Taunting

[clconboy]

While doing some research on Vicksburg I came across this journal entry of Jared Sanders who was a confederate, with from what I gather from the book I am reading is a soldier with the 26th Louisiana.

July 2, 1863
"...Extremely warm day, Yankees place two loves of bread on a pole in front of our lines to tempt or tantalize hungry eyes"

I was wondering if there is any more instances of the above being done in other places in the war?

quote was from The Defense of Vicksburg: A Louisiana Chronicle by Allen C Richard Jr. and Mary Higginbotham Margaret Richard


Thanks,

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Yes, and the men of both sides are documented as taunting each other in quite a number of ways that I've read. Of course, these accounts are more common when the two sides were in static proximity to each other, such as sieges and siege-like situations, such as when opposing earthworks were close together.

Perhpas the weirdest instance of this type of thing I've read is the first-person accounts from the Eighth New York Heavy Artillery at Cold Harbor, in the aftermath of the June 3, 1864 assault. Hundreds of men of the regiment were pinned down in open fields, some within twenty feet of the Confederate fieldworks. To taunt--I guess--those supine Yanks closest to them, some Rebs threw cornbread at the Yanks. Having made the assault between 4:30 and 5:00 a.m., these bluebellies had to endure an entire day in the sun without cover, being shot at and bombarded by cornbread, until able to withdraw in the darkness--meaning, they had to lie there and take it for about fifteen hours before being able to pull back.

[nrandolph]

Kevin,

Now that would be an interesting scenario to recreate at an event sometime! Who's up for laying out in the open for fifteen hours in the hot Virginia sun and getting pelted with cornbread?

Neil Randolph
1st West Virginia

[Crockett]

At Resaca I laid, wounded, in the hot sun just outside of the Federal lines for quite a time while being pelted with dirt clods.

Does that count?

Joe Mode

[rkg]

For those of you who were at BGR you have to agree you heard some of the BEST taunting you have ever been exposed to. Native did some very top notch taunting there. For those of you who were not there.........just one more great thing you missed at BGR.

Robert Gobtop
S*** A** Platoon.
Ol' Sipley Mess
ONV

[ephraim_zook]

Now that would be an interesting scenario to recreate at an event sometime! Who's up for laying out in the open for fifteen hours in the hot Virginia sun and getting pelted with cornbread?
Neil,

Note to self: Order disposable cornbread for when we do confederate commissary.

Ron Myzie

[clconboy]

wow.....by cornbread. thats unique....

[JimKindred]

Guys,

Let's keep this thread on the topic of original accounts of taunting and not use examples from events. Thank you.

[Enfilade]

"Yesterday a Yankee sharp shooter came out into a road in full view of some of our men, & after crowing several times, called out for any of our men that wanted furloughs to step out; he was scarcely through his boasting, before several men fired, and he fell, to crow no more, whereupon our men called out for any men wishing a discharge to step out; the offers declined on both sides."

"Bright and Gloomy Days, the Civil War Correspondence of Captain Charles Frederick Bahnson, a Moravian Confederate".
Camp near Videers[illegible] 12 miles from
Orange C.H. Sunday morning
November 29th 1863

Submitted by,

Mark Berrier
North State Rifles
http://www.northstaterifles.com

[Kevin O'Beirne]

While not exactly "taunting", I recall a similar story written down by either Col. Rutherford Hayes or Lt. Col. James Comley or Capt. Russell Hastings, all of whom were with the 23rd Ohio Volunteers. In the Union earthworks near Halltown, WVa. (not far from Harper's Ferry) in August 1864, a young soldier of the 23rd Ohio on the picket line climed up on the works and crowed like a rooster repeatedly until being wounded by Confederate picket fire. I have always reckoned that the fellow must've been bored out of his wits to risk his life like that.

[Horace]

There is the famous incident of Confederates posting signs on one bank of the Rappahannock River saying things like "Burnside Stuck In the Mud" and "This Way To Richmond" while the Federals floundered along in hip-deep goo on the other bank during the post-Fredericksburg Mud March.

[Parault]

"I have always reckoned that the fellow must've been bored out of his wits to risk his life like that"



Maybe just deficient in the common sense area.

[Enfilade]

Sometimes you don't have to taunt in person. Sometimes the taunt can be funny as well just by written word. As described by author John Barrett in "The Civil War in North Carolina".

..., native Union "bushwackers" known as "Buffaloes" terrorized the countryside. In gangs of usually a dozen or so men, they infested swamps, emerging at night to visit their former neighbors, especially those who sympathized with the South, and to perpetrate every type of violence and crime. In August 1862, the buffaloes established themselves at Wingfield, the estate of Dr. Richard Dillard, seventeen miles above Edenton on the east bank of the Chowan River. Dr. Dillard was absent with his family in Virginia at the time.... It did not take long for Wingfield to become a rendezvous "of fugitive negroes, lawless white men, traitors and deserters from the Confederate army"....The strengthening of fortifications at Wingfield made it clear to the Confederate authorities that this "buffalo" camp must be destroyed. ....Lietenant Colonel John E. Brown , Forty-Second North Carolina, with a force of three hundred men, partisan and regular, attacked Wingfield at daybreak on the morning of March 23.... Only one of the defenders was said to have died in the fighting. The others escaped by Federal gunboats.... The Buffaloes later returned to their base, only to abandon it permanently in early spring. On April 17, the Forty-first North Carolina appeared before the Wingfield barricades and found the "quarry gone forever". A search of the camp produced a pencilled note that had been stuck onto the side of one of the blockhouses. The words read; "A leetle too late".

Mark Berrier
North State Rifles
http://www.northstaterifles.com

[ContinentalMorganGuard]

From "One of Jackson foot Cavalry" By John H. Worsham 21st Va Co. F
"It was too far for musekt firing, but the men of each side engaged in much abuse of each other."
Janaury 4, 1862 near Bath, Morgan Co. (W) VA

[NY Pvt]

Here was a fun one I came across today from:

Letters of a Family during the War for the Union 1861-1865, vol. 2 p. 626

From Chaplain Henry Hopkins to Eliza Newton Woolsey, September 29, 1864, Camp of the 120th New York:

...They wrote each other notes as "My dear Johnny Reb," "My dear Yank." They had a little dog for a mail carrier, and enclosed the orders of opposing generals, inviting desertions. The Johnnies were coming over to us a dozen or more a day. This afternoon in the hottest firing a rebel jumped up, swung a towel and called out, "Stop firing, and we will!" and in a moment it was as quiet as a New England Sunday. Their officers did not agree to this, and ordered firing to begin; so they shouted, "Get down, Yanks, we are going to open."...

[Haversack]

I will volnteer right now to be pelted with corn bread.Ha ha.This is a very interesting subject.It does seem that the 2 sides would taunt each other though,if you think about it.

[Tom Craig]

Here is an amusing incident from the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry at the battle of Aldie, VA, June 1863.

A squadron of the 1st Mass. was chasing a group of Confederates down the Snickersville Turnpike. The Rebs outpaced the Yanks and got around a corner out of sight. Major Henry Lee Higginson of the 1st Mass then "made faces with his fingers" at the rebs, and they turned around in regimental strength to attack the lone Federal squadron. Higginson for his part was shot, and sabred at least twice, but lived to tell about it.

I have always wondered exactly what they meant by "faces with his fingers" and all I can envision is our modern taunts...anyone know any different?

Take care,
Tom Craig

[Hank Trent]

I have always wondered exactly what they meant by "faces with his fingers" and all I can envision is our modern taunts...anyone know any different?

Here's one possible period description of something that might fit that phrase. It's Mark Twain's 1862 description of the position in which a petrified man was found, intended to be a subtle clue that it was all a hoax.

the right thumb resting against the side of the nose; the left thumb partially supported the chin, the fore-finger pressing the inner corner of the left eye and drawing it partly open; the right eye was closed, and the fingers of the right hand spread apart.

Later, admitting the hoax, Mark Twain made it clear the gesture was meant to be significant, though unfortunately too subtly buried in the article: "nobody but me ever discovered and comprehended the peculiar and suggestive position of the petrified man’s hands.”

That's from http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Petrified_Man/

There's an 1880s illustration on that page, showing the petrified man clearly thumbing his nose at his discoverers. However, his hand position doesn't exactly match Mark Twain's description, and Twain's description is in fact a little closer to "making faces with his fingers," since he uses one finger to pull his eye askew.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[New Jerseyman]

Neil,

Note to self: Order disposable cornbread for when we do confederate commissary.

Ron Myzie

They could fabricate fake cornbread from tennis balls, which is what was used at an event years ago when the Confeds were supposed to be chucking rocks.

[madasabagofcats]

Pickets on the Rappahannock taunting each other before Fredericksburg, from Glory Road by Bruce Catton:

"Oh Yank! How did you like Bull Run?"

"Better bury your dead on South Mountain."

"What do you think of the New York election?"

"What do you think of Ben Butler?"

"Oh the Louisiana Tigers will bring him back to Richmond."

"The Louisiana Tigers? There's none of them left - the last died running."

[Tom Craig]

Hank,

Thanks for the info! That about confirms my thoughts...meaning that I always imagined it must be the sort of gesture little kids use, like when they put their thumb to their nose and wiggle their fingers etc.

On a related note, you have to love Twain for his vivid descriptions and subtle jokes. I think we all could learn a lot about mindset and the nuances of accepted behavior by reading Twain's earlier stuff that was written during "our" period.

Take care,
Tom Craig

[Mike Willey]

Here is one of my favorites, found way back in '92....posted on the "Ohio in the Civil War" website.


The Twenty-seventh Ohio, which must be remembered by everybody who read of the desperate defense of Battery Robinet, at Corinth, has in its ranks some chaps who love fun as well as a fight. When it came into the service, the old belts and plates which had been manufactured in peace times for the Ohio Volunteer Militia were not all disposed of, and the waists of the twenty-seventh were consequently all labelled, O.V.M. Though the U.S. had displaced most of these initials, a few of the old ones are still in use. On the 4th of October a corporal, wearing one of the old belts, was in command of a squad who were bringing in some rebel prisoners. After our men had passed the compliments of the day with their prisoners, and the canteens were duly emptied, one of the rebels inquires--

"Corporal, what the devil does O.V.M. stand for?"
"Oh, my plate you mean?" says the corporal; "that stands for Ohio Visiting Mississippi. We had a few made on purpose for this campaign."
From: The Spirit Of Woodsfield, Ohio. June 3, 1863


Thanks to: Mike Willey. Zanesville, Ohio 1992

Web Publishing Copyright © 1996 Larry Stevens

Mike Willey
late of the 49th Ohio and Coffee-coolers

[BCIDick]

I can think of worse things to be pelted with than cornbread.

In a bad French accent: "Go away or we will taunt you a second time".