that the regular army deserves a lot of credit for major actions and victories during the Civil War years.

Here's my reasons why:

1) At the beginning of the war, the US Army was roughly about 15,000 men strong, and the vast majority of those units were out west, much like the 4th Infantry, guarding Indian reservations, keeping other nations like Great Britain from creeping in on American territory, or fighting the Indians. When the new armies of the United States began to be formed, the regular army was relied upon to be the hard core nucleus of the 75,000 volunteers called up by President Lincoln at the war's outset.  Not only had these regular regiments not been able to drill in battalion or regiment sized formations for several years, they also had to teach the "fresh fish" how to fight. This training is what would enable the volunteer based armies to withstand the violence and bloodshed that was to come in the next four years.

2) During the war, the regulars fulfilled their duties to be that hard nucleus to the T. At 1st Bull Run, the one regular battalion was the only body of Union troops to hold together and retire in good order when the army was broken by rebel troops. This bravery under fire, and ability to function in spite of confusion was a trait that the regulars would keep even at battles like 2nd Bull Run, Gaines' Mill, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, the North Anna River, and Five Forks, as well as countless smaller engagements. It is because of the regulars' example that the volunteers took on the same traits and won themselves undying glory along side the hardened veterans. While standing up to the abuse and violence of a straight, stand up fight, the regulars most likely suffered more casualties than any other units, north or south.

3) The incredible sacrifice of life and limb to preserve the nation. In the Civil War, the regulars and volunteers alike both served with great distinction and won undying glory for themselves on the same field, and ultimately shared in the same victories. You will hear stories about the incredible loss of life and the sacrifice on the battlefields and in the camps of all the units, the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg comes to mind as an example. The regulars have an interesting record with casualty rates, in that if you look at the unit monuments at Gettysburg, you'd see numbers for killed in action, wounded in action, and missing in action. With the volunteer monuments, you'd see numbers in all three categories listed. However, if you look at the casualty listings of the regulars units, you'll only see casualties of killed and wounded, and no missing in action casualties. This can mean two things: 1) that there were no regulars taken prisoner, and 2) that none of them ran away in combat.
     This is very interesting for me, in that, its almost a sign of how dedicated the regulars were to their nation's cause. If you look at recruiting records, you'll find that the majority of the enlisted men of the regular army were recruited in the south. When the war came, nearly 1/3 of the officer corps of the US Army resigned their commissions and fought for the Confederate States. But a substantially lower amount of the enlisted men (privates and NCO's) left, with the vast majority staying with their units and serving in the Union army. I won't speculate as to why they stayed, as the reasons are as many as there were men in the regular army, but it is an interesting fact to think about. What I wonder about is what the average regular (or volunteer, for that matter) thought of the war, especially as the main cause and focus of the war changed after the battle of Antietam in 1862. Chances are, a good many of them were racist and prejudiced against African Americans, the Germans, the Italians, or the Irish. Perhaps many of them had those backgrounds that were subject to that prejudice. Yet they held together, and created a hard nucleus for the volunteer based Union army to form around, and suffered many horrors and tragedies alongside each other.

4) The regulars never went home. I mean this in a couple different lights. First, the regulars were not volunteers. They were in the army for the long haul, not 90 days, 3 years, or the war's duration, they had been in the army before the war, and they would be in the war after the war.. if they survived. After suffering the horrors of the Civil War battlefields, they would recruit willing men from the disbanded ranks of volunteer regiments, and even confederate prisoners of war as well. (Yes, the John Wayne movies like "Yellow Ribbon" are accurate in having ex-Confederates in the US Cavalry)
   The regulars would be refitted, remanned, and then sent back out on more assignments, whether they were in the reconstructing south or back out west to subjugate the Indian tribes.

But I also say that the regulars never went home in another sense, in that, most of them never lived to go to a home. At Gettysburg, the regulars were already severely depleted from illness and battle casualties, and after the battle was fought, they were even more so. After the July 1, 2, 3, battle, they were sent to New York city to subdue the draft riots that were wreaking havoc in the city. While stationed in the New York forts, they refitted, recruited, and rested, which was very well deserved. They were lucky that they were able to do this, because if they had gone straight into the overland campaign launched by Ulysses S. Grant in 1864, they simply would have ceased to exist. Unfortunately, the overland campaign did severely deplete the reinforced ranks of the hardened veterans once again, so much so in the case of the 4th Infantry, that Grant ordered them to report to his personal headquarters to act as his body guard after the battle of Five Forks in the siege of Petersburg. Soon after, they would be present at the surrender of Robert E. Lee at a little, quiet crossroads called Appomattox Court House.

A few years later, asked if any of the regulars under his command during the war were still serving, General Romeyn Ayers of the 5th corps was in tears when he said,
     
                        "I had an entire division of regulars once. I buried half at Gettysburg and the other half in the Wilderness. There are none of the old regulars left." ~Romeyn B. Ayers

This is quite a tribute to the regulars from a regular army officer. However, there was a bit of awe for the regulars that was held by the volunteers, even as the relatively "fresh fish" volunteers gained battle hardness and experience. They had a respect and trust in the proud, hardened men that had trained them to be warriors, not just farmers and store keepers who had taken up soldiering as a temporary job. This quote is one that no one knows quite where it came from, but it captures this respect very eloquently. It is attributed to a volunteer soldier who witnessed the fighting retreat made by the regulars when they were single handedly fighting two divisions of Longstreet's corps in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg.

                      "For two years the regulars have shown us how to fight like soldiers. 
                  Today, they showed us how to die like men." ~Unknown.

I hope this post hasn't been to rambly or boring, its just something that I've been wanting to write down for a while now. This is why I take pride in portraying the United States regular Army and the men who made it, and why I am looking forward to once again donning the blue uniform and wearing the brass 4 of the 4th Infantry this weekend at Fort Stevens state park at our annual Civil War reenactment.

Any way, thats it for now!

"REGULARS, BY GOD!"

Last post from WV

Well, today is my last day on the job. I've learned a lot, had a blast all summer long, and had coworkers that are practically family. I wouldn't trade this summer for any other experience, and I don't think I'm blowing smoke when I say its been the best summer I've ever had.

Since this blog has been kinda sorta probably not very interesting, I think I'll go ahead and continue it to document my adventures as a reenactor and school prop. It SHOULD be interesting, since Lord willing I'll be going to the 150th of Gettysburg next year.

Any way, time to go into work for the last time! Cheers!