1864
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR HAS BEEN CALLED THE FIRST MODERN WAR. A student of warfare has to look no further than the last full year of the war to substantiate this argument. All other things set aside—breech-loading arms, steel-hulled ships, telegraphic communications, or any of a myriad other innovations—the tendency of veteran troops to dig in rather than fight in the open foretold a different kind of warfare.
In 1864, with the Army of Northern Virginia largely fighting a defensive action, the Confederate engineers played a significant role in building bridges and field fortifications. The 1st Regiment Confederate Engineers was one of four such regiments, but was the only one assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia. Under the able command of twenty-six-year-old Colonel T.M.R. Talcott, with Lieutenant Colonel W.W. Blackford second in command, the regiment served Lee’s army throughout the summer campaign of 1864 and fired one of the last volleys at the Yankees at Appomattox.80
This coat worn by Lieutenant of Engineers W.D. Stokes was on display in the Smithsonian Institution in 1901 and described as the uniform he wore when he was captured at Fort Donelson and then sent to Johnson’s Island Prison (National Tribune, November 7, 1901, page 5). It is of gray satinet material with buff facings and gilt, with old English “E” buttons on the collar and cuffs. SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
The 1st Engineers formed at Richmond, Virginia from the fall of 1863 through the spring of 1864. Both Colonel Talcott and Lieutenant Colonel Blackford were hand-selected by General Lee to organize and form the regiment. Colonel Talcott had been a railroad engineer before the war and served with the Army of Northern Virginia as an artillery officer and as an aide on Lee’s staff. Prior to the war, Lieutenant Colonel Blackford was the acting chief engineer for the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad.
The original intent was to fill the ranks with veteran troops; however, the conscription law was being enforced and instead of veterans, to the initial concern of Colonel Talcott, untried soldiers were the men he would receive. What started as a possible problem in reality became an advantage. From this pool of men, generally in the age bracket of twenty-five to thirty-five, the regiment was able to handpick those whose background provided skills that would turn the 1st Engineers into a first-class unit. “We had miners, sailors, carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, mechanics of all sorts, and farmers. With these the ten companies in the regiment which were each filled to about their quota of 100 men each, making a splendid body nearly 1,000 strong.”81
The officers were all appointed; no elections were allowed. Because of this, the best and most qualified were placed in command, further enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the regiment.
The regiment was armed and drilled as infantry and while on campaign served in this role unless they were needed elsewhere. Two of the companies were equipped as pontooniers during the Overland Campaign of 1864, giving the Confederate army a special advantage in the fast-moving series of battles. As the army took position at Petersburg, Virginia, others with skill as sappers and miners were called upon. The siege that occupied the remainder of 1864 and the first months of 1865 presented a scenario that would become all too familiar to the grandsons of these men in the trenches of France in a little over fifty years. Mines were dug under the Yankee trenches, filled with explosives, and detonated, and countermines dug to discover if the enemy was doing the same.
British imported Isaac, Campbell & Co. knapsack and ration can used by Sergeant John Thomas Gibson, Company I of the 1st Confederate Engineers, 1864–65. Gibson was paroled April 9, 1865, at Appomattox and took his knapsack home with him. A return of March 1864 shows the unit receiving fifty knapsacks. DON TROIANI COLLECTION
This imported saber bayonet for the British Enfield short rifle has a Confederate-manufactured leather and tin scabbard. The frog to attach it to a belt is typical Southern construction of painted canvas. NELSONIAN INSTITUTE
When the end came in April 1865, the 1st Engineers marched with Lee’s retreating army and fired one of the final volleys of the war. The target was a Yankee cavalryman who rode close and demanded their surrender. The engineers, not knowing the army was indeed surrendering, made the unfortunate Yank one of the last casualties.
Shown in the plate on page 71 is a captain of engineers and an enlisted man of the same regiment. The buff color on the cuffs and collar of the officer was reserved for general officers or for those of lower rank serving with either the Adjutant General’s, Quartermaster General’s, or the Commissary General’s Departments or the Engineers.82
At the time the 1st Engineers was being raised, the importation of uniforms, arms, and accoutrements from England was well established. This is clearly reflected on the enlisted soldier. His knapsack is the British pattern of 1856. Strapped to the top is the pattern 1854 mess tin in its black-painted canvas cover. His jacket and cap are either part of the large number received from Peter Tait & Co. of Limerick, Ireland, or made of fabric imported from England. A Confederate-made cartridge box and haversack are also visible. His weapon is a Confederate-made rifle from the Cook & Brother Armory in Athens, Georgia.
Regimental receipts for arms and accoutrements received in March 1864 show the following received at Richmond:
March 1: 200 Cook rifles, cal .58, 200 cartridge boxes, 200 cartridge box belts, 200 waist belts, 200 cap pouches, 200 haversacks, 200 canteens and straps.
March 1 (additional): 50 Cook rifles cal .58, 50 cartridge boxes, cartridge box belts, 50 waist belts, 50 cap pouches, 50 haversacks, 50 canteens and straps.
March 12: 10 Cook rifles.
March 24: 136 Fayetteville rifles, 136 screw drivers, 136 cones, 136 wipers, 7 arms chests.83
These arms were without doubt issued to the first men selected for the regiment. No bayonets or scabbards were issued with the arms. Both the Cook and Fayetteville rifles were generally fitted with a saber bayonet, but considering the duties these men were expected to perform, the long saber bayonet would have been more of an encumbrance than an asset.
On May 11 an issue of fifteen .58-caliber Austrian rifles included both bayonets and scabbards.84
Lieutenant Colonel Blackford gave a lasting and appropriate tribute to his regiment when he wrote: “A better disciplined or finer body of men were not to be found in Lee’s army.”85