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Campaigning Axioms, 1861

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  • Campaigning Axioms, 1861

    MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL [MEMPHIS, TN], May 8, 1861, p. 2, c. 7

    Campaigning Axioms.

    1. One well fed, well equipped, well appointed brigade is worth two that are ill provided.
    2. In active service, three men die of undue exposure, bad food, and their own imprudences, where one is killed by shot or stab.
    3. An easy, rational, nicely fitting uniform, with warm, substantial blanket, broad soled boots or shoes and good woolen socks, will more conduce to efficiency in service than superiority in weapons.
    4. The lightest possible head covering, with a good look out for ventilation, will add a tenth to the distance a regiment can march in a day, while insuring increased comfort.
    5. A small cotton handkerchief, or half a yard of the commonest sheeting, moistened with water in the morning and again at noon, and worn between the hat and the head, will protect the soldier from sun-stroke, and greatly diminish the discomfort and fatigue of a hot day's march.
    6. A flat bottle, covered with woolen cloth, the cloth being moistened and the bottle filled with water, in the morning, will keep reasonably cool throughout a long, hot day.
    7. Of all villainous concoctions, the liquors sold by camp-followers are the most detestable and dangerous. They are more deadly than rifled cannon, and are sure to be taken just when they should not be. Every soldier who means to do his duty to his country should insist that all venders of these poisons be drummed out of camp.
    8. A good cook to each company, who knows how to make salt meat juicy and tender, and to make it ready whenever and wherever it may be wanted, is equal to two doctors and four extra combatants.
    9. Officers who love and care for their men while in repose, never have to complain of their conduct when in action.
    10. A soldier whose heart is in the cause he fights for, is worth two who fight for their pay.

    Vicki Betts
    vbetts@gower.net

  • #2
    Re: Campaigning Axioms, 1861

    Hi Vicki,

    Nice...but we now know that troops and officers routinely ignored almost all of these (ha, ha!).

    Did you order that "homespun" thesis yet? I'd be interested to see what it says.

    Regards,

    Mark Jaeger
    Regards,

    Mark Jaeger

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    • #3
      Re: Campaigning Axioms, 1861

      Not yet--I'm on vacation at home this week, starting today, running through four reels of the Memphis Daily Appeal. (I'll send the form in digitally.) Just spotted a superb advertisement with illustrations of three different coffins. This undertaker carries the Marshall's Southern Metallo-Percha Burial Caskets, the Barstow's Metallic Burial Caskets, and Fisk & Crane's Cases. Very similar to the ones studied in Louisiana in those theses you referred me to. Definitely on my "photocopy before I return these reels" list.

      Smith County Historical Society topic for tonight--"Unwhipped of Justice--the Contempt Trial of John Bankhead Magruder in Tyler." Should be good.

      Vicki Betts
      vbetts@gower.net

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      • #4
        Re: Campaigning Axioms, 1861

        Originally posted by vbetts
        Campaigning Axioms.
        8. A good cook to each company, who knows how to make salt meat juicy and tender, and to make it ready whenever and wherever it may be wanted, is equal to two doctors....
        And it seems that a BAD cook would frequently equal even more! Great post ma'am.

        Rich Croxton
        Rich Croxton

        "I had fun. How about you?" -- In memory of Charles Heath, 1960-2009

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        • #5
          Re: Campaigning Axioms, 1861

          "A good cook equal to two doctors", would it be correct to assume that the previously mentioned "Bad cook" would be equal to 4 or 5 doctors? Depending on one's view of the medical service at that time.
          [FONT=Palatino Linotype][COLOR=Black]Nicholas A. Keen
          Cannoneer Battery B, 3rd Penna. Artillery
          "When our boys went about the citizens they seemed surly and unaccomadating and showed no disposition to grant us any favors, for which I could not blame them because the soldiers I know to be a great nuisance"- Robert Patrick "Reluctant Rebel"
          [url]http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/armysystem.php?do=recruit&uniqueid=37[/url]
          Harper's Weekly May 4 1861: "War they have invoked; war let them have; and God be the judge between us."

          "There is nothing so exhilarating in life as to be shot at without effect."

          - Winston Churchill





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