Knapsack Drill

[paulcalloway]

October 13, 1861
NINTH REGIMENT (CITY GUARD), N.Y.S.M
CAMP SMITH, DARNESTOWN, MD., October 5, 1861

.... By recent orders from Head-quarters, we have to sling our knapsacks at battalion drill, and I can tell you it hurts the boys' fellings very much; but "orders are orders," and they must be obeyed."

Source: Writing and Fighting the Civil War: Soldier Correspondence to the New York Sunday Mercury, Edited by William B. Styple. Belle Grove Publishing, Kearny, N.J., 2000. p. 53.

[paulcalloway]

Re: Knapsack Drill

I liked this little knapsack drill quote. See attached.

Fly Leaves from the Life of a Soldier. Part II. Chevrons: J.R. Gilmore. Continental Monthly, Volume 6, Issue 5, p. 536.

MOA LINK

[paulcalloway]

Re: Knapsack Drill

Incidentally, if you're unfamiliar - a "follower of Bacchus" is a colloquialism for drunken reveler.

[Masich]

Re: Knapsack Drill

"Let Bachuss' sons be not dismayed, but join with me each jovial blade..."

Early in 1862, California Volunteer companies marshalling at Fort Yuma for the push into Arizona and the Rio Grande were ordered to drill with sand-filled knapsacks in order to toughen the men for the hard desert trek ahead. At least one company mutinied as a result of this order. Discipline was restored but only after some of the ringleaders of the mutiny were confined in irons. To their credit, Colonel Carleton and his subordinates explained the purpose of the onerous duty and order was restored in the ranks. After the California Column marched 250 miles across the Sonoran Desert, Carleton gave the order that knapsacks could be loaded on the company wagons during the final push to the Rio Grande.

Andy Masich