If I was an only son would that have made any difference?
Battle is not your big worry, disease was worse.
The OP’s description sounds like my family (all from upstate NY), of 7 gg-grandfathers/uncles and 2 gggreats, 1 died in battle, 2 from disease, one lost an arm and 3 came home safe and sound.
Reminds me of a bit from Generation Kill (from memory):
- Man, this sucks. I didn’t even get to fire my weapon once.
- Did you recruiter tell you you’d get to kill people, Twombley ?
- Fuckin’ A he did !
- See that, reporter ? My recruiter told me if I got into the Corps I would go to Thailand and get all kinds of strange. Sergeant Colbert, he probably believed that commercial, the one where the Marine in his dress blues fucks up a dragon with a sword ? Yet here we are in the middle of Bumfuck, Iraq ; half a world away from good Thai pussy ; chasing dragons in MOPP suits that smell like four days of piss and ball sweat.
maybe be a recruiter in Boston or New York?
not at the time of the civil war, the only surviving male family member thing didn’t come about till the world war phase I and II
If your mother was a widow. Men who were mentally or physically impaired, the only son of a widow, the son of infirm parents, or a widower with dependent children were exempt. Also, people in certain occupations. Railroad engineer, minister, government employee, telegraph operator, and so on. People could also hire substitutes.
The Confederate draft exempted railroad and river workers, civil officials, telegraph operators, miners, druggists and teachers, as well as anyone who owned 20 or more slaves. The Confederate draft law originally let people hire substitutes, but there was a lot of public outcry about that and it was removed.
James B. McPherson, USA, and Leonidas Polk, CSA, were also generals who died in battle during the Civil War.
I’m sure it’s this guy, a naval hero of mine: William B. Cushing - Wikipedia. Daring and very, very lucky. You could make a helluva movie about him!
Yes, I’ve read about this fellow, Lt. Cushing, for sure, but, alas, it looks like it might be instead Lt. Commander Charles H. Cushman, leader of the 2nd division of the landing party at Fort Fisher. I, too, thought it was THE famous Lt. Cushing when I first read my great-grandfather’s account. That’s why I assumed he had the name slightly wrong and the man was a well-known historical figure. Lt. Commander Cushman was one of the leaders of the assault against Fort Fisher by 2000 sailors and Marines, and if his 2nd landing party was sailors drawn from the 2nd line of battleships, which seems plausible, that would explain my great-grandfather’s memory: His ship, the U.S.S. Wabash, was in that line.
Here’s Wiki on the battle if anyone is interested:
OK, trying to correct some odd impressions:
1: Bands and such weren’t usually on the field. Oh, they were there, and we had some really weird battles in which I recall bands hanging around. But normally that wasn’t something you’d expect to see right next to the action. Ambulances would be waiting behind the battle lines to pick up any wounded men and take them to the field medics.
2: Generals were actually more likely to be wounded or killed than enlisted men in the Civil War. Y’all have mentioned but a smattering of the numbers who died.
3: You’re not going to be a general’s aide unless you have highly-placed friends or proven military experience. Generals were either professional soldiers of professional politicians, and their aides reflect that.
4: You can avoid enlisting for 300 bucks, or buy a substitute for a similar amount. This was not impossible to obtain. In some cities, political offices would pay this for you (far more poor than rich got out of service this way).
No way to arrange it beforehand, but if you were very lucky you might end up either guarding a POW camp, serving as part of a garrison’s troops, or occupying a reasonably pacified portion of territory retaken by the Union.