"In 1862, the U.S. government in Washington had been mobilizing thousands of new troops, while reorganizing and resupplying the massive Federal armies already in the field. President Lincoln ordered an offensive on all fronts. All across the South, camps were abandoned as troops were given marching orders to meet the threats from new Federal forces. The soldiers left in "campaign trim," having quickly learned to throw away their extra clothing and camp equipment and to keep only what they could easily carry over long marches. Before long the norm for all men on campaign was to carry nothing but the bare essentials: gun and bayonet, cartridge box, haversack, canteen, a blanket rolled up with a ground cloth (or oil cloth), and sometimes a change of underclothes. Instead of living in well-furnished camps, with tents, straw beds, cooking utensils, and extra comforts, they had to quickly adapt to life on the move, sleeping in rain or even snow, with only a thin blanket and ground cloth for cover, or the occasional lean-to of brush or tree bark. The standard ration was 1 lb. of salt pork or beef, 3/4 lbs. of bacon, and a little over 1 lb. of hardtack or cornmeal per day, but constant food shortages meant that soldiers often had to make do with half-rations or no food at all. They took to foraging for any extra food they could find, whether asking civilians or stealing from houses or farm fields, even taking haversacks from the dead. Their appearance changed as well. Hair was cropped short to make it easier to comb out lice, and many let their beards grow. Clothing became soiled to the point of decay, since there was little chance of washing on the march. When Lee's men marched into Maryland in September, 1862, one observer described them as "the dirtiest men I ever saw, a most ragged, lean and hungry set of wolves. Yet there was a dash about them that the northern men lacked." In spite of shortages of every kind, they still managed to outmarch and outfight many of their opponents. Berry Benson, of a Georgia regiment, wrote of that common bravado in the army when he described a fellow soldier that winter, "a young man, tall and vigorous, but utterly barefoot in the snow, standing in a fence corner, his gun leaning against his shoulder, and of all the proud faces I have ever seen, his was the proudest. It was a pride that seemed to scorn not only the privation and cold, but the exposure of his sufferings to others' eyes, and even the very pity it called forth."
At the first battle of Manassas, while awaiting an attacking Federal force, General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson told his men: "When you charge, yell like furies." The wild "rebel yell" that had such a potent psychological effect on Union troops became the trademark of Confederate soldiers. The men issued hair-raising cries as they attacked, anything from the high pitched hip he-yah of West Texas cattlemen to the war whoop of thousands of Native Americans serving in the Confederate forces…"
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prepares to do some regimental-level ACW gaming.
