By KAYLA J. MARSH
Staff Writer
OCEAN TOWNSHIP — On April 12, 1861, gunshots rang out at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, signifying the start of one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history.
The Civil War has been the subject of hundreds of thousands of books, movies and television documentaries, but a recent talk held by the Township of Ocean Historical Museum put attendees into the mindset of what life was like for a Confederate soldier during the time.
“The story of the Confederate soldier is a little understood, but interesting story,” said Arthur Green, a military historian who spoke as part of the museum’s speaker series on March 8.
“I find that a lot of people’s ideas and impressions and conclusions they have drawn about the Civil War come from Hollywood … and I advise people if you really want to know, get books, read.
“I am always learning and asking questions and relying on people who have been at this even longer than me to give me information I’m not sure of.”
Green’s fascination for all things military has led to an extensive collection of uniforms, equipment and weapons, and during his talk he compared and contrasted the life of the Confederate and Union soldiers, showing how the South, although outnumbered and outresourced, relied on determination, innovation and perseverance.
“I took a very keen interest in trying to figure out how an agrarian society such as the South, a part of the country that had no major industry, little manufacturing capabilities and materials … was able to uniform, arm and sustain an army for four years,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes into equipping and keeping an army on their feet.
“The Union army numbered about two million men serving throughout the course of the war, whereas the Confederate army on the other hand … research has pieced together, never reached a million men.
“How an army so small and not as well equipped was able to do this fascinates me.”
According to Green there were two parts to a Civil War soldier’s life — camp life and campaigns.
“What most people need to understand about these soldiers is once the winter started to set in, all these great armies went into winter camps and until early spring didn’t move,” he said. “As one soldier said, ‘Being in the army was 95 percent sheer utter boredom and 5 percent sheer utter terror.’”
According to Green, the North had the manufacturing, financial and distribution resources to provision its troops. The South relied on determination, innovation and the involvement of its population.
“Most people who went into the war figured it would be a 90-day war … the South didn’t really have the resources to keep this going,” he said.
“The only thing that kept the Southern soldier going was sheer determination … it was very personal for them, and everybody was involved in the war down South.
“There’s a story actually that Mrs. Robert E. Lee was knitting socks to send to the soldiers and when she heard that her husband had surrendered, she put down her knitting and said, ‘Our soldiers will not need these now,’ and those unfinished socks are actually in a museum in Richmond (Virginia) still on the needle point and everything.”
According to Green, the big difference between the North and South’s war efforts is seen mainly in uniforms and equipment.
“Wool, for example, was a big problem,” he said. “It was the premier material to use in a garment, and they had a lot of cotton down South, which didn’t hold up very well.”
Green said due to the lack of resources available, the Confederate army emphasized functionality.
“If you couldn’t carry it in your pocket or in a blanket or knapsack, you weren’t bringing it with you,” he said. “They used a lot of replacement items for what they didn’t have available and got very resourceful very early on in the Civil War in the South.”
Uniforms were not seen as a fashion statement and became more basic as the war and lack of resources continued, with nontraditional materials substituting for things like leather and wool.
“Confederate items were extremely rare and didn’t last and hold up like the Union army’s, but they were very resourceful in what they did,” Green said. “They were very resourceful where they needed to be to stretch out the things that they didn’t have a lot of that they needed elsewhere.”