Taunting

[clconboy]

While doing some research on Vicksburg I came across this journal entry of Jared Sanders who was a confederate, with from what I gather from the book I am reading is a soldier with the 26th Louisiana.

July 2, 1863
"...Extremely warm day, Yankees place two loves of bread on a pole in front of our lines to tempt or tantalize hungry eyes"

I was wondering if there is any more instances of the above being done in other places in the war?

quote was from The Defense of Vicksburg: A Louisiana Chronicle by Allen C Richard Jr. and Mary Higginbotham Margaret Richard


Thanks,

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Taunting

Yes, and the men of both sides are documented as taunting each other in quite a number of ways that I've read. Of course, these accounts are more common when the two sides were in static proximity to each other, such as sieges and siege-like situations, such as when opposing earthworks were close together.

Perhpas the weirdest instance of this type of thing I've read is the first-person accounts from the Eighth New York Heavy Artillery at Cold Harbor, in the aftermath of the June 3, 1864 assault. Hundreds of men of the regiment were pinned down in open fields, some within twenty feet of the Confederate fieldworks. To taunt--I guess--those supine Yanks closest to them, some Rebs threw cornbread at the Yanks. Having made the assault between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m., these bluebellies had to endure an entire day in the sun without cover, being shot at and bombarded by cornbread, until able to withdraw in the darkness--meaning, they had to lie there and take it for about fifteen hours before being able to pull back.

[nrandolph]

Re: Taunting

Kevin,

Now that would be an interesting scenario to recreate at an event sometime! Who's up for laying out in the open for fifteen hours in the hot Virginia sun and getting pelted with cornbread?

Neil Randolph
1st West Virginia

[Crockett]

Re: Taunting

At Resaca I laid, wounded, in the hot sun just outside of the Federal lines for quite a time while being pelted with dirt clods.

Does that count?

Joe Mode

[rkg]

Re: Taunting

For those of you who were at BGR you have to agree you heard some of the BEST taunting you have ever been exposed to. Native did some very top notch taunting there. For those of you who were not there.........just one more great thing you missed at BGR.

Robert Gobtop
S*** A** Platoon.
Ol' Sipley Mess
ONV

[ephraim_zook]

Re: Taunting

Now that would be an interesting scenario to recreate at an event sometime! Who's up for laying out in the open for fifteen hours in the hot Virginia sun and getting pelted with cornbread?

Neil,

Note to self: Order disposable cornbread for when we do confederate commissary.

Ron Myzie

[clconboy]

Re: Taunting

wow.....by cornbread. thats unique....

[JimKindred]

Re: Taunting

Guys,

Let's keep this thread on the topic of original accounts of taunting and not use examples from events. Thank you.

[Enfilade]

Re: Taunting

"Yesterday a Yankee sharp shooter came out into a road in full view of some of our men, & after crowing several times, called out for any of our men that wanted furloughs to step out; he was scarcely through his boasting, before several men fired, and he fell, to crow no more, whereupon our men called out for any men wishing a discharge to step out; the offers declined on both sides."

"Bright and Gloomy Days, the Civil War Correspondence of Captain Charles Frederick Bahnson, a Moravian Confederate".
Camp near Videers[illegible] 12 miles from
Orange C.H. Sunday morning
November 29th 1863

Submitted by,

Mark Berrier
North State Rifles

http://www.northstaterifles.com

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Taunting

While not exactly "taunting", I recall a similar story written down by either Col. Rutherford Hayes or Lt. Col. James Comley or Capt. Russell Hastings, all of whom were with the 23rd Ohio Volunteers. In the Union earthworks near Halltown, WVa. (not far from Harper's Ferry) in August 1864, a young soldier of the 23rd Ohio on the picket line climed up on the works and crowed like a rooster repeatedly until being wounded by Confederate picket fire. I have always reckoned that the fellow must've been bored out of his wits to risk his life like that.

[Horace]

Re: Taunting

There is the famous incident of Confederates posting signs on one bank of the Rappahannock River saying things like "Burnside Stuck In the Mud" and "This Way To Richmond" while the Federals floundered along in hip-deep goo on the other bank during the post-Fredericksburg Mud March.

[Parault]

Re: Taunting

"I have always reckoned that the fellow must've been bored out of his wits to risk his life like that"



Maybe just deficient in the common sense area.

[Enfilade]

Re: Taunting

Sometimes you don't have to taunt in person. Sometimes the taunt can be funny as well just by written word. As described by author John Barrett in "The Civil War in North Carolina".

..., native Union "bushwackers" known as "Buffaloes" terrorized the countryside. In gangs of usually a dozen or so men, they infested swamps, emerging at night to visit their former neighbors, especially those who sympathized with the South, and to perpetrate every type of violence and crime. In August 1862, the buffaloes established themselves at Wingfield, the estate of Dr. Richard Dillard, seventeen miles above Edenton on the east bank of the Chowan River. Dr. Dillard was absent with his family in Virginia at the time.... It did not take long for Wingfield to become a rendezvous "of fugitive negroes, lawless white men, traitors and deserters from the Confederate army"....The strengthening of fortifications at Wingfield made it clear to the Confederate authorities that this "buffalo" camp must be destroyed. ....Lietenant Colonel John E. Brown , Forty-Second North Carolina, with a force of three hundred men, partisan and regular, attacked Wingfield at daybreak on the morning of March 23.... Only one of the defenders was said to have died in the fighting. The others escaped by Federal gunboats.... The Buffaloes later returned to their base, only to abandon it permanently in early spring. On April 17, the Forty-first North Carolina appeared before the Wingfield barricades and found the "quarry gone forever". A search of the camp produced a pencilled note that had been stuck onto the side of one of the blockhouses. The words read; "A leetle too late".

Mark Berrier
North State Rifles

http://www.northstaterifles.com

[ContinentalMorganGuard]

Re: Taunting

From "One of Jackson foot Cavalry" By John H. Worsham 21st Va Co. F
"It was too far for musekt firing, but the men of each side engaged in much abuse of each other."
Janaury 4, 1862 near Bath, Morgan Co. (W) VA

[NY Pvt]

Re: Taunting

Here was a fun one I came across today from:

Letters of a Family during the War for the Union 1861-1865, vol. 2 p. 626

From Chaplain Henry Hopkins to Eliza Newton Woolsey, September 29, 1864, Camp of the 120th New York:

...They wrote each other notes as "My dear Johnny Reb," "My dear Yank." They had a little dog for a mail carrier, and enclosed the orders of opposing generals, inviting desertions. The Johnnies were coming over to us a dozen or more a day. This afternoon in the hottest firing a rebel jumped up, swung a towel and called out, "Stop firing, and we will!" and in a moment it was as quiet as a New England Sunday. Their officers did not agree to this, and ordered firing to begin; so they shouted, "Get down, Yanks, we are going to open."...