Category Archives: 1862

Acoustic Shadow In The Civil War

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Civil War Mortar

Civil War Mortar

Acoustic Shadow (sometimes called Silent Battle) is a strange thing. It is a circumstance where sound is unheard close to the cause of the sound, but the same sound is heard a far distance away from its source.

With a unique combination of factors such as wind, weather, temperature, land topography, elevation, forest or other vegetation, battle sounds are not heard at a distance they normally would be heard clearly.

Acoustic Shadow Can Hurt Battle Communication

The distance the sound of battle is heard may be great, even hundreds of miles, yet nearby and sometimes only mere miles away the sounds are not heard. Battles where Acoustic Shadow occurred in the Civil War are Gettysburg, Seven Pines, Iuka, Fort Donelson, Five Forks, Perryville, and Chancellorsville.

The Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg

Acoustic Shadow could have a profound effect on a battle. During the Civil War it was common for armies to be spread out over large distances and timely communication between the split parts of an army was crucial to battlefield success.

Army commanders must make decisions based on current knowledge of the situation before them. The sounds of a battle would be a form of communication, signaling to a Civil War commander and his staff where a battle is taking place, and what troops (including the enemy) may be involved.

If Acoustic Shadow hides battle action from being heard by a commander, then communication has been lost and dire consequences may follow as the commander does not respond as needed to the battlefield situation.

Acoustic Shadow During Civil War Battles

3 Inch Ordnance Rifle at Gettysburg

3 Inch Ordnance Rifle at Gettysburg

  • The Battle of Gettysburg – The battle sounds from Gettysburg could be heard over one hundred miles away in Pittsburgh, but were not heard only ten miles from the battlefield.
  • Battle of Gaines’s Mill – More than 91,000 men were engaged in battle at Gaines’s Mill, Virginia on June 27, 1862. Confederate commanders and troops were less than two miles from the battlefield and could plainly see the smoke and flashes from the guns and artillery, but not a sound could be heard of the battle for two hours. Strangely, the battle sounds from the Battle of Gaines’s Mill were easily heard in Staunton, Virginia over one hundred miles away.
  • Five Forks – Fives Forks was part of the Appomattox Campaign and fought from March 30 to April 1, 1865. Confederate Generals George Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee were enjoying a shad bake with other generals north of Hatcher’s Run when the battle of Five Forks began a short distance away. Because of Acoustic Shadow, Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee were unaware a fight was under way. Pickett finally responded, but arrived late for the battle. Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee have been criticized by Civil War historians (please see Lee’s Lieutenants, III, 665-670) for not acting on “the dread immediacy of the crisis” (ibid., 665) at Five Forks.

Descriptions of Acoustic Shadow During The Civil War

The many volumes of the Battles and Leaders of the Civil War series documents the Civil War with first-hand account writings of Union and Confederate officers. On page 365 of Volume 2 an article titled “THE CAUSE OF SILENT BATTLE,” by Professor John B. De Motte of De Pauw University offers a description Acoustic Shadow phenomenon. Below is an excerpt from De Motte’s article:

“THE CAUSE OF A SILENT BATTLE

“By Professor John K. De Motte, De Pauw University, Ind.

“REFERENCE has been made to the supposed effect of the wind in preventing, as in the case of the heavy cannonading between the Merrimac and Congress, the transference of sound-waves a distance of not over three and one-half miles over water; and at another time, during the bombardments of the Confederate works at Port Royal, a distance of not more than two miles. ” The day was pleasant,” says the writer, ” and the wind did not appear unusually strong.” Yet ” people living in St. Augustine, Florida, told me afterward that the Port Royal cannonade was heard at that place, 150 miles from the fight.”

“It occurs to me that the effect of the wind is greatly exaggerated in these instances. How an ordinary breeze could “carry all sounds of the conflict away from people standing within plain sight of it” and yet carry the same sound 150 miles in the opposite direction, is rather too strongly opposed to scientific fact to remain on record undisputed.

“In all of these cases, is it not probable that the varying density of the air had much more to do with this strange acoustic opacity than the wind?

“These statements call to mind the prevalent belief that fog, snow, hail, and rain, indeed, any conditions of the atmosphere that render it optically opaque, render it also acoustically opaque; which, up to the time of Mr. Tyndall’s experiments in the English Channel, off Dover, had scarcely been questioned. His tests made in 1873-74 proved conclusively, as is now well known, that on clear days the air may be composed of differently heated masses, saturated in different degrees with aqueous vapors, which produce exactly the deadening effects described above.

“I submit as a case in point a similar effect, and its explanation as furnished by Mr. R. G. H. Kean to Professor Tyndall, and considered by the latter of sufficient value to find a place in his published works:

“‘On the afternoon of June 27th, 1862, I rode, in company with General G. W. Randolph, then Secretary of War of the Confederate States, to Price’s house, about nine miles from Richmond. The evening before General Lee had begun his attack on McClellan’s army, by crossing the Chickahominy about four miles above Price’s, and driving in McClellan’s right wing.

“‘The battle of Gaines’s Mill was fought the afternoon to which I refer. The valley of the Chickahominy is about one and a half miles wide from hill-top to hill- top. Price’s is on one hill-top, that nearest to Richmond: Gaines’s farm, just opposite, is on the other, reaching back in a plateau to Cold Harbor.

“‘Looking across the valley, I saw a good deal of the battle, Lee’s right resting in the valley, the Federal left wing the same. My line of vision was nearly in the line of the lines of battle. I saw the advance of the Confederates, their repulse two or three times, and in the gray of the evening the final retreat of the Federal forces. I distinctly saw the musket-fire of both lines, the smoke, individual discharges, the flash of the guns. I saw batteries of artillery on both sides come into action and fire rapidly. Several field-batteries on each side were plainly in sight. Many more were hid by the timber which bounded the range of vision.

“‘Yet looking for nearly two hours, from about 5 to 7 P. M. on a midsummer afternoon, at a battle in which at least 50,000 men were actually engaged, and doubtless at least 100 pieces of field-artillery, through an atmosphere optically as limpid as possible, not a single sound of the battle was audible to General Randolph and myself. I remarked it to him at the time as astonishing.

“‘Between me and the battle was the deep, broad valley of the Chickahominy, partly a swamp shaded from the declining sun by the hills and forest in the west (my side). Part of the valley on each side of the swamp was cleared: some in cultivation, some not. Here were conditions capable of providing several belts of air, varying in the amount of watery vapor (and probably in temperature), arranged like laminae at right angles to the acoustic waves as they came from the battle-field to me.'”

There are footnotes to the above article in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Below is an excerpt from one of the footnotes. This excerpt provides us with more information about the Acoustic Shadow phenomenon. The footnote references its source of information as being an article which was included in the “Southern Bivouac” of May 1887 by General E. M. Law of the Army of Northern Virginia. General E. M. Law writes about the Acoustic Shadow phenomenon at the battle of Gaines’ Mill:

“To the troops stationed near the river, on the Richmond side, the action at Gaines’ Mill was plainly visible, that part of it, at least, which took place in the open ground. I have been told by an eye-witness that from Price’s house, on the opposite side, he could distinctly see the Confederate lines advancing to the attack through the open ground beyond the Chickahominy swamp, and could distinguish the direction of the lines of battle by the volume of smoke arising from the woods farther to the Confederate center and left. But it was all like a pantomime, not a sound could be heard, neither the tremendous roar of the musketry nor even the reports of the artillery.”

George B. McClellan Quotes

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George Brinton McClellan – The Young Napoleon

George_B_McClellan

George B. McClellan The Young Napoleon

Early in the Civil War, General George B. McClellan provided needed leadership to the Union military efforts with his organization, administration, and training of men in the rapidly growing and forming army. This was very important at the time and McClellan’s abilities were much-needed. He provided a great service to the inexperienced, raw, and untamed army with his preparation and organizational skills. However, as the war progressed McClellan was ineffectual and unsuccessful at actually taking an army to battle. For President Abraham Lincoln, George B. McClellan was a continual source of frustration because of his inability or unwillingness to move the army and have it do what an army exists to do… which is to fight and defeat the enemy.

George B. McClellan seemed destined for greatness. He was the son of a distinguished Philadelphia doctor and finished second in his class at West Point. In the Mexican War he earned three brevets for gallant and meritorious conduct. Later, he spent a year in Europe and a report he wrote of his observations of foreign military methods brought him acclaim and recognition. Captain McClellan resigned from the United States Army in 1857, and began a career in business. He became vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad where he met a tall, country bumpkin lawyer who represented the railroad. This rough-hewn lawyer’s name was Abraham Lincoln. McClellan looked down on Lincoln, considering Lincoln his inferior both socially and intellectually. Another influential man George B. McClellan met during his railroad times was Allan Pinkerton, who was working as a contract private detective of the railroad. McClellan, Lincoln, and Pinkerton were all destined for importance and greater things when the Civil War came.

With the start of the Civil War, George B. McClellan began as a Major General of Ohio volunteers, then became Major General of the Regular Army and having command of the Department of the Ohio. McClellan was only 35-years-old. During the first year of the Civil War, he’d achieved prominence with Union victories at Rich Mountain and Carrick’s Ford in western Virginia (This part of Virginia would later become the Union State of West Virginia.). McClellan seemed to have the world by the tail. After Irvin McDowell’s defeat at Bull Run, President Lincoln replaced McDowell with McClellan as the commander of the Division of the Potomac, made up of the armies around Washington. General Winfield Scott soon retired as general in chief, and Abraham Lincoln gave George B. McClellan that title and responsibility as well as being the commander of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan told Lincoln: “He could do it all.”

Soon it was apparent to President Lincoln that although George B. McClellan could prepare an army for war, he had no plans, ability, or inclination to actually lead an army into war. Because of his strong skills at organizing and motivating an army, McClellan was dubbed with praiseworthy monikers such as; “The Young Napoleon” and “Little Mac,” but McClellan was always finding fears and reasons not to move the army towards the enemy. McClellan would claim that the army did not have enough supplies, that the horses are too tired, that he needed more and more troops, that his army was vastly outnumbered by the enemy, (Allan Pinkerton, who was now McClellan’s personal secret operative, contributed to this fear and reason for delay of McClellan’s. Pinkerton would often overestimate the number of enemy forces, sometimes by as much as three times their actual number.) and on and on with more and more reasons for delay and more preparation. With McClellan, there was always a reason not to move forward towards the Rebels and engage them in battle.

Instead of considering George B. McClellan as “The Young Napoleon” or “Little Mac,” others had a more critical and disparaging opinion of the arrogant, conceited, strong-willed, constantly delaying, and unmoving McClellan. They referred to him as: “McNapoleon.”

Quotes By and About George B. McClellan

“The true course in conducting military operations, is to make no movement until the preparations are complete.”
–George B. McClellan, while preparing in Washington.

“Who would have thought, when we were married, that I should so soon be called upon to save my country?”
–George B. McClellan’s words from a letter to his wife. President Abraham Lincoln had made George Brinton McClellan commander of the Division of the Potomac after First Bull Run.

“By some strange operation of magic I seem to have become the power of the land.”
–George B. McClellan said this of himself shortly after he assumed command of the Union forces around Washington in 1861.

“All quiet along the Potomac.”
–Attributed to General George B. McClellan, c. 1861.

“Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?”
–President Abraham Lincoln’s question directed to George B. McClellan, who had excused his lack of action in the fall of 1862 because of exhausted horses. McClellan was removed from command soon afterward.

“If he had a million men he would swear the enemy has two millions, and then he would sit down in the mud and yell for three.”
–Edwin M. Stanton, the United States secretary of war commenting on General George B. McClellan. McClellan often overestimated the number of enemy forces opposing him, and so he always needed and wanted more men and more supplies before he could take offensive action.

It is called the Army of the Potomac, but it is only McClellan’s bodyguard…If McClellan is not using the army, I should like to borrow it for a while.
–Abraham Lincoln on April 9, 1862, regarding George B. McClellan. McClellan often tested Lincoln’s patience because of his failure to take action against the Confederates. This quote is from a note Lincoln eventually decided not to send.

General McClellan, if I understand you correctly, before you strike at the Rebels, you want to be sure of plenty of room so you can run in case they strike back.
–This is from Zachariah Chandler, a member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War as he was questioning McClellan regarding his inability to take offensive movement against the Rebels.

McClellan’s vice…was always waiting to have everything just as he wanted before he would attack, and before he could get things arranged as he wanted them, the enemy pounced on him.
–Union General George G. Meade regarding General George B. McClellan. McClellan was a brilliant organizer and administrator, and he had good strategic sense. His organizational skills as a commander were badly needed to whip the army into shape early in the war. His training of the Union armies for war is highly regarded.

“Stand by General Burnside as you have stood by me and all will be well.”
–George B. McClellan’s advice to his troops after being replaced by Burnside in November of 1862.

The effect of this man’s presence upon the Army of the Potomac–in sunshine or in rain, in darkness or in daylight, in victory or defeat–was electrical, and too wonderful to make it worthwhile attempting to give a reason for it.
–Anonymous comments regarding Union General George B. McClellan. McClellan was loved by his troops and he staged grand reviews to improve the morale of the men. He made the men of the army proud.

“He went beyond the formal military salute, and gave his cap a little twirl, which with his bow and smile seemed to carry a little personal good fellow-ship to the humblest private soldier…It was very plain that these little attentions to the troops took well, and had no small influence in establishing a sort of comradeship between him and them.”
–A Union officer describing General George B. McClellan. The soldiers believed in McClellan, they thought he was the one who would lead them to victory.

“He has got an eye like a hawk. I looked him right in the eye and he done the same by me.”
–A Union soldier from Massachusetts commenting on General George B. McClellan. The soldiers of the Army of the Potomac called him “Little Mac” and in the press he was called “Young Napoleon.”

“Sending armies to McClellan is like shoveling fleas across a barnyard. Not half of them get there.”
–Abraham Lincoln expressing his frustration and dissatisfaction with General George George B. McClellan.

“Action, action is what we want and what we must have.”
–George Brinton McClellan, 1862.

“I regard it as certain that the enemy will meet us with all his force on or near the Chickahominy…If I am not re-enforced, it is probable that I will be obliged to fight nearly double my numbers, strongly entrenched.”
–George B. McClellan on May 10, 1862.

“I feel sure of success, so good is the spirit of my men and so great their ardor. But I am tired of the battlefield, with its mangled corpses and poor wounded. Victory has no charms for me when purchased at such a cost.”
–George B. McClellan on June 2, 1862.

“I prefer Lee to Johnston. The former is too cautious and weak under grave responsibility–personally brave and energetic to a fault, he yet is wanting in moral firmness when pressed by heavy responsibility and is likely to be timid and irresolute in action.”
–Union General George B. McClellan sizing up Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

“McClellan will make this a battle of posts. He will take position from position, under cover of his heavy guns. I am preparing a line that I can hold with part of our forces in front, while the rest I will endeavor to make a diversion to bring McClellan out.”
–Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s thoughts and plans for handling Union General George B. McClellan in June, 1862.

“The spectacle yesterday was the grandest I could conceive of. Nothing could be more sublime. Those on whose judgement I rely tell me that I fought the battle splendidly, and that it was a masterpiece of art.”
–George B. McClellan commenting on his own performance at the Battle of Antietam. Antietam was not a tactical victory for the North.

“I will hold McClellan’s horse if he will only bring us success.”
–Abraham Lincoln in 1862. Abe would be holding that horse for a long time while waiting for success from George B. McClellan. When McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee after Antietam, Abraham Lincoln made Ambrose Burnside commander of the Army of the Potomac.

My book 501 Civil War Quotes and Notes features quotes made before, during, and after the Civil War. Each quote has an informative note to explain the circumstances and background of the quote. Learn Civil War history from the spoken words and writings of the military commanders, political leaders, the Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs who fought in the battles, the abolitionists who strove for the freedom of the slaves, the descriptions of battles, and the citizens who suffered at home. Their voices tell us the who, what, where, when, and why of the Civil War. Available as a Kindle device e-book or as a paperback. Get 501 Civil War Quotes and Notes now!