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U.S. Civil War History bits

Discussion in 'Military History' started by C.Evans, Jan 19, 2011.

  1. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    To digress a bit more. Did he? Really have short legs that is. I think I've read that by modern measure Napoleon was really about 5'6" which would have made him average or perhaps a bit above average I think.

    Should probably take this elsewhere wouldn't want to divert this thread anymore .. or not. :)
     
  2. A-58

    A-58 Cool Dude

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    No, he was a short one. Lifted this from Wiki;

    "At 5 ft 2 in (157 cm) he was about average height for French peasants, but short for an officer."

    And with keeping with lwd's suggestion to take this discussion someplace else, I decided to ACW orient the discussion a bit.

    The average height of a man in the US in 1860....5'6
    The height of Abram Lincoln....6'4
    Robert E. Lee....5'10 1/2
    Stonewall Jackson....6'
    Ulysses S. Grant....5'8

    For more interesting reading, go to:

    The Men In The Union And Confederate Armies
     
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2017
  3. Takao

    Takao Ace

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    At the time, the French were using a "foot" and an "inch" that were 9% larger than the tradition English foot and inch. So a 5'2 Napoleon was about 5'6-5'7.
     
  4. Takao

    Takao Ace

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    General Philip Sheridan was 5'4/5'5 and he acquired the nickname "Little Phil."
     
  5. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    When I was working on the east coast I noticed that the average height of people in the New Jersey Philadelphia area was significantly less than Virginia which was bit less than I was used to in Michigan or on the West Coast although the latter two were somewhat localized. I wonder if there was much in the way of a height difference in different areas of the country back then. Protein intake during childhood can have a significant impact on height so I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case although it may be a city vs rural/small town difference more than a state to state one. As far as Sheridan goes build and how one carries oneself can make a significant impact on how big people perceive you are.

    In regards to Napoleon:
    from Napoleon Was Short - Fact or Myth?
    Other sources on the web also support this. Such as:
    Was Napoleon really short?
     
  6. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    Some very interesting stats there. One I found noteworthy was that Union African American troops had a disease to combat death ration greater than 10 to 1 while there officers had a ratio less than 1:1. All sorts of things could be written about that I suspect.

    They mention the number of army officers (and soldiers) who "went south" but don't meantion that almost no naval officers did so. Of course it is an army related page.
     
  7. A-58

    A-58 Cool Dude

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    Either way (the French method or the English Standard) he was shorter than me.
     
  8. A-58

    A-58 Cool Dude

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    Maybe the black troops were more susceptible to disease because most of them never left their plantation before becoming free. When they joined the army, they were thrown together in large groups with others from different areas coming in with all sorts of un-diagnosed diseases and ailments. Once they were mixed, things spread. Early on in the war on both sides there were huge percentages of camp deaths due to diseases brought in and spread by men from all over the country. Just an idea.
     
  9. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    Black troops weren't committed to combat all that often either. Better food and sanitation among the officers probably cut their disease losses. Officers were also expected to lead from the front during that period. We've also had discussions before on what constituted a combat fatality as wounded often died of indirect effects of wounds. I suspect if one were working on a graduate degree in history several good papers could be written on the topic.
     
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  10. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Haunting.
    "These are the photos that reveal how the bloodiest war in American history was fought by child soldiers.
    The American Civil War, fought between 1861 and 1865, claimed 620,000 lives - nearly as many American casualties as every other war fought by the United States combined.
    One out of every five people who enlisted to risk their lives fighting their fellow countrymen were younger than 18 years old. And it's estimated that 100,000 Union soldiers were under 15 years old.
    In the fascinating images, children as young as eight-years-old are pictured injured from battle.
    Meanwhile in another photo, an eleven-year-old boy, who had just become a war hero after shooting an adult Confederate soldier, poses proudly in his uniform."
    Photos of children who fought the American Civil War | Daily Mail Online
     
  11. RichTO90

    RichTO90 Well-Known Member

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    I'm sorry, but I can only shake my head at the mess the Mail made of this...three "Confederate drummer boys"? "William Black" and "Edward Black" transition from eight years old to twelve years old when he/they are the "youngest" casualties of the war. Mind you, I am also unsure how you can tell the age of a soldier from a photograph. Oh, and the horror of Americans putting boys into combat...Royal Navy, ships boys, midshipmen, anyone?
     
  12. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    The story isn't an anti-American polemic, and I don't see how the latter are relevant to a story about the AMERICAN civil war.
     
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  13. RichTO90

    RichTO90 Well-Known Member

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    Sorry, didn't mean that at all. It would be just as bad if they were exclaiming about the photos of poor children on RN warships or drummer boys during the Crimean War. Differentvera digferent attitudes.
     
  14. A-58

    A-58 Cool Dude

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    Gordon, I've read recently that some latter day estimates of US and CS KIA could go as high as 720-745,000. Oh the horrors of putting American boys into combat. In the AMERICAN Civil War.
     
  15. Takao

    Takao Ace

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    I believe that is all deaths, not just KIA.
     
  16. A-58

    A-58 Cool Dude

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    Yes, that's what I meant. Thanks for pointing that out.
     
  17. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    No worries. I actually discovered my maternal great-great grandad was a drummer boy in the Crimean War, though no idea what regiment he served in.
     
  18. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    Another great recovery-
    "BOSTON (AP) — The sword that belonged to the commanding officer of the first all-black regiment raised in the North during the U.S. Civil War has been recovered after being lost to history for more than 150 years.

    The British-made sword carried into battle by Col. Robert Gould Shaw was stolen after he was killed during the 54th Massachusetts Voluntary Infantry's doomed attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, in 1863, a battle portrayed in the 1989 Oscar-winning movie "Glory."

    It was found recently in the home of one of Shaw's distant relatives and is scheduled to go on display at the Massachusetts Historical Society on Tuesday, the anniversary of his death."
    Sword belonging to Col. Robert Gould Shaw, commander of black Civil War unit, found
     
  19. GRW

    GRW Pillboxologist WW2|ORG Editor

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    It's news to me, at any rate.

    "The mystery of how the crew of one of the world’s first submarines died has finally been solved - they accidentally killed themselves.
    The HL Hunley sank on February 17 1864 after torpedoing the USS Housatonic outside Charleston Harbour, South Carolina, during American Civil War.
    She was one of the first submarines ever to be used in conflict, and the first to sink a battleship.
    It was assumed the blast had ruptured the sub, drowning its occupants, but when the Hunley was raised in 2000, salvage experts were amazed to find the eight-man crew poised as if they had been caught completely unawares by the tragedy. All were still sitting in their posts and there was no evidence that they had attempted to flee the foundering vessel.
    Now researchers at Duke University believe they have the answer. Three years of experiments on a mini-test sub have shown that the torpedo blast would have created a shockwave great enough to instantly rupture the blood vessels in the lungs and brains of the submariners.
    "This is the characteristic trauma of blast victims, they call it 'blast lung,'" Dr Rachel Lance."
    Mystery deaths of HL Hunley submarine crew solved - they accidentally killed themselves
     
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  20. LRusso216

    LRusso216 Graybeard Staff Member

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    Good reading, Gordon. We saw the Hunley on one of our trips to Charleston. I guess the mystery has been solved.
     

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