Simply a Civil War
When the American Civil War broke out amongst the divided entities that encumbered the United States during the 19th century an explosion of turmoil and struggle reigned free throughout the nation. Furthermore, with the strife of the Civil War came a barrage of changes that wracked much of the infant nation to its core. Traveling from end to end of the United States the effects of American Civil War became the precedent for the future of the nation. The war, for its influence on the people of the U.S, became a symbol for a turning point in American history. Cemented in that history is a conception of the war that has remained over the many years since its culmination. The idea that the Civil War was a war of rules and regulations and therefore is synonymous with the notion of battles being fought with troops lining either side of an open field and exchanging fire until one stood no more. Often this interpretation of the war is used to personify the idea of glorification of the ferocity of battles, paying homage to brave soldiers who fought in them, and telling of the birth of a refined nation through insurmountable suffering and evoke an attitude of awe towards the scale of conflict the Civil War provided. However there are some whose accounts allow us to look at the American Civil War in a different light, a light that paints a different picture of battles for those caught amongst the struggle but yet still envelop similar attitudes towards the war. This different style being displayed within accounts from the battle of Vicksburg in 1863 of which come from an individual who had experienced the battle first hand.
Captain Richard W. Burt of the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry for the Union Army, who was one of the few to be of volunteer status, reveals much about the reality of the Civil War during his time as a soldier. During this time Burt was tasked with acquiring and returning information pertinent to the Union Army as well as leading the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment (Cite). His personal accounts of his days during the Civil War are entitled, “Captain Richard W. Burt Civil War Letters From The 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry” and should be included into the canon of American Literature as it is a collection of memories in the form of letters that show not just the hardships of the war but reveals the reality that Civil War battles were not necessarily fought in the iconic fashion later considered to be synonymous with the war. Burts letters also tell us about everyday life for a soldier during the Civil War and of the coping required for soldiers during these days, as well as details that explain what occurred during the siege of Vicksburg in the American Civil War. Richard W. Burts collection of letters also holds importance because the letters convey an accurate representation of the American Civil War through the eyes of R.W. Burt and should be studied and included in the canon as it can help us understand not just how the Civil War affected the nation as a whole but how the war affected soldiers individually. By reading R.W. Burt's accounts of the battle of Vicksburg and seeing how he manages with the reality of battle he is forcefully engaged with, we get an image of what those moments of fateful interaction were like and a glimpse of the reality of certain battles within the Civil War which when recorded in his letters, holds value to the American Literature canon.
Richard W. Burt began his career as a soldier under the banner of the U.S. Army serving as a private for one year in Company B, Third Ohio Infantry during the Mexican War (Stevens 1). According to his letters, Burt, who along with other American soldiers, felt the call to rearm and during the Civil War volunteered for the Union Army. Burt began his journey through the Civil War only a few short months after its outbreak. He enlisted December 3, 1861, in Company G, Seventy-sixth Ohio Infantry where he was selected to be the Second Lieutenant in charge of his regiment (Stevens 1). After the battle of Arkansas Post, Burt earned a promotion to First Lieutenancy (Stevens 1). Upon his enlistment contract expiring Lieutenant R.W. Burt re-entered the army in March, 1864 as the Captain of Company H, 76th Ohio Infantry. He commanded the company until the exhaustion of the war afterwhich he was mustered out July 15, 1865 (Stevens 1). There are four letters from Burts Civil War collection that focus on the siege of Vicksburg and it is these four letters that demonstrate the different way battles could have been fought during the war.
The first of the four letters is written on May 17th, 1863. Burt writes "May 17th Pushing forward through a hilly country we encountered the enemy pickets at 3 P.M. three miles north of Vicksburg. We bivouced that night in a deep hollow, and the rebel shells were frequently reminding us that our presence was not desired (Burt). This is the first encounter for Burt and his regiment with the enemy soldiers held up in Vicksburg. They have encountered their enemy and soon the battle for Vicksburg will begin. Nearly a fortnight passes before the next letter in Burts collection surfaces. “This is the 13th day of the siege and the Rebels still hold the city. We can't get in yet, so as to secure them all prisoners, and they can't get out, for we have them entirely surrounded, our army being entrenched on all the surrounding hills” (Burt). The enemy encamped in Vicksburg is surrounded, this marks the beginning of a long siege. Burt writes again on June 10th, 1863 to inform that “The siege is generally the heaviest for an hour or two in the morning, and the same length of time in the evening, continuing until it is too dark to see the enemy” (Burt). This quick to disperse crossing of enemies repeats itself day after day, the concept of open battle synonymous with the Civil War dissipates with each passing day. It is not until the 21st of June, 1863 that the final letter of the Vicksburg collection comes through. Burt writes that “The 34th day of the siege has come with but little change in the situation. In accordance with an order from Gen. Grant, our batteries all along the lines opened on the enemy's works yesterday morning at four o'clock, and continued to pour in the shot and shell into rebel camps and the city until 10 o'clock A.M. It must have made it terribly hot for them. Seventy shells were seen to burst in one of their forts” (Burt). Thirty four days have gone by and the siege is no closer than when it began, the slow pace of the battle contradicts the fast pace of the lined soldiers exchanging fire with one another described in many Civil War battles. These four letters detail the great length of time the battle of Vicksburg accumulated. Burt gives detail into the bombarding if enemy encampments with artillery fire, the short periods of intense fighting only lasting roughly two hours in the morning and evening, as well as the very little progress that is made in taking Vicksburg over the extended period of time the letters pertain to. This extended period of gainless fighting showing that not all battles during the Civil War were fought with soldiers lined up shooting at one another in open field.
Burt begins his Civil War letters on January 12th, 1862, prior to the battle of Vicksburg, where he addresses the initial formation of the 76th regiment. By June 3rd, 1862 Burt and his regiment have traveled across Tennessee and have endured the hardships of the wild. Burt conveys he and his companies joy for nearing Memphis Tennessee after two months of travel. “Your humble correspondent resumes the pen again to inform you of another movement of the Seventy-Sixth, and this time we have pitched our tents, or what is left of them, in the Shelby county Fairgrounds, about a mile west of the conquered city of Memphis. We feel like "hollering," for we have got out of the woods at last. Two months' sojourn in such a wilderness country as lies between Shiloh and Corinth was enough to make us have a strong desire to see a civilized country again (Burt). The overwhelming sense of being trapped in nature, or as Burt describes it, “a wilderness country”, is but one hardship soldiers of the Civil War faced everyday traveling from one battleground to the next with little reprieve. For soldiers during travel “despite such diversions, much time was still left for exposure to the noncombatant foes of poor shelter, unhealthy food, and a lack of hygiene, resulting in waves of sickness and disease” (Helm). These deprivations of necessary items needed to survive often led to the demoralization of soldiers during the war.
Included in the hardships of traveling long distances from battleground to battleground there is the constant threat of another conflict between armies occurring. Burt outlines the violent aspects of many days for soldiers in the Civil War throughout his letters, most notably during the battle of Fort Donelson, where Burt recalls the altercation between Union regiments and Confederate rebels in his letters. “They immediately opened fire on the rebels, while our regiment was ordered to reserve its fire. The rebels, a Mississippi and a Texas regiment, with a battery, returned the fire. They over shot us mostly, but we had 15 or 20 men wounded, and our boys could be restrained no longer, and began to load and fire as fast as they could, delivering their fire over the heads of the Nebraska regiment” (Burt). Despite at the beginning of the war the Union forces outnumbered the Confederates overall army size roughly two to one, the Union with over 2.1 million soldiers and the Confederacy with under 1.1 million soldiers, the Confederates engaged Burts regiment in a skirmish outside Fort Donelson (Civil War Trust). The constant physical demand and emotional drain of battle was a common occurrence for Civil War soldiers and Burts letters provide an invaluable account of these struggles. Along with these struggles Burt’s letters show how soldiers coped with these hardships by the joy of the little things taking into consideration many other soldiers were not fortunate enough to have access to them. In “Civil War Letters From The 76th Ohio Infantry”, Burts describes his regiment as, “...getting along very comfortably here; we have Sibley tents with Stoves in them. About sixteen or seventeen men lodge in each tent, lying with their feet toward the stove. Rations first-class ” (Burt). Burt and his regiment, despite the hardships of war find comfort in the little things in life, a warm bed, food and drink, and shelter to eat and sleep under. This insight into the comfort simple things such as food, water, shelter, and warmth provided shows just how much soldiers during the Civil War had lost in the sense of everyday necessities.
As this introduction has shown, “Captain Richard W. Burt Civil War Letters From The 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry” belongs in the American Literature canon because it contains several first hand experiences with the Civil War battle for Vicksburg. Not only do these primary experiences in themselves display qualities of importance to the canon in but they show us how the soldiers engaged in battlefield conflict during their entanglement within the American Civil War in methods other than the iconic lining of soldiers in a field. The letters shows us how difficult it was to navigate through the trials and tribulations of the Civil War battles and shows us how those caught in the war survived in the world around them albeit even if only for short time. Within these letters readers get a view of the reality of the Civil War from R.W and a true sense of the war presented through the eyes of R.W. Burt. His experiences are invaluable and his gift to the canon of American Literature of his recordings of his experiences demonstrate how these texts are ones that should be studied further as they are not only able to impart the reader with the idea of multiple styles of warfare during the Civil War, but also allows us to see the outcome of the sacrifices soldiers such as Burt had made to the Civil War. Perhaps most important to the American Literature canon are how, without these letters, we would not have been able to make interpretations of the war in the ways possible as we do with the letters. Burt, with or without realizing it, created a collection of letters that are worth studying ad including in the American Literature canon because he saw the Civil War differently than most other soldiers and he helped to create an understanding of the true reality of many battles during the war. As America will later involve itself in many other wars, although not much in the way of internally as the Civil War, the remnants of the war will remain through accounts such as Burst and he will always be remembered as one of the brave men who volunteered to risk his life to pave the way forward for American greatness.
Works Cited
Burt, Richard W. "Captain Richard W. Burt Civil War Letters From The 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry." Ohio in the Civil War. Ed. Larry Stevens. 2016.
Burt, Richard W. "Captain Richard W. Burt Civil War Letters From The 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Vicksburg May 17, 1863." Letter. 17 May 1863. MS. Vicksburg, Mississippi
Burt, Richard W. "Captain Richard W. Burt Civil War Letters From The 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Vicksburg May 3, 1863." Letter. 30 May 1863. MS. Vicksburg, Mississippi
Burt, Richard W. "Captain Richard W. Burt Civil War Letters From The 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Vicksburg June 10, 1863." Letter. 10 June 1863. MS. Vicksburg, Mississippi
Burt, Richard W. "Captain Richard W. Burt Civil War Letters From The 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Vicksburg June 21, 1863." Letter. 21 June 1863. MS. Vicksburg, Mississippi
"Civil War Facts." Civil War Trust, 2014. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
Helm, Gary. "Life of the Civil War soldier in Camp." Civil War Trust, 2014. Web. 31 Oct. 2016.
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