What Did Civil War Soldiers Do When It Rained for Weeks?

Early May on the Virginia Peninsula. It has rained for days, a supply wagon is sunk to its axles, and a private from New York stands in the road with mud up to his knees, not knowing when he will ever be dry again. What did Civil War soldiers really do when it rained for weeks? In this documentary we go through the wettest weeks of the war: roads that turned into "bottomless muck", mules, teamsters and the oldest mud joke in the army, the Battle of Williamsburg fought in a cold, steady rain, corduroy roads built from whole forests, soaked wool coats, melting rations and shoes falling apart, the leather and tin cartridge box that kept the powder dry, rust and rifle inspections, the flooded Chickahominy and the Grapevine Bridge at Seven Pines, the seventeen-mile wagon train of wounded after Gettysburg and Lee's army trapped by the flooded Potomac at Williamsport, boredom, card games and rain baths in camp, the flooded trenches and bombproofs of Petersburg, and Ulysses Grant's attempt to dig a canal past Vicksburg while the Mississippi stayed above its banks all winter. Then we look at who the rain hit hardest, and at the one ordinary tool that mattered most. What do we know, and what is debated? The joke about the man under the hat in the mud is a traditional tale, older than the war. Some accounts say Lee's engineers used lumber from buildings near Williamsport for the new pontoon bridge; the detail is not confirmed in every source. "Keep your powder dry" is traditionally attributed to Oliver Cromwell, but there is no contemporary proof. Accounts of the Grapevine Bridge differ on details. The weight of a soaked wool overcoat is not recorded; the dry figure (about 5.25 pounds) comes from period equipment lists. Most first-hand descriptions of flooded bombproofs at Petersburg come from veterans' later recollections. Built from soldiers' own diaries, letters and memoirs (Private John Wilson of the 38th New York, Lt. John Warlick of the 11th North Carolina, Stephen Minot Weld, John D. Imboden, Ulysses S. Grant), official reports, regimental histories and National Park Service histories. CHAPTERS 0:00 Mud to His Knees 1:03 Why Didn't the Rain Stop Them? 2:17 Wet, Heavy, Stuck 2:51 It's Raining Again 3:30 The Road Disappears 4:27 The Man Under the Hat 5:03 Mules and Swearing 5:34 A Battle in the Rain 6:22 A Road Made of Trees 7:53 A Speed Bump Every Eight Inches 8:08 Wool Drinks Water 9:08 Shoes That Talked 10:04 Keep Your Powder Dry 10:53 One Freckle of Rust 12:06 The River Rises 12:45 The Grapevine Bridge 13:46 Seventeen Miles of Wagons 14:47 Trapped at Williamsport 16:10 Nothing to Do 17:11 Four Men, One Tent 17:58 A Bath From the Sky 18:25 We Prefer Bad Weather 19:05 Nine Months in the Mud 19:50 The Bombproofs 21:14 Moving the Mississippi 22:18 Grant's Canal 23:30 The Dam Breaks 24:38 Who the Rain Hit Hardest 26:38 The Whole System 27:22 Closing the Loops 28:54 Back to the Peninsula SOURCES AND FURTHER READING American Battlefield Trust, "John Wilson's Peninsula Diary" (38th New York, 1862) George B. McClellan's report on the Peninsula Campaign, Official Records, vol. 11 National Park Service Historical Handbook: the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days (bottomless roads, Seven Pines) Emerging Civil War, "Edwin V. Sumner, Fredericksburg, and Lessons Learned Along the Chickahominy" Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, "Civil War Roads" (pioneers and corduroy roads) Museum descriptions of the 1861 pattern cartridge box and its tin liners John D. Imboden, "The Confederate Retreat from Gettysburg", Battles and Leaders of the Civil War American Battlefield Trust, "Falling Waters" and the Williamsport crossing, July 1863 Emerging Civil War, "Therefore we prefer bad weather at this time" (John Lewis Warlick, 11th North Carolina, November 1864) Stephen Minot Weld letters, July 1864; Petersburg trench diaries and recollections Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, chapters 31–32 (the winter at Vicksburg, the canal and the bayou expeditions) 48th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry regimental history, "Digging the Canal" (Young's Point) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "The Engineers at Vicksburg, Part Four: Grant's Canal" National Park Service Civil War Series: the United States Colored Troops and fatigue duty; 55th Massachusetts letters, 1864 Illustrations are artistic reconstructions. #CivilWar #CivilWarHistory #AmericanHistory