NOVAE MILITIAE

by D. Tyrone Crowley

Introduction

During the War for Southern Independence , there were of course similarities between the soldiers of both the Northern and the Southern armies. As might be expected, there were men on both sides who hated the discipline and regimentation, complained about rations, faulted their officers when things went wrong, wanted to go back to civilian life, and were basically uninterested in the philosophical reasons for the War--but there were also many notable differences between ‘Billy Yank' and ‘Johnny Reb.'

In fact, the ‘traditional position' among historians in response to the question, How different was the Old South? holds that by 1861 ‘two distinct cultures' had come into being within the boundaries of the country known as the United States, separated by ‘numerous and substantial' differences. One scholarly observer, Grady McWhiney, Professor of American History at Texas Christian University , stressing the Celtic nature of Southern culture, sums up his study thus:

‘…eyewitness accounts of life in the United States before the 1860s reveal vast and important differences between Southerners and Northerners. Throughout the antebellum period a wide range of observers generally characterized Southerners as more hospitable, generous, frank, courteous, spontaneous, lazy, lawless, militaristic, wasteful, impractical, and reckless than Northerners, who were in turn more reserved, shrewd, disciplined, gauche, enterprising, acquisitive, careful, frugal, ambitious, pacific, and practical than Southerners.' Given the existence of such differences between the two sections of the country, it is little wonder that differences existed between soldiers in the two opposing armies. Let's examine briefly some of those differences.

Ethnic makeup

There were many more foreigners in the Northern army, 20-25% as compared to 4-5% in the Southern army. The largest group of foreigners was German, at 200,000; next came Irish, at 150,000; followed by Canadians and Englishmen at about 50,000 each; and so on down to smaller numbers of Scandinavians, Frenchmen, etc. The North had one brigade of Indians, mostly Creeks. Forty-five of 583 generals (8%) in the Northern armies were foreign. In the Southern army the largest group of the 4-5% who were foreigners were the Irish, at 15-20,000. It was said that among the Irish their celebration of St. Patrick's Day sometimes produced more casualties than combat did. The South had three Indian brigades compared to the North's one; they were mostly Cherokees, Choctaws, and Seminoles. Nine of 425 Confederate generals (2%) were foreigners, including the renowned Patrick Cleburne, an Irishman, and Stand Watie, a Cherokee Indian. The term foreigner in this context basically signifies ‘European' since practically all the groups mentioned as being foreigners in the two armies came from Europe.

Age

Though many people believe that there were more old men and boys among Confederates, one of the foremost authorities on the subject, Bell I. Wiley, says ages were about equal on both sides. The largest single age group were 18-year-olds; three-fourths of men fell into 18-30 bracket. The youngest person in either army is said to be Johnny Clem, a Union drummer at 9 years of age. The youngest Confederate was Charles Carter Hay, who joined an Alabama regiment at age 11 and surrendered at Appomattox before he turned 15. The oldest soldier was Curtis King, age 80, who was part of a non-combat unit, the 37th Iowa , known as the Graybeards. The oldest Confederate was an E. Pollard, of the 5th North Carolina regiment, who enlisted at age 73.

Education and Occupation

Southern soldiers were mainly from a rural background; Yankee soldiers were often from an urban environment. Northerners much more often possessed a basic education, and had fewer illiterates in their ranks. In contrast, Southern units often had half a company mark ‘X' on the roll when it received its pay. Soldiers on both sides often spelled words the way they pronounced them, producing such forms as ‘fit' for ‘fought', ‘tuck' for ‘took', and ‘horsepittle' for ‘hospital'; one Confederate wrote home that he wasn't going back to the hospital if he could help it, since it ‘outstunk a ded horse.' Being of an urban, industrial environment and having a wider education, the diversity of technical skills of soldiers in their ranks--mechanics, carpenters, bricklayers, etc.--was an advantage to the North; their officers, when they needed something repaired, could count on finding someone who could do it. Southerners, on the other hand, were mostly farmers, an occupation monotonously repeated on their muster rolls.

Interest in politics

Due to greater literacy and education, Northern soldiers showed more interest in politics. Another reason for their interest was that the 1864 Lincoln-McClellan race generated much debate and electioneering in the Northern ranks. The Lincoln platform of continued war was hotly contested by McClellan's pro-peace supporters, and the election was narrowly won ( Lincoln got 2,200,000 of 4,000,000 votes).

The fact that Jefferson Davis had been elected to a six-year term with no opposition, together with the feeling of unity against a common foe, meant that there was little to debate among Southern troops.

Religion

Southerners and the soldiers that fought for them were in general more religious, more orthodox, more often Protestant, and more given to revivalism than their Northern opponents. Southern leaders like President Davis, who proclaimed days of fasting and prayer, and Generals Lee and Jackson, who set a pious example and were more concerned about the spiritual welfare of their troops, are in contrast to Abraham Lincoln, who in private mocked preachers and church, and Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, who were unconcerned with religion.

Expressiveness

Southern soldiers tended to be more open and expressive, more emotional, than their Northern counterparts. After examining 100 diaries (25 each of Northern officers, Northern enlisted men, Southern officers, and Southern enlisted men) and 200 sets of letters (50 each for the same four groups), Michael Barton of Penn State University determined that the Southern soldier, especially the officer, was more verbose and expressive, while the Northern soldier was more laconic and reserved. The Southern soldier had a much higher incidence of the use of terms such as kind, noble, gentleman, brave, and gallant, which Barton interprets to mean that he was more concerned with these lofty concepts.

Bell Wiley states that he can find no match in letters of Northern soldiers for the colourful expressiveness of the Southerner, and cites a couple of examples. One Georgia soldier who had been away from his wife for about a year wrote her: ‘If I did not … receive letters from you, … I believe that I would forgit that I was married. I don't feel much like a maryed man, but I never forgit it so far as to court enny other lady but if I should you must forgive me as I am so forgitful.' A North Carolinian wrote his male friend back home in his neighborhood: ‘Thomy I want you to be a good boy and tri to take cear of the wemmen and children tell I get home… I want you to go … and see my wife and children but I want you to take your wife with you [when you go].'

Combat performance

According to practically all observers, Southerners were more enthusiastic, dashing, individually aggressive, and ‘devil-may-care,' but, like their ancestors the Scots in the movie Braveheart, were not so good at functioning in a disciplined way as a military unit, as the Northerners were. General Lee himself is quoted as saying, ‘The great want in our army is firm discipline,' and ‘Many opportunities have been lost and hundreds of lives have been uselessly sacrificed for want of a strict observance of discipline.' Nevertheless, since they were fighting for their native soil, Southerners got the best of it for the first two years or so of the war, up to Gettysburg and Vicksburg , discipline or no discipline.

Their superior skill with firearms and the high quality of their leaders are two reasons given for this, though after the first half of the War the Yankees had improved in their skill with arms and were able to obtain better firearms than the South.

Another reason for the initial successes of the Confederates was the famous ‘Rebel yell,' noted by almost all observers of combat in the War and quite unnerving to Yankee soldiers as the Southerners charged into their ranks. The Northern cheer was said to be an often unenthusiastic yet orderly ‘hip, hip, hooray,' shouted in unison, while the ‘dread-inspiring' Rebel yell was a ‘wild, high-pitched, piercing ‘holler', inspired by a combination of excitement, fright, anger, and elation.'

Language

As mentioned above, Michael Barton made an analysis of 25 diaries each of Northern and Southern officers and enlisted, and 50 letter collections each for the same four groups (100 diaries and 200 letter collections). Southern officers were found to use terms like kind, noble, gentleman, brave, and gallant, indicating a greater concern with these concepts in their diaries (talking to themselves) and in their letters (talking to others). Even Southern enlisted men used three of the five terms more than Northern officers did. Another notable difference was in the frequency of letters of condolence sent to a soldier's family after he died. Barton noted that out of 162 sets of Northern letters, only two contained letters of condolence, while out of 136 sets of Southern letters, there were 30 letters of condolence. That's a difference of 22:1. Col. W.C. Oates of the 15th Alabama wrote such a letter, which is expressed in typical Southern phraseology of the time: ‘Captain Brainard, one of the most honest and gallant men I ever knew, ever deported himself as a Gentleman and a Soldier…. Noble and manly in bearing, brave, honest, reliable and true he challenged the admiration of all who knew him. Strict in discipline … he was unsurpassed as an officer by any in the Confederate army of his age.'

And of course there were the Southern accents, which are still with us today, though diluted to a great extent by television, radio, and anti-Southern bias in society at large. There were at least two major dialects in the Southern army: they are referred to nowadays by dialecticians as the Southern Tidewater and the Southern Mountain dialects. The Tidewater dialect belonged to the planters and others of the upper class of Southern culture. A typical speaker of this dialect today would be former Alabama Governor Fob James, and the little old ladies who speak of the ‘Waw' Between the States. These are the people who drop their r's, as in ‘foah' and ‘bettuh'. The majority of Southerners, though, speak some version of Southern Mountain. The most conservative of these speakers insert r's in their words where General American (the kind spoken by national newscasters) doesn't, as in ‘yeller' and ‘orta' for ‘yellow' and ‘ought to'. Those Southerners with very conservative accents, sometimes laughed at, should instead be considered treasures; they are as close to hearing the dialect of Confederate soldiers as you can get.

Reasons for fighting

For Northern soldiers, the reason most often given in their letters for fighting the War was to ‘preserve the Union,' which of course was the justification used by the Lincoln government for invading the South, somewhat analogous to a man beating his wife into submission because she wants out of a marriage to him—he's ‘preserving the union.' Additionally, a small minority of Union soldiers said they were fighting to ‘free the slaves.'

Since Southerners were fighting to defend their homeland and their families (in one of only two instances of Americans fighting for their native soil, the other being the War of 1812), they gave their reasons as wanting to ‘repel the foreigners,' ‘preserve states' rights,' and protect the Southern way of life. Their letters indicate their bitterness and outrage at the Northern aggression. One Southern soldier wrote his wife to ‘Teach my children to hate them (Yankees) with that bitter hatred that will never permit them to meet without seeking to destroy each other.' Another Southerner wrote a friend, ‘Let every Southern mother teach their children to hate & detest the name Yankee until the name & race shall become extirpated.' These are extreme expressions, not typical letters, but they indicate the depth of feeling of people who considered that their homeland was being invaded by detested foreigners.

The question of slavery always comes up when motivations in the War are discussed. While most Southern soldiers were not fighting to preserve slavery as an economic system, they saw no immediate alternative to it as a system of social control. One Confederate wrote an associate: ‘You know I am a poor man having none of the property said to be the cause of the present war. But I have a wife and some children to rase in honour and never to be put on an equality with the African race.' They feared greatly the consequences of loosing millions of uneducated slaves on their society, some of whom were only a generation or two removed from the jungles of Africa.

Conclusion

We can see, then, that while there were similarities between the common soldiers of the North and South—dislike of army life, homesickness, complaints against leaders, etc.—there were also numerous distinct and substantial differences, which made it easy, maybe even inevitable, for them to go to war with each other. Grady McWhiney sums it up by saying, ‘[Southerners] could have scarcely done otherwise. As products of a distinctive culture, they believed—as did all other Celts—that combat was the surest and the best way to protect their rights and their honour.'

For Southerners of today, the dreaded vision of our ancestors has become our reality. George Fitzhugh, a Virginia planter and spokesman for the South, wrote in 1860 that the division between North and South was more than just a ‘sectional issue'—it was a clash ‘between conservatives and revolutionaries; … between those who believe in the past, in history, in human experience, … and those who … foolishly, rashly, and profanely attempt to ‘expel human nature,' to bring about a millennium, and inaugurate a future wholly unlike anything that has preceded it.' One hundred and thirty-eight years later, his words, then only a frightful prediction, now describe our reality, and the power-crazed ‘revolutionaries' of the almighty national government are still going strong, bringing us a ‘future wholly unlike anything that has preceded it.' Our Confederate ancestors were right in their thinking, right in their reasons for fighting, and as we now know absolutely justified in their fears regarding the consequences of losing the War Between the States.

Sources:

Barton, G. Goodmen: The Character of Civil War Soldiers. Penn State University, 1981.

McWhiney, G. Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1988.

Christian, G.L. The Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln. Birmingham: The Society of Biblical and Southern Studies, 1996.

Wiley, B. I. "Johnny Reb and Billy Yank," American History Illustrated, April 1968.

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Mr D. Tyrone Crowley, a linguist, resides in Prattville, Alabama. He is on the staff of Southern Events