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**Mark Choate** · 03-01-2012, 10:05 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

Brett,

I have thought about this type of thing a thousand times. Whether it was the endurance of the extremes of temperatures, or the deprivations and other physical demands that had to be made. Or... being asked/ordered to charge across open ground into artillery fire (whether on foot or mounted) or to do so many other things that we have studied or read about....... If I am truthful, I doubt I could have done it.

I wonder how many of them would have thought they could have done it if they had been asked before it took place?

Good question.

Mark

**LibertyHallVols** · 03-01-2012, 10:49 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

I am of two minds:
1) You never know what you're capable of until you have no other options.
2) I'm not 18 anymore.

Looking at the question from another perspective...
If any of us had the chance to live a typical 19th Century existence would choose to continue to do so if given the chance to "opt out" after a week? I'm guessing most folks would opt out. I just don't think we're used to the physical hardships of daily life, let alone the rigors of army life during war thrown on top of that.

If you've never done hard physical labor before, you probably don't have a frame of reference.

**TexCavly** · 03-01-2012, 11:27 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

Originally posted by Choatecav View Post

Or... being asked/ordered to charge across open ground into artillery fire (whether on foot or mounted) or to do so many other things that we have studied or read about....... If I am truthful, I doubt I could have done it.

I wonder how many of them would have thought they could have done it if they had been asked before it took place?

Good question.

Mark

I think we could have done it then, but we would not do it now. Something about 1,000 other fellas all marching in the same direction towards a similar fate would be a compelling factor.

**Outrider** · 03-02-2012, 09:19 AM

Re: The stress of the campaign

What Mr. Wickett said.

**Mark Choate** · 03-02-2012, 11:43 AM

Re: The stress of the campaign

Wick,

I realize that this is an evaluation that is relative to what their daily life was about, etc. And you make a good point about the opting out, if they had had the opportunity. I also know that the power of peer pressure (all of your pards going forward and not wanting to be the coward, etc.) was and is a compelling force. I just stand in such awe of what they did and accomplished and endured and the longer I do this "hobby" the more respect I generate for them.

I suppose I sell myself short when questioning my willingness to march into a maelstrom of bullets, but as Brett requested in his opening post, I was trying go give as honest an answer as I could. Maybe I would be caught up in the moment, too. Would like to think that I would, anyway.

I don't think we will ever know for sure.

regards,
Mark

**cprljohnivey** · 03-02-2012, 12:39 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

well I will put it this way... as my 64 year old father whom I have seen outmarch many lads 16 years old and up: "You can always take just one more step"

**LibertyHallVols** · 03-02-2012, 01:13 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

Not to take anything away from what the old fellows did...

They had one advantage that we do not:
They didn't know what would happen next. They had the advantage of knowing that each step they took and each time they poked the Grim Reaper with a stick, they were having an impact, nomatter how small, on the final result. Looking backward, we know all the dangers they faced, of which they themselves were probably not aware.

So, I suppose its an imperfect analogy with our knowledge of how things transpired.

I think back to IPW a bit with questions like this...
- Peer pressure is as alive now as it was then. Guys were moving forward, even when they hurt.
- Comradery is as alive now as it was then. Thursday night at IPW taught me that. The example was set by every-single member of Company B in abundance when the weather turned sour and guys were in trouble.

A word on hard manual labor:
I have learned a lot in my life by working hard. I don't say that to toot my own horn. Rather, I think it is just a matter of human nature that, when there is a pile of work between you and home, you get the work done... somehow. Its not fun, and you might hate every [expletive removed] minute of it, but you have no choice. If a person has never been in that situation, I don't know if it is something that can be conveyed with words.

For me, that's how I relate to a lot of what they went through. How did they make it on so few rations, marching so far without proper footwear? They had no other choice. They either had to suck it up and move on, or crack up, give up, and die. That may be the essence of the question here for each of us:

Would we be able to hold it together or not?
Would we bouy our comrades, or save ourselves at their expense?

Those are the hardest questions.

Today we know the answer for so many of the veterans and that is one of the reasons I believe we admire them.

**ScottCross** · 03-02-2012, 01:51 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

I've been asking myself that exact same question since 1982 (probably earlier), "Could I have done what they did?" A few of points Id ;ile to add:

1. When you are 19 years old, you think you will live forever and take chances that an older man would not.
2. When you are that age you are also extrememly adaptable to change.
3. A minority of them actually did "make it". Look at the roster for any regiment and look at all the many deaths by illness and discharges for disability. Then trow in the deserters. Then add those killed or DOW and you've probably lost 2/3 of their unit, sometimes more. There were more men that didn't or couldn't make it that those that did make it all the way.

**PetePaolillo** · 03-02-2012, 01:56 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

Originally posted by LibertyHallVols View Post

Would we be able to hold it together or not?
Would we bouy our comrades, or save ourselves at their expense?

Those are the hardest questions.

....And until someone is faced with the potential of mortal Combat, one will not know. Those that have, already know the answers to the hardest questions.

**LibertyHallVols** · 03-02-2012, 02:02 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

Throw all of these things into consideration and look at guys who...

volunteered, got wounded (sometimes repeatedly), suffered from disease, and had every justifiable right to go home, but stayed on, in some cases doing so despite protests from family.

They earned our respect!
...which is why it ticks me off to see the memorials they left to their messmates and comrades get vandalized (but that's a topic for a different thread - forgive me, my mods!)

**PetePaolillo** · 03-02-2012, 02:11 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

Amen sir! !!!

***Shockoe Hill Cats*** · 03-02-2012, 02:14 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

“Yesterday evening we was in one of the hardest fought battles ever known. I never had a clear conception of the horrors of war until last night... In going round that battlefield with a candle searching for friends I could hear on all sides the dreadful groans of the wounded and their heart piercing cries for water... May I never see any more such in life... I assure you that I am heartily sick of soldiering.” A.N. Erskine after Gaines' Mill 1862, 4th Texas Infantry

**AndrewGrim** · 03-02-2012, 02:44 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

On day three of being in the woods, with my small family group at IPW things started to become routine and I am sure it did with the other civilian group and the military.

**Dreamer42** · 03-02-2012, 03:19 PM

Re: The stress of the campaign

Comments regarding combat asside, as other have mentioned they mere marching and living in the elements. While rather relaxing for most of us, I feel would it take its toll. I'm just about to finish Pvt. Wilber Fisk's letters "Hard Marching Every Day" and I'm amazed at the miles they marched, usually retracing the very roads they had travelled the previous week. Fisk mentions being on guard or held in reserve, in all kinds of weather, and seldom really getting any sleep due to the alarms called in by the pickets. John Otto's "Memiors of a Dutch Mudsill" goes into great detail about the campaign and marching. Interesting how he mentions the many times they were short of rations, clothing and proper shelter - things most people associate with the South during the war. Otto mentions the number of days in the Chattanooga and early Georgia campaings about going 3 - 4 days in a row without food. I'm not sure I enjoy missing one meal, much less missing the meager rations they had.
Perhaps we could do a better job with authenticity of our food by just not having as much.

- Jay Reid
9th Texas, Co. F