"Discarding regretted?" Topic

It seems common wisdom that (Union) soldiers discarded a lot of their initial equipment in order to "travel light".
An infantryman with a rifle might never regret throwing away an additional revolver, but what's about blankets and greatcoats or the like?
In my readings so far I've never come across regrets of soldiers for parting with necessary things like the above mentioned items.
But even in summer nights will be chilly …
I hope those questions from the other side of the pond are not to naive.
Thanks to the experts for dealing with them.

This chap, a very serious re-enactor, travelled throughout Spain in role.

He basically cut what he carried to the bone simply because carrying too much was killing him (& actually killed the real thing).

His book:

link

During Grant's advance on Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, blankets and greatcoats were indeed discarded by Soldiers.

And suffered for it, too.

This is what comes to mind immediately with my second cup of coffee this morning.

There are any number of memoirs, collections of letters, diaries, etc that speak about Union Soldiers being improvident with their kit, especially in the early part of the war.

If I recall correctly, Chernow's biography on Grant mentions this. Cozzens' book on Iuka, too.

Eric

As an example, the thing rolled up and carried atop the knapsack – per regulations – is the greatcoat. The blanket was to be folded and carried between the two "bags" of the knapsack. How many ACW Union castings have you seen with the roll atop the knapsack painted kersey blue? But a greatcoat is heavy, especially when wet

A lot of people attempt to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, starting out on Springer Mountain, Georgia. In April and May (when most folks start out), the first 20 miles of the AT is littered with discarded items. Those items seemed important, until you had to tote them on your back for 20 miles, mostly uphill. Heck, even the approach trail up to Springer Mountain is littered with cast-offs.

Richard Moore, of course, is a legend among reenactors – very much nearer the "real thing" than my reenacting over some 25 years (as an Austrian Grenadier about 1809, but also a little bit in the Union infantry) could ever take me.
But in the link given – cheers for that – he is carrying a backpack (albeit a French one) and a blanket besides haversack and water-bottle, not to mention his armament.

You can choose – either marching with more gear or freezing to death.

Thank goodness that we can always return to normal life after the events and drop out of the "living history" whenever our health is in danger.

So what did a soldier casting off heavy items end up keeping? There had to be something in the backpack besides food.

Rifle, ammo, and canteen, certainly. What else? A knife? A cup and spoon? A rag?

- Ix

I read a Napoleonic memoir – the writer thought he could make a good living in retirement by following troops out of the training depot. Just follow them a few days and pick up all their discarded gear to sell it back to the government.

An early scene in Platoon has a sergeant throwing away 20 pounds of gear from the noobs back pack.

What soldiers will actually carry and what people in HQ think they should carry – it's an age old battle.

@Yellow Admiral, here you go:

PDF link

The absolute necessities would be food in your haversack, water in your canteen, your musket, bayonet and ammunition. Soldiers would also have at least one blanket, most would have their 'gum blanket' (a rubberized piece of canvas the size of a blanket which was waterproof and could sometimes be worn as a poncho). Extra clothing (usually a shirt or two, extra socks and maybe an extra set of drawers). Most would carry one half of a shelter tent which they could button to another half to make a 2-man tent. In cold weather they might have an overcoat, but as mentioned, many threw them away once the weather turned warm. They'd keep a few personal items like a Bible and letter writing supplies.

When the army went into winter quarters, the soldiers might accumulate a considerable amount of stuff, but most would have to be left behind when the army moved out. It wasn't a particularly comfortable life but as the soldiers gained experience, they learned to make do.

Many soldiers also carried a "house wife." This was a small cloth wallet that held needles and thread for making repairs to their clothing, sewing on buttons, etc.

A classic illustration of how fresh recruits might load themselves down with useless gear compared to what veterans carried can found in "Corporal Si Klegg and his Pard"

The Union Army ditching their gear is more urban legend than fact. Some soldiers did indeed use a blanket roll over their double pack (typically because the soldier in question couldn't tolerate the straps digging into their shoulders) but they were in a minority.

During the summer greatcoats were typically put into storage. Sometime the wagon train would carry the soldiers blanket.

There seems to be enough first person written accounts of the practice that would indicate that it is more than urban legend.

Soldiers were still expected to take care of the gear issued to them. If they were found short on that gear, they were expected to pay for that equipment.

Case in point,the 1st US Sharpshooters ditched their bayonets. The sharpshooters found the cost of bayonets taken out of their pay.

Sounds like an example of fact over legend then. I don't see how that example supports your point.

There are certainly plenty of accounts of the Union Army on its way to 1st Bull Run leaving huge amounts of stuff along the roads in the hot weather. This is much less common later in the war because by then the soldiers knew better than to bring excess gear along in the first place.

I would think the officers would have something to say about it to.