Is It Hot Enough For You?

Northeastern Oklahoma is experiencing a heat wave, and I decided to look up some quotes from Civil War soldiers in the trans-Mississippi to see what they had to say about summer weather. My unscientific and admittedly rather brief survey of primary accounts led to a surprising conclusion; Union soldiers seemed more apt to comment in detail about the weather than their Confederate opponents. All of the following quotations are from the Union perspective, but hopefully I’ll locate some lively quotations about summertime weather from the Confederate point of view. Another conclusion… summer weather was just as dreadful in the 1860s as it is now, however, we have a great advantage…air conditioning.


Franc B. Wilkie, Springfield, Missouri:

From a dispatch dated August 2, 1861:
“The weather was hot—slightly. I rather enjoy respectable hot weather, such for instance as will cook an egg hard in two minutes, or roast a joint equal to a Dutch oven; but the weather of that day was a little too much for even my ardent constitution. There were men with us who had toasted their chins beneath the vertical rays of a tropical sun; there were others who went through the fiery rays of Mexico’s sun during the war, but all confessed that they never had known anything comparable to that. I won’t undertake to say how many degrees hot it was, as we had no thermometer, but will venture the guess that it was anywhere between 1,100 and 2,000 ‘in the shade.’ Men dropped in the ranks as if smitten by lightning; under every tree and beneath every bush they staggered and fell in groups of twos and dozens.”

Banasik, Michael E., ed., Missouri In 1861: The Civil War Letters of Franc B. Wilkie, Newspaper Correspondent, Unwritten Chapters of the Civil War West of the River, Volume IV, (Iowa City: Camp Pope Bookshop, 2001), 131-132.

William P. Black, Springfield, Missouri:

“Springfield, Mo. July 10^th 1862….What exceedingly hot weather we have been having in these weeks past. No rain this month till to-night, when the windows of heaven seemed open to us to pour out a bounteous blessing. Already we feel the cooled & refreshed vigor of the air, & we all rejoice. The ground had become parched, vegetation of all kinds was withering up, gardens were blighting, & roads were a bed of dust. But now is a day of better things. As is nearly always the case at the breaking up of such a hot spell of weather, however, we had quite a gust of wind & a thunder-shower—The clapps were at times very sharp & close but now they have retired to the distance & seem as if some one had retired to heaven’s growlery & were doing his best to maintain the expectation of the place. And still the rain comes down steadily & joyously, giving life & health.”

Banasik, Michael E., ed., Duty, Honor and Country: The Civil War Experiences of Captain William P. Black, Thirty-Seventh Illinois Infantry, Unwritten Chapters of the Civil War West of the River, Volume VI, (Iowa City: Camp Pope Bookshop, 2006), 111-112.


August Scherneckau, Fort Davidson, Missouri:

“Tuesday, June 16 [1863]—Very warm. We had drill as usual in the morning and afternoon, today under our new commander, who seems to be more concerned about us than any one of our own officers. Even though the exercise is not very strenuous, it is sufficient to bring out the sweat. Our campground is without shade, and the sun burns on our tents without mercy; therefore, it is unbearably hot inside. To remedy this misfortune, we have built various huts of leafy branches in which we pass the hot daytime hours. They are somewhat more airy and shady.”

Potter, James E. and Edith Robbins, eds., Marching With The First Nebraska: A Civil War Diary, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007), 173.

Charles O. Musser, Helena, Arkansas:

“Helena, Arkansas July the 9^th, 63….The weather is almost too hot for a white man to live here. i never felt Such hot Sun before. we lay in our tents almost panting for breath. it [is] awful Sultry. I will never complain of the hot sun in Iowa again if i get there.”

Popchock, Barry, ed., Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters Of Charles O. Musser, 29^th Iowa, (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995), 67-68.

“An officer with the Native Battalion, stationed at Fort Yuma [California] in August 1865, wrote home: ‘For heaven’s sake, never come out this way if you can help it. You will surely melt. The thermometer is 112 in the shade every day, with no wind. Scorpions thick as molasses and flies still more. When we want to drink cool water we have to boil it and drink it immediately or else it gets hotter.’”

Masich, Andrew E., The Civil War in Arizona: The Story Of The California Volunteers, 1861-1865, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), 105-106.

Union Soldiers and the Christmas Season

Have you ever wondered what the Christmas season was like for Civil War soldiers? I perused my bookshelves and located some quotes about the day from the perspective of Union soldiers posted in various parts of the trans-Mississippi.

August Scherneckau, near Van Buren, Missouri:
“Wednesday, December 24 [1862]—….Christmas Eve, surrounded by the loveliest evergreen trees, provided many opportunities to obtain a Christmas tree, but for whom? And with whom? I felt lonesome in the middle of thousands of comrades, almost had some sort of homesickness. It was, of course, the first Christmas Eve I had to spend without having some friends or relatives around who like myself—and we North Germans in general—were accustomed to observing this evening. The pine branches that we brought into camp tonight reminded me very vividly of our homeland….

Thursday, December 25—Christmas Day. The most miserable I have ever spent….We had to clean the whole camp, each company its tent alley and also around the tents of its officers. All bushes had to be cut down, the leaves swept away and burned. The rocks, with which the ground is covered, had to be thrown onto piles, etc. I was busy with this work when I was ordered to report to the quartermaster. There I received the assignment, with about twenty more men, to chop wood for burning charcoal….This pleasant work kept us going until evening….”

From James E. Potter and Edith Robbins, eds., Marching With The First Nebraska: A Civil War Diary (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007), 50-51.

Robert T. McMahan, Rhea’s Mills, Arkansas:
“December 25 1862:
Nothing unusual in camp today save the extra chicken fixens etc. for Christmas. Heard that our Reg. camped in Leavenworth the evening of the 6^th on their way to Ohio. Arrived in Leavenworth from Ft. Scott in mule wagons and on foot. Horses played out and turned over at Ft. Scott.”

From Michael E. Banasik, ed., Reluctant Cannoneer: The Diary of Robert T. McMahan of the Twenty-fifth Independent Ohio Light Artillery (Iowa City: Camp Pope Bookshop, 2000), 94.

Henry O. Gusley, Galveston, Texas:
“December 26, 1862
Christmas is over—gone—past; nor was it in any respect dissimilar to other days. Even the quiet of Sunday was not ours; and the same ration which a common day would have brought, we thankfully received. Well, its novelty may after all be of some benefit; and at some future Christmas, if we are spared to spend another in civil life, the remembrance of this and the last one may add a greater zest to the roast fowl, pies, puddings and bonbons in which we may then be indulging. We hope so….”

From Edward T. Cotham, Jr., ed., The Southern Journey of a Civil War Marine: The Illustrated Note-Book of Henry O. Gusley (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006), 126.

Sergeant George Hand, Fort McRae, New Mexico:
“Dec. 25. [1863] Christmas passed off very dull, but towards night whiskey was found where soldiers always find it, and Co. ‘G’ was nearly all drunk and noisy until morning, when a cold snowstorm dr0ve them all to bed.”

From Neil B. Carmony, ed., The Civil War in Apacheland: Sergeant George Hand’s Diary: California, Arizona, West Texas, New Mexico, 1861-1864 (Silver City, NM: High-Lonesome Books, 1996), 151.

An Excellent First Hand Account

Recently I read Marching With The First Nebraska: A Civil War Diary co-edited by James E. Potter and Edith Robbins and published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2007. It’s a shame that this book does not seem to have been widely reviewed because it is a gem. The book provides an edited (and translated) version of a diary written by August Scherneckau, a German immigrant who migrated to the Nebraska Territory in 1858. Scherneckau enlisted in the fall of 1862, and served until mustering out in October 1865. His diary (plus a few letters) does not feature any “battle” accounts, but what it does have is a wealth of Scherneckau's well-written entries about the countryside, guard duty, civilians, behavior (mostly bad) by his fellow soldiers, foraging, scouting, and skirmishing. St. Louis, southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas were the primary venues of Scherneckau’s war with a finale in the Nebraska Territory. This well-edited book is for readers who are ready for something a bit different; this is not a guns and bugles kind of book but a gritty look at soldiering mostly behind the lines.