Turning volunteers into soldiers was a long, difficult process. Drilling was just a fraction of that process. The men had to learn unquestioning obedience to officers who just weeks earlier had been merely neighbors or cousins. They had to march long distances, and accept being deprived of sleep and food. They had to learn to mend their uniforms and make coffee over a fire.
The Union’s general-in-chief was Winfield Scott, nearly seventy-five years old and so obese he could no longer ride a horse. Commanding the troops in the field was Gen. Irvin McDowell. A career army officer, McDowell could see that weeks of drilling had not prepared his volunteer troops for battle. But he felt constant pressure from Washington, and it was obvious that if the Union army were to annihilate the Confederacy, he would have to act before his troops’ ninety-day enlistments elapsed and they all went home.
A month after arriving in Washington, the Connecticut soldiers found themselves crossing the Potomac River and marching into Virginia. This was enemy territory, and each man realized that here a Confederate attack could come at any second.
PICKET DUTY
“I don’t think I shall ever forget my first night on picket,” an anxious Connecticut soldier confessed later. He stood picket in the woods overnight, at some distance from camp.
Hour after hour rolled on. ‘Twas midnight … Thought it very reasonable to suppose that if the rebels intended to make an attack they would avoid the regular road and go through the woods … somewhere near where I was posted … I heard, or fancied I heard a slight disturbance in a clump of bushes near by … Had the rebels appeared? …
Army regulations require a sentinel to challenge an approaching party … I proceeded to address myself to the mysterious clump of bushes. Opened my mouth and went through all the motions of saying something … A sound issued from my mouth; but such a sound!
Just then a dark form seemed to be moving out from the bushes. It looked like a man crawling along on his hands and knees … Then the dark object spoke! It spoke in a language that had been familiar to my ear since my boyhood days. It was the grunt of a hog! … Was delighted to see that hog … Felt like twining my arms around its neck and shedding a few tears of joy …3
Elnathan B. Tyler of the 3rd Connecticut met the enemy—or was it a friend?—in an illustration from his 1872 book, “Wooden Nutmegs” at Bull Run, A Humorous Account of Some of the Exploits and Experiences of the Three Months Connecticut Brigade and the Part They Played in the National Stampede.
Hogs or no hogs, the boys soon got undeniable proof that the enemy was real and nearby. On the 17th of June, the 1st and 2nd Connecticut regiments rushed to the aid of Ohio troops that had been ambushed by the enemy at Vienna, Virginia. “We found the Ohio boys near the track,” wrote a shaken private. “By the aid of campfires and a lantern they were burying their dead, amputating the limbs of the wounded and caring for others who were badly wounded … It looked hard to see the long row of wounded dying and the dead.”4
Besides fear and inexperience, the new soldiers had to contend with bureaucratic incompetence. John C. Comstock, a Hartford printer who served as captain in Connecticut’s 1st Regiment, complained “We are yet suffering for lack of shoes and pantaloons … Many of the men are absolutely shoeless, and have not trowsers enough to cover their legs.”5
Gus Dana, a private in the same regiment, groused about “insufficient and very poor” rations. One lot of hardtack was impossible to eat; Dana and his buddies bored holes through them and hung them around their necks in protest. When their colonel cursed them, “we revenged [ourselves] by skyving our tin plates at his tent while we stood in line waiting for supper.”6
Still, in spite of the difficulties, most soldiers felt confident that the Union would put down the rebellion quickly and easily. Eli Walter Osborn, a captain in the 2nd Connecticut, confided to his family, “between you and me, I do not think we shall be required to fight much. The other side is too much frightened.”7
By mid-July, many regiments had only days left on their ninety-day enlistments. General McDowell had to act. “We have orders to prepare for a long march,” Andrew Knox wrote excitedly to his wife. “All that we are to carry is our blankets and three days provisions … you can expect by far the largest battle or the most inglorious retreat the coming week.”8
With the Confederates massing near Manassas Junction, McDowell ordered his officers to push the Union troops forward rapidly. He planned a surprise attack on the Confederate troops commanded by General Beauregard, his old classmate from West Point. It was imperative to strike before Confederate general Johnston could arrive with reinforcements.
“General Tyler, a Connecticut man, was in command of the first and largest division of the army [about 30,000 men],” explained a Middletown private, “and the Connecticut Brigade, consisting of the [1st, 2nd, and 3rd] Connecticut regiments and the Second Maine, formed the first brigade of that division, and were thus, in regular formation, the advance of the entire force. On the afternoon of the 16th of July General Tyler put his division in motion, the Connecticut men in the advance.”9
Hoping to move swiftly, McDowell was disgusted to find he could not. “The men were not used to marching; they stopped every moment to pick blackberries or to get water. They would not keep in the ranks, order as much as you pleased. When they came where water was fresh they would pour the old water out of their canteens and fill them with fresh water; they were not used to denying themselves much.”10 For the next three days, McDowell fumed over continuous delays.
Gus Dana described the march from the enlisted man’s view:
About noon of the 17th we came in sight of Fairfax Court House and could plainly see the enemys gun barrels glisten: the officers who had glasses said they were in rapid retreat … We were halted and ordered to lie down while a [Union] battery fired over our heads; we only scooched though, because great luscious ripe blackberries were in abundance within our reach. We would occasionally hear Maj Speidel yell at us “Keep your intervals damn you” when an especially fine bush had caused several men to group together. But we had to fill up on something.11
Confederate troops fled before the First Division’s advance. When the Union soldiers halted to rest, they were not far behind the enemy. “We found campfires burning which the Rebels had left in their hasty retreat,” wrote Horace Purdy of Danbury. “Also some provisions Ham, Whisky & Tents—Drums—shoes, clothing were also found. We had some sport at this place, some of the men dressing themselves in secession clothing and such rigs as some of them were, it was enough to make ones sides ache with laughter.”12
At daylight, three days before the Battle of Bull Run would take place, the advance resumed.
[We] followed the rebels through Germantown trying to head them off but the trees they had felled across the road during their retreat delayed the artillery and we had to … chop the obstructions away. We bivouacked that night about four miles west of Centerville, nearly famished for food and water … our stomachs ached with emptiness … finding an old cow, one of our boys killed it and cut it up, each one that could get near enough cutting off a gob and then frizzling it over a little fire of leaves and twigs. Nat Middletown had half a hard tack & I had a piece of beef the size of the palm of my hand, so we divided and banquetted.”13
With the 3rd Connecticut Regiment marched Sgt. Charles Upham, a quiet twenty-two-year-old imbued with a strong sense of duty. In his pocket, Charlie carried a roll book in which