A Tent Situation in 1865: Not Really Tense, Though

From the April 4, 2017, Shorpy Photo Site.  Go to the site for the photograph and you can enlarge it for big-time detail.

A TENT SITUATION: 1865.  April 1865.  Petersburg, Virginia.  "Federal Army camp.  Soldiers boxing.  From the Library of Congress.

This is a permanent camp complete with chimney and cook stoves.  These tents have been occupied for quite some time, since the summer of 1864 and the Siege of Petersburg.  It  being in April and with the few soldiers in the photo, this might have been after the Confederates evacuated their camps and trenches across from the Union ones.

Two of the soldiers are putting on a show like they're boxing and others just standing around.  "The war's over, man.  Bobby Lee's on the run.  We're going home."

An Interesting Look Back In Time.

Wisconsin's Camp Bragg in Oshkosh-- Part 2

From HMDB.

Photo of the Camp Bragg Memorial with a plaque on stone reading: "Near this spot in the autumn of 1862 the 21st and 32nd Regiments Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry were encamped for organization before proceeding to the front. Erected 1915."

Some more information: It was eracted in 1915 by the Camp Bragg Memorial Association on plans drawn by sculptor Karl Bitter. It is flanked by 4 smoothbore Napoleon cannons mounted in concrete. They were shipped by railroad to Oshkosh on June 15, 1915 from the Rock Island Arsenal in Rock Island, Illinois.

The muzzle loading cannon were made by the Revere Copper Company (yes, that Revere as in Paul) in Boston. Each barrel weighs 1216 pounds and were inspected by Thomas Jackson Rodman (was he the man of the Rodman guns?).

Just Some More Info.. --Old Secesh

Football in the Civil War? You Betcha, Well, Sort Of

In the last post, I mentioned a plaque at Camp Randall in Madison, Wisconsin, with the names of 27 men from the 14th Wisconsin who were wounded and died at the Battle of Shiloh on April 7, 1862. The only Camp Randall in Madison, Wisconsin, that I know of is Camp Randall Stadium where the University of Wisconsin-Madison Badgers play their home football games.

Could this Camp Randall have a connection?

Turns out it does. Camp Randall Stadium was actually a Civil War training camp where some 70,000 Wisconsin volunteers and draftees learned how to be soldiers during the war.

So there you have your Civil War- football Connection.

Wonder if Badger units marched off to the strains of "On Wisconsin?"

One Has to Wonder. --Old Secesh

Wayne County, NC, Confederate Camps

From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

CAMP COLLIER--  Near Goldsboro (Wayne County):  Confederate camp temporarily used by the 61st NC Regt. en route to Kinston from the Wilmington area, October 1862.

CAMP McLEAN--  Near Goldsboro (Wayne County):  Temporary base of many Confederate units, including the 72nd NC Regt. (3rd Junior reserves), guarding rail and river approaches to Goldsboro.  Likely named for Gen. A. D. McLean of Cumberland County.


CAMP VANCE Near Goldsboro (Wayne County--there was another Camp Vance in Burke County):  Temprary base of many Confederate units guarding rail and river approaches to Goldsboro.

It would sure be interesting to find the sites of these camps and do some investigating.  Wonder if someone knows where they exactly were?

Old Secesh