Garry Adelman of the American Battlefield Trust explains how the Union and Confederate Armies of the Civil War organized and led their infantry, cavalry and artillery units.
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These tiny regiments he speaks over were customary in the Union Army. For political purposes, they kept creating new units rather than using individual replacements to fill out veteran units. This made lots and lots of new colonels (Shaw went from captain, to colonel of the 54th) but weak, no-experience, new units. A northern brigade started with four regiments of 500 men, but to keep that 2,000 men per brigade they had to keep adding remnant regiments. . If you read "One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry" by John H. Worsham, he had the same experience in battle after battle; the Union regiments could not stand in a fire-fire against his unit. His regiment was finally destroyed late in the war on a very wet day and their powder wouldn't fire; they were out-numbered and over-run.
@2:56 - Do you have a link to this graphic? I've found similar ones online, but for WW II or modern day organization. Would like to know where to find it to add it to my collection.
Hey American Battlefield Trust! I have a question. As we all know, the “Confederate flag” we often see today is really a battle flag. So, at what point did that flag start to be flown and used instead of the national flag? Why do we not see the national flag as much as the battle flag?
I noticed you've got the word "preserve" on your title screen, does this apply exclusively to battlefield sites or do you take any action to preserve statues and other memorials that are being removed and/or destroyed? ( all of our historical monuments are under threat of being removed and/or destroyed, actually ) Your videos are certainly interesting, but preservation is something that's sorely needed at this point in the history of our country. With so many people who hate our country and it's historical monuments running wild on our streets seemingly having the government's blessing we need as many people as possible standing up to defend both.
There really wasn't much officially mandated subdivision below company, platoons and squads became more important after the end of linear warfare, into the Russo Japanese War and WW1
Any man in the artillery will tell you how incredibly important it is to be able to handle your piece. Always gotta make sure it's all hands on deck when working on your piece. Yup, every man needs to get a good hold and wrangle your piece into action when battle commences. Grab on, boys.
Union cavalry regiments were made up of 12 companies, divided into 3 battalions of 4 companies each. Or in the case of the 4th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, five (5) Rowley Brothers. ;-)
A Battalion, at least from the Union, was sort of a “almost Brigade, with a bit fewer regiments. All these groups of organization were units. A company, a regiment, brigade (and battalion), division, corps, and even an army are all examples of units
Very early in the war they were closer to 1,000 but that quickly dwindled down. The biggest regiment at Gettysburg for example was something like 500 men I think and the average was about 300.
Interesting - The Union or United States of America is referred to as Yankees. The traitors or separatists are referred to as The Confederacy. This is the modern day Lost Cause perspective
I finding it telling that our narrator uses "Confederate" to talk about the Southern troops but refers to the Northern troops as "Yankees". Why not use the correct name for the Northern troops as "Union" after all at minimum they fought to preserve the Union. So then what can you call the treasonous Southerners who fought to preserve slavery for Afro-Americans? I tend to think the whole Civil War "remember this, honor that etc etc" thing is really just another way of minimizing the endemic racism of the USA and denying the legitimacy of "all men are created equal".
Because the south was the confederates/rebels/south/the grey if you prefer (sometimes called secessionists) and the north was the union/federals/north/the blue. It's the standard way to refer to both sides during the conflict and all are correct and interchangeable. First civil war video?
Mr. Pete Channel is 75٪ away 2 the big time! Yeah my ex wife was from Albany NY and they used to get a kick out of me referring to them as Yankees. I think they were proud of it as they should be.
