From These Honored Dead: Historical Archaeology of the American Civil War

10. The Fall 1863 Bivouac of the 14th Connecticut Infantry: Archaeological Investigations of Troops on Active Campaign

10 TheFall1863Bivouacofthe14thConnecticutInfantry Archaeological Investigations of Troops on Active Campaign Joseph F. Balicki You can have ten descriptions of a battle, or plans of a campaign, sooner than one glimpse at the little un-thought-of details of a soldier’s life. Samuel Wheelock Fiske, “Dunn Browne in the Army” On November 10, 1863, after weeks of marching and fighting, the 14th Connecticut Infantry, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 2nd Corps, was ordered to establish a forward position at Milton’s Mill, near Brandy Station, Virginia (figure 10.1). This camp was a frontline, short-term bivouac, occupied for 16 days by troops on active campaign. As such, the material culture of these soldiers differed from permanent camps, camps of rear echelon troops, and winter quarters. The artifact assemblage found in a frontline camp reflects one activity: warfare. In such situations, ammunition, weapons, sustenance, and a means of carrying these items were essential for increasing one’s chances of survival. Most of their camp equipment and personal items were left with the armies’ wagon trains or in the rear, well removed from the front. Civil War soldiers camped in a variety of situations and created a vast number of archaeologicalsites.Bivouacsarejustonetype.Ingeneralterms, CivilWar campscan beseparatedbylengthofoccupationintopermanentcamps,winterquarters,andbivouacs . Many, but not all, are laid out following prescribed military regulations. There is a growing body of archaeological data on permanent camps and winter quarters (Balicki 2007, 2006a; Reeves 2006). This emphasis is understandable because, in most cases, these site types are well documented and easy to recognize by the presence of surface features and architectural remains. This is not the case with bivouacs, which are short-term occupations where troops may or may not have had time to construct defenses, shelter, and cooking hearths and engage in camp-related activities , such as fatigue and police duty, before they moved on. Figure 10.1. Location of the 14th Connecticut bivouac on an 1863 map (Strobridge and Co. Lithography 1863). Courtesy of the Library of Congress. The Fall 1863 Bivouac of the 14th Connecticut Infantry 161 Archaeological evidence for bivouacs of frontline troops on active campaigns is elusive unless appropriate field methods are used. The methodological issues associated with investigating Civil War sites have been addressed by numerous researchers (Geier, Babits et al. 2011; Balicki 2011; Geier et al. 2006; Corle and Balicki 2006; Balicki2006a;Espenshadeetal.2002;GeierandPotter 2000; Sterling and Slaughter 2000;GeierandWinter1994).Basically,standardarchaeologicalmethodsrelyingon generalized historic contexts and shovel test strategies are not appropriate to identify these sites, resulting in a great many being missed during archaeological surveys (CorleandBalicki2006;Espenshadeetal.2002).The14thConnecticutbivouacwas located and investigated using realistic metal detector methods. Fieldwork included systematic shovel test and metal detector surveys, followed by targeted mechanical stripping and additional metal detection (Balicki et al. 2007). Historic research is just as important as fieldwork. In this case, so was luck. Some ofthefirstfindswereConnecticutuniformbuttons,andaquickInternetsearchfound only four Connecticut regiments in the general area throughout the entire war. Only the 14th Connecticut Regiment was present in 1863. The Supplement to the Official Recordsof the Unionand ConfederateArmies(Hewett1994)contained recordsplacing the 14th at Milton’s Mill, a feature depicted on historic maps and located within 0.5 miles of the site. Finally, one of the war’s most prolific soldier-correspondents, Mr. Dunn Browne (aka Samuel Wheelock Fiske), was a member of the 14th Connecticut (Sears 1998; Fiske 1866). Context and Setting After being defeated at Gettysburg, the Confederate army commanded by Gen. RobertE .LeeslowlymovedsouthandbytheendofJuly1863wasintheCulpeperCounty, Virginia, vicinity (Sutherland 1995: 263). A stalemate had developed between the two opposing forces by August, as each side recovered from the Battle of Gettysburg and military endeavors elsewhere overshadowed events along this front. By the fall of 1863, the Federal and Confederate armies were vying for strategic terrain advantage in the region south of Culpeper Courthouse. The Confederates occupied a line along the south side of the Rapidan River. The main body of the Federal forces occupied a triangular area between the Orange and Alexandria Railroad (O&A), and the RappahannockandRapidanRivers .AseriesofskirmishestookplacebetweenSeptember 13 and October 1, 1863, largely between Stevensburg and Culpeper Courthouse. The end result of these skirmishes was Federal control over the Culpeper Courthouse vicinity (Fernández-Sardina and Griffitts 1998: 20). In an effort to keep the Federals on the defensive and keep them from reinforcing Federal armies elsewhere, the Confederates attacked along the route of the O&A railway. On October 9, 1863, the Confederates advanced across the Rapidan and attempted to turn the...