How Did Civil War Soldiers Sleep Through Endless Rain?

No raincoats, no waterproof tents, no dry socks, and sometimes a week of rain without a break. So how did Civil War soldiers actually sleep through endless rain? In this documentary we follow a young Union private on the swampy Virginia peninsula in May 1862, lying under half a cotton tent with a stream of rainwater running under his back, and rebuild the whole wet-weather system that got men like him through four years of rain: the rubber blanket, the cotton tent that leaked if you touched it, the night John Billings slept in a stream, the famous "only take the top rail" order, fire from wet wood, keeping the powder dry, roads made of logs, the flooded trenches of Petersburg, and the simple trick that every veteran knew and every recruit learned the hard way. Built from soldiers' own diaries, letters and memoirs and the work of historians of the common soldier. CHAPTERS 0:00 A Stream Under His Bed 2:26 The Chickahominy Fever 3:28 Wet, Muddy and Happy 4:14 The Rubber Blanket 5:53 Why the Kepi Failed in the Rain 6:51 The Tent That Leaked 8:28 The Night Billings Slept in a Stream 10:02 Only Take the Top Rail 11:53 Fire From Wet Wood 13:37 When Hardtack Turned Green 14:56 Keeping the Powder Dry 16:06 Roads Made of Logs 17:58 Wet Feet 19:04 A Week Inside a Wet Box 21:16 How They Actually Slept 22:31 The Flooded Trenches of Petersburg 23:58 Providence Spring 25:19 The Whole System 26:04 The Beach Trick 27:16 Where the Water Goes SOURCES AND FURTHER READING John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life (1887) Robert Hunt Rhodes (ed.), All for the Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes Wilbur F. Hinman, Corporal Si Klegg and His "Pard" (1887) Stephen Minot Weld, War Diary and Letters (56th Massachusetts, Petersburg 1864) Judkin Browning and Timothy Silver, An Environmental History of the Civil War National Park Service: Richmond National Battlefield Park; Andersonville National Historic Site Kathryn Shively Meier, Nature's Civil War Illustrations are artistic reconstructions. Narration uses a synthetic voice. #CivilWar #CivilWarHistory #AmericanHistory