Duane's Manual for Engineer Troops
As an engineer regiment, the officers and men drilled from the Manual for Engineer Troops written by Captain J. C. Duane, U.S. Engineers. It was the uniform manual for pontoon drill, sapping, mining, entrenchments, etc. Company returns and journal entries explicitly state that the men of the 97th U.S. Colored Infantry drilled using this manual. It includes detailed instructions on how to build sand bags, entrenchment tapes, gabions, mines, etc. The manual begins with lengthy and detailed descriptions of pontoon bridge uses and deployment as well as a good assortment of drawings.
U.S. Infantry Tactics
The authorized book for the instruction, exercise, and maneuver of U.S. Infantry during the Civil War. Written in 1861 at the direction of the War Department and copiously illustrated, this was the book used to train, lead, and maneuver U.S. Infantry units on Civil War battlefields. It contains the school of the soldier, the company, and battalion or fielded regiment, along with all-important instructions for skirmishers. Over 15 pages of field music, the articles of war in use at the time, and a dictionary of Civil War military terminology completes this extensive work. An 1862 and 1863 editions were also published. When the U.S. Colored Troops were established in 1863, an additional edition was printed exclusively for the men of those regiments. The tactics and maneuvers are identical, as are the school of the soldier, etc.
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DRILL: Through continuous practice every soldier was well versed on things such as facings, marching, company drill, musket drill, loading, stacking arms, inspection arms, etc. The videos available here provide instruction in those basics and should be practiced often enough so that, as reenactors, we show up to events in top form. Each Saturday morning at events, after breakfast and roll call, there will be a quick but mandatory infantry drill so that we do not look sloppy.
Pontoon Bridges
The First Regiment Engineers initially was given an Indian Rubber Pontoon bridge during the Siege of Port Hudson in the late spring of 1863. That pontoon bridge remained with the 95th USCT while the 97th USCT received a wooden bateu pontoon bridge train. Every company in the 97th USCT practiced pontoon drill. Capt. John J. Smith (Co. B, 97th USCT) would be on detached service in charge of all pontoon bridges and trains in the Engineer Department in New Orleans. His fellow officers of Company B would later become the officers of the 1st Company Pontoniers during the Mobile Campaign.
Pontoon Bridges are mobile bridges that can be utilized as bridges, wharfs, and rafts. The 3rd Regiment Engineers, Corps d'Afrique/97th USCT, as an engineer regiment, was in charge of the pontoon bridge. Company returns, journals, and official correspondence confirms that the regiment participated in pontoon drill often and laid pontoon bridge crossings and wharfs. The bridge material was carried in multiple pieces on wagons that made up a long train stretching out a long distance. These pontoon trains could be as long as 34 Boat wagons, 22 Chess wagons, 4 Tool and cordage wagons, and 2 forge/shoe wagons which were pulled by about 400 horses and mules. Official records indicate that the pontoon bridge train with the 97th USCT consisted of 28 wagons. Six different parties of men had specific tasks in order to lay and take up the bridges with great speed and efficiency which was practiced often during pontoon drill. These included, abutment/approach, boat, balk, lash, chess, and side rail crews. As each crew completed its task, the next crew would start to work in its designated task. Each synchronized to seamlessly to build the pontoon bridge with rapid deployment speed. When completed, the bridge was 13 feet wide which was wide enough for infantrymen to crossed at a walk (route step), four men abreast, and teams of horses pulling army wagons and artillery. Once the army on the march crossed the pontoon bridge, it was quickly taken up, loaded onto wagons, and taken forward to the next crossing. There were three types of pontoon bridges used; the India rubber, wooden bateau, and the cotton-canvas. The first successful type of pontoon experimented with was made of India-rubber. The pontoons were rubber bags shaped like a torpedo. They were inflated and tied together in twos. These pairs of floats were placed and secured side by side across the water and the bridge deck was laid on top of the rubber floats. The India rubber pontoon bridge used by the First Regiment Engineers was transferred to them by the 42nd Mass. Vol Inf. at the Siege of Port Hudson. That bridge remained with the 1st Regt Engineers, Corps d'Afrique/95th USCT through their station on the Texas coast in 1864. The wood pontoons followed the French style. They were 31 feet long with a flat bottom and squared ends. These floats were very strong and held up well to the rigors of war. The problem with this type of pontoon is that it was very heavy and hard to transport. It took twenty men to unload each boat. In addition, it was hard to repair when damaged. These heavy wood pontoon boats were used most often in semi-permanent applications or in places where the load to be carried over them and the traffic upon them was heavier than normal. When a long distance was to be crossed the wood floats were always used. It is likely that this is the pontoon bridge type used by the 3rd Regt Engineers/97th USCT during the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864. It seems likely that it is also the type used by Capt. John J. Smith's 1st Company Pontoniers during the Mobile Campaign as it referenced as a "wooden bateau bridge". In the more common applications the lighter and easier to work with cotton-canvas float was preferred. The cotton-canvas covered pontoons required more maintenance but were light weight and easier to work with and transport. This type of pontoon soon became the standard and replaced the wood type in most applications. The common cotton-canvas float was 26-foot long, 5-foot 6-inch wide, 2-foot 4-inches deep. There was also a smaller 21-foot long size with the same width and depth as the 26-foot type. Captain Chamberlain, Company E, described in his journal entries on several dates in 1864 where bridge work was done by the regiment: March 26; "...built bridges rebels had burned..." April 23; "After Union forces attacked the Rebel flanks and after General Smith's victory in the rear, Co. E moved forward to the Cane & laid the bridge." April 24; "We worked all night crossing the trains of the army. The last of Smith's army crossed the bridge at 2 O'clock and we took up the pontoon bridge and loaded it in just 25 minutes." May 15: "We cut a road 3 miles through the woods to Choctaw Bayou and laid the Pontoon bridge. The army commenced crossing at 10 A.M. Sharp fighting in the rear all day. I was left behind with my company to take charge of the bridge and take it up or burn it according to circumstances. The army finished crossing at midnight and we took up the bridge in just 15 minutes and moved forward without having a shot fired. Marched 8 miles through the woods in Egyptian darkness and overtook the Regt. at daylight the next morning." May 19 & 20; "The army is crossing the Atchafalaya on a bridge of Transports... Expect to take up the bridge some time tonight... The remainder of the army commenced crossing the Pontoon bridge at midnight and were all across at 3 1/2 O'clock the morning of the 4th day. Took up the bridge immediately. The Enemy didn't trouble us. Moved forward and reached Simmesport at sunrise." Records detail the different types of pontoon bridges were used in the Department of the Gulf, which regiments had them, and how many feet of bridge each regiment had at their disposal. "SIMSPORT, May 19, 1864. Maj. C. T. CHRISTENSEN, Asst. Adjt. Gen., Division of West Mississippi: MAJOR: In compliance with letter from headquarters Division of West Mississippi to Major-General Banks, of 18th instant, referred to me, I have the honor to submit the following report: The troops available for engineer operations in this department are one company of pontoniers (white) and five regiments (colored). The pontonier company, Capt. J. J. Smith, has been enlisted about two months. It has its own train, with tools and wagons and 180 feet of bateau bridge complete. It is under the orders of the chief engineer of the department. It is now with the army in the field. The five regiments are the Ninety-fifth, Ninety-sixth, Ninety-seventh, Ninety-eighth, and Ninety-ninth U.S. Infantry (colored). They have habitually been under the orders of the chief engineer of the department, except when temporarily assigned by the major-general commanding to some general in the field. Each has its own regimental train only, and when put in the field is furnished also with intrenching and some mechanics' tools. These regiments are now disposed as follows: The Ninety-fifth constructing and repairing field-works at and near Brownsville, Tex., on plans furnished by its own officers. It is now under the orders of the chief engineer. The Ninety-sixth is similarly employed at and near Pass Cavallo. I understand this part of Texas has been evacuated, and infer, without knowledge, that this regiment is now awaiting orders near New Orleans, in which case I shall recommend that it be sent to Port Hudson. The Ninety-seventh and Ninety-ninth U.S. Infantry (colored) constitute the Engineer Brigade in the field, under command of Col. G. D. Robinson, of the Ninety-seventh. They have 28 wagons and 270 spades, 245 picks, 790 shovels, and 425 axes and 4 chests carpenter tools. I inclose the last orders received concerning them (Field Orders, Nos. 4 and 30), by which they appear to be under command of Colonel Bailey, chief engineer Nineteenth Army Corps. The Ninety-eighth U.S. Infantry is constructing field-works at Berwick City, on plans furnished by the chief engineer, under whose orders it is. After this work is completed, it is intended to send the regiment to Port Hudson to finish the work there. In New Orleans is a new canvas advance-guard boat train, about 600 feet long, with its wagons and equipage complete. With the Ninety-fifth U. S. Infantry (colored), at Brownsville, is about 80 feet of an old India-rubber pontoon bridge, so worn as to be nearly useless, and quite unfit to be sent into the field. Other remains of the same bridge are in New Orleans. With the Ninety-sixth U.S. Infantry (colored), at Pass Cavallo, are 200 feet, and with the Ninety-eighth U.S. Infantry (colored), at Berwick City, are 100 feet of the same wooden bateau bridge, of which the 180 feet with Captain Smith's pontoniers have been already mentioned. These are all the bridge trains in the department. A captain and acting assistant quartermaster assigned to the engineer department procures from the chief quartermaster of the department such tools and materials as he can, and keeps them on hand in New Orleans, or expends them on the field-works, and attends to their transportation. Others are paid for by myself, with funds furnished me by the U.S. Treasurer at Washington, on my estimates and requisitions, approved by the Chief Engineer of the U.S. Army at Washington Such funds can only be expended for the works for which they are remitted, and are not available for the wants and uses of an army in the field. The colored troops have had some experience in bridge building and construction of earth-works, but are ignorant of all sapping and mining, and could only be useful as laborers in the operations of a siege with their present instruction. Respectfully submitted. JOHN C. PALFREY, Captain of Engineers, U.S. Army." Chamberlain references pontoon boat drill while near Now Orleans a few months later. August 13, 1864; "Drilled in rowing with the Ponton (sic) Boats in the A.M. Went down the Bayou to lake Ponchartrin and back again very hot & Sultry in the A.M." By February 18, 1865, as Canby's forces were engaged in the Mobile Campaign Capt. Chamberlain noted that they got orders from General Granger to build a pontoon bridge at Fort Morgan, Alabama. They got ten boats from there and enough equipage to make two hundred feet of bridge. They then spent the next few days practicing unloading the pontoon bridge, laying sections of it, and taking it up. By the second week in March, Captain John J. Smith (formerly 97th USCT) arrived with his company of pontoniers. March 18; "Capt. Smith's company made the bridge into rafts of four boats each. The rafts were towed up the Fish River, some twenty-five miles up the bay." Sources: https://mercersquare.wordpress.com/2019/06/26/engineers-on-the-rappahannock-part-3-how-to-build-a-pontoon-bridge/ http://www.wadehamptoncamp.org/pontoon.html Bisbee, John (Editor), Captaining the Corps d'Afrique: The Civil War Diaries and Letters of John Newton Chamberlin (2016) |
From Duane's Manual for Engineer Troops, 1864 Edition, Pages 18 and 31:
"The Modified French Bridge Equipage" (Wooden Pontoon Bridge Train) 34 Ponton Wagons 22 Chess Wagons 4 Trestle Wagons 4 Abutment Wagons 4 Tool Wagons 2 Forge Wagons ___________________ 70 Wagons Total x 6 Horses per wagon = 420 Horses. It takes 20 men to unload each pontoon boat. It takes 102 Men to build this type of pontoon bridge ------------- "The Advance-Guard Bridge Equipage" (Canvas Pontoon Bridge Train, Russian Pattern) 29 Pontoon Wagons 15 Chess Wagons 1 Abutment Wagon 2 Anchor and Cordage Wagons 1 Carpenter Tools Wagon ____________________ 47 Wagons x 6 Horses per wagon = 282 Horses. 83 Men are required to build this type of pontoon bridge. ___________________ "The Reserve Bridge Train" 10 Pontoon Carriages 4 Chess Carriages 1 Tool Wagon 1 Forge Wagon 8 Pontoon Wagons _____________________ 34 Wagons x 6 Horses per wagon = 204 Horses. _____________________ According to the Manual for Engineer Troops, "Each pontoon carriage is drawn by 8 mules or 6 horses: each tool wagon and forge, by 6 mules or 4 horses. The load of the pontoon wagon is 2,900 pounds; of the trestle wagon, 2,365 pounds; of the chess wagon, 2, 280 pounds; of the tool wagon, 2,100 pounds; and of the forge, 1,166 pounds." Several additional wagons were required for forage for the horses when the army was in the field. The Manual for Engineer Troops gives the number of balks, chess, abutment sills, anchors, boat-hooks, axes, hatchets, lashings, and other items kept in the wagons as well as their total weight. Illustrated plates and descriptions are given to the placement of each item in the wagons. "The tool wagon (Plate X) is loaded by hanging the cross cut saws on the middle partition, teeth up; placing the four boxes of carpenters' tools in the left rear compartment, with the handsaws between them and the sides of the wagon; placing the picks in the left middle compartment, with the hatches on top; placing the pick handles, axes, and some short shovels in the left front compartment, and placing the long shovels, etc., in the right compartment." The division of labor, tasks of teams and individuals, and commands are also specified. "The captain superintends the whole operation. One lieutenant has charge of the anchor detachments, another the head of the bridge. The pontoniers in each detachment are numbered from right to left, the front and rear rank men of each file having the same number. The captain commands: CONSTRUCT THE BRIDGE!" "At this command the first section, abutment, excavates a trench one foot deep to receive the abutment sill. In placing the sill great care should be taken that it is horizontal, and perpendicular to the axis proposed for the bridge. The sill is firmly secured in its place by pickets driven in front and rear, about eight inches from each extremity. As soon as the balks are in place, a chess is arranged against their ends , its upper edge on a level with the surface of the chess forming the roadway. It is secured by two pickets, and by packing earth in rear of it." Further instructions are provided for each additional step and for each section of men detailed to it. Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=T3sDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false |
Earthworks - Fortifications
The First Louisiana Engineers would help build the earthworks at Berwick City and the Siege of Port Hudson. Later the 95th USCT would construct earthworks at Brownsville, Brazos Santiago, and Pass Cavallo, Texas. The 97th USCT would construct earthworks at Gran Ecore and Morganza, Louisiana, fortifications at Fort Gaines, Alabama, and Barrancas, Florida. After the capture of Spanish Fort, Fort Blakeley, and the defenses of Mobile, Alabama, the 97th USCT also worked on those fortifications.
In its simplest form, nothing protects a Civil War soldier more than a pile of dirt thrown up in front of him. No tools in warfare have been more effective than shovels, picks and axes. Utilized for centuries before and after the nineteenth century, and most recognizable in the First World War, earthworks and trench warfare dominated the battlefields of the American Civil War. Although terrain and the availability of materials played an important role in the construction and design of Civil War earthworks, there were some basic elements. Earthworks are long cuts (trenches) dug out of the earth with the dirt piled up into a mound in front (parapet), facing the enemy. They enabled a defending army to fight with advantage because it sheltered them from enemy fire, posed an obstacle to the enemy's approach, and provided the means for defenders to effectively use their weapons. The name applied to all fieldworks. Breastworks were fortifications made of piled material (logs, fence rails, stones) usually built up to breast height. Gabions were cylindrical basket made from woven sticks made in advance for quick use in building or repairing a parapet. Gabions were frequently filled with earth once placed into a fortification. Sand bags were also used to build parapets when the earthwork was constructed on sandy beaches. Headlogs and fascines (bundles of sticks) were wooden beams placed on top of the parapet with a small amount of space underneath, providing cover for marksmen and allowing defending infantry to fire without exposing themselves. Revetment was the side of the parapet that faced inside the defender's line. Mostly perpendicular but at a slight angle, material was placed upon it for support to prevent erosion. These were typically made of logs, planks, gabions, or sandbags. Traverses were small ramparts perpendicular to the parapet built to protect against flanking fire and prevent a successful attacker from expanding any breach. In front of the earthworks were further obstacles. Palisades were a line of long pointed logs angled to ward the attacker to stop or slow their forward movement. Abatis was a line of felled trees with their branches sharpened, tangled together, and facing toward the enemy. It strengthened fortifications by preventing surprise and delaying an attacking enemy once within the defenders' range. Sometimes telegraph wire would be strung out in front to trip the attackers in an effort to slow their advance. In the rear and between earthworks were a series of additional entrenchments designed for the use of the movement to and from placement on the defending line. These were known as communication trenches. When additional dirt was piled higher facing the enemy to give more protection, they were referred to as covered ways because the troops in them were under cover from sight and enemy fire. Rifle pits were a set of small fortifications in advance of the main line that contained a short ditch with a low earthen wall in front. These were utilized as skirmishing points. |
Siege Operations
The First Louisiana Engineers were sent immediately into action in the siege lines at Port Hudson in May 1863. After being split in two, officers of the 97th USCT would also participate in the sieges of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley in the spring of 1865. The elements of a siege include a series of parallel earthworks dug closer and closer to the enemy's earthworks to breach the enemy's line by explosion or the massed rush of troops over the top. It was a lengthy process and most siege operations included multiple attempts to breach the enemy's line with massed assaults.
Parallels were a series of parapets and trenches connected by saps and constructed in sequence toward the enemy. The sap was an approach trench built to connect trenches with each other and to advance forward. They were built in a zig-zag to prevent enfiladed fire. When the parallels became close enough, mining could commence. Underground tunnels were constructed to reach underneath the enemy's earthworks and a gunpowder charge placed to explode the enemy's works creating a breach. |
Corduroyed Roads
Taking simple, lightly travelled, dirt civilian use roads and improving them so that thousand of men, horses, wagons, and artillery of an army on the move can pass effectively without being delayed by bottle-necking, rough or swampy terrain, or mud from rains.
Removing Obstructions
One of the very first things the First Louisiana Engineers was asked to do was remove obstructions from the Bayou Teche in 1863. More to be added later...
Bailey's Dam
One of the most incredible engineering feats of the American Civil War was the construction of Bailey's Dam which saved the U.S. Navy's Mississippi River Squadron which was trapped on the Red River as General Bank's army fell back after the Battle of Mansfield during the Red River Campaign, April 25-May 21, 1864.
Accompanying General Banks' Army on the Red River Campaign were 10 gunboats and 20 transports of Admiral Porter's Mississippi River Squadron which, by April 28, became stranded above Alexandria when the water level of the Red River became too low to navigate over the rapids. Only 3 feet and 4 inches deep, the flotilla needed at least 7 feet even when the ships had been stripped of cannon and other materials to lighten their load and raise their draft.
To rescue the trapped vessels, the Engineer Brigade developed a plan to build a dam in an effort to raise the water level behind it, then open the dam so that the vessels could float over the rocky falls at Alexandria. Men of the 97th USCT (Col. George D. Robinson) and 99th USCT (Lt. Col. Uri B. Pearsall) made up the Engineer Brigade commanded by Col. Robinson under the direction of the Chief Engineer of the XIX Corps, Lieut. Col. Joseph Bailey. Although Bailey proposed one dam, Pearsall proposed a second upper dam as well. Bailey approved only one dam to be built below the rapids.
Work started immediately on April 30 "with all possible vigor." Col. Robinson first sent his men into Alexandria where they removed barricades, cut timber, and constructed a six gun battery along the Bayou Rapids Road should the enemy reach them before the work was complete.
The lower dam was was constructed with assistance from the 29th Maine Volunteer Infantry who worked on the tree dam on the east bank. A pontoon bridge was thrown across the Red River for the men working on the opposite bank. The lower rapids dam consisted of a tree dam on the east bank, a series of crib boxes on the west bank, and a section in the middle made of four sunken coal barges anchored to the dams.
The lower dam broke ahead of schedule. Water pressure pushed the sunken barges aside and the vessels all began to move forward in the rush of flowing water. Only one vessel, the gunboat Lexington passed safely through. Although initial success was limited, the dam had proved that the project could save the remaining vessels. The necessity for a second dam became clear. Working non-stop in waist high water in a swift current above the rapids, the men of the 97th and 99th USCTs built two-legged trestles with one-half inch iron bolts and drove them into the river bottom. Planks were placed horizontally on the trestles and a dam was formed. By May 8th the water level had risen five and a half feet.
The remaining vessels awaited the completion of the upper dam. A gap was created in the upper dam for the vessels to pass through, and on May 12th the largest of them, the Mound City, ran the gap to safety. By May 13th, the remaining ships had passed safely over the rapids and on to the Mississippi River.
Accompanying General Banks' Army on the Red River Campaign were 10 gunboats and 20 transports of Admiral Porter's Mississippi River Squadron which, by April 28, became stranded above Alexandria when the water level of the Red River became too low to navigate over the rapids. Only 3 feet and 4 inches deep, the flotilla needed at least 7 feet even when the ships had been stripped of cannon and other materials to lighten their load and raise their draft.
To rescue the trapped vessels, the Engineer Brigade developed a plan to build a dam in an effort to raise the water level behind it, then open the dam so that the vessels could float over the rocky falls at Alexandria. Men of the 97th USCT (Col. George D. Robinson) and 99th USCT (Lt. Col. Uri B. Pearsall) made up the Engineer Brigade commanded by Col. Robinson under the direction of the Chief Engineer of the XIX Corps, Lieut. Col. Joseph Bailey. Although Bailey proposed one dam, Pearsall proposed a second upper dam as well. Bailey approved only one dam to be built below the rapids.
Work started immediately on April 30 "with all possible vigor." Col. Robinson first sent his men into Alexandria where they removed barricades, cut timber, and constructed a six gun battery along the Bayou Rapids Road should the enemy reach them before the work was complete.
The lower dam was was constructed with assistance from the 29th Maine Volunteer Infantry who worked on the tree dam on the east bank. A pontoon bridge was thrown across the Red River for the men working on the opposite bank. The lower rapids dam consisted of a tree dam on the east bank, a series of crib boxes on the west bank, and a section in the middle made of four sunken coal barges anchored to the dams.
The lower dam broke ahead of schedule. Water pressure pushed the sunken barges aside and the vessels all began to move forward in the rush of flowing water. Only one vessel, the gunboat Lexington passed safely through. Although initial success was limited, the dam had proved that the project could save the remaining vessels. The necessity for a second dam became clear. Working non-stop in waist high water in a swift current above the rapids, the men of the 97th and 99th USCTs built two-legged trestles with one-half inch iron bolts and drove them into the river bottom. Planks were placed horizontally on the trestles and a dam was formed. By May 8th the water level had risen five and a half feet.
The remaining vessels awaited the completion of the upper dam. A gap was created in the upper dam for the vessels to pass through, and on May 12th the largest of them, the Mound City, ran the gap to safety. By May 13th, the remaining ships had passed safely over the rapids and on to the Mississippi River.
The vessels of Admiral Porter's Mississippi River Squadron that were rescued by the work performed by the men of the 97th U.S. Colored Infantry were the:
USS Osage, twin turret river monitor USS Neosho, Twin turret river monitor USS Ozark, single-turret river monitor USS Essex, casemate ironclad USS Baron DeKalb, casemate ironclad USS Benton, casemate ironclad USS Carondelet, casemate ironclad USS Cincinnati, casemate ironclad USS Louisville, casemate ironclad USS Mound City, casemate ironclad USS Pittsburg, casemate ironclad USS Lexington, timberclad USS Moose, sternwheel steamer USS Ouachita, sidewheeler steamer USS Nyanza, sidewheeler steamer |