I’m an 1812 reenactor and I can attest when the heavy arty pieces start firing if you’re close by the concussion actually shifts your innards around. It’s unsettling to say the least
@@jeffgarberding4499 I reenact British in Canada, mostly the Niagara campaign but some stuff around Detroit as well. So I reenact mostly victories. Except the American destruction of fort Erie, fort York, fort George, the entire backpedal from queenston to Burlington heights… lots of victories….
Another reason. Many of the commanders had last served in war fairly recently during the Mexican American war when many of the technological innovations had yet to be widely distributed. This led to a lot of “well this is how I did it 15 years ago when I was marching in the ranks” They believed they understood what the dangers were the rank and file faced as earned by their personal hard experience when in fact they did not
Yeah with the civil war they didn't have to get so damn close to shoot each other. But many generals had their men get really damn close which allowed the defending side to just open fire
I am pretty sure that the Mexican-American war era US army vs the Mexican-American war era US army would have been a useful lesson for the Civil war era US army. They had percussion cap smoothbores (plus a few rifles) and somewhat similar artillery (although half the weight of shot compared to the workhorse 12 pounder). The Mexican Army's equipment, however, was obtained from an obsolete Napoleonic weapons garage sale. It is difficult to learn anything when you have such a firepower advantage that you can take on enemy formations 3x your size or move your artillery to practically point blank range and just start unloading canister.
Actually. There was no real innovation since the " flying artillery" of the army invading Mexico. The War dept. sent Mac Clellan, and 2 older officers to the Crimea to observe the British and the French taking on Russia.
How else would you do it, the shortage of psychics being what it was. Another reason for the close ranks, is Command and Control. With only your voice, bugle and drum calls all of which can't be heard once the artillery has started firing, having your guys close together ensures they will act in unison. No one had any idea how lethal the latest munitions would be. By 1864, most units would advance in "open order", which literally separated the "rank and file" and greatly improved survivability.
@@grumblesa10 this. It's worth noting that the Austrian army fought in close order in 1866 and the French in 1870. Also that the Prussian army that fought against both in open order did suffer from command and control problems as a result, whereby the advantage from having its line infantry in open order was nowhere as large as one might expect it to be (even if definitely worth it).
I would assert that the Halifax explosion during WWII would be louder than the barrage at Gettysburg primarily because almost all of the related munitions at Halifax ignited within a few seconds creating a concussion that dispersed the pressure generated by thousands of tonnes of munitions in that short duration whereas the artillery at Gettysburg was in aggregate likely only igniting a few tons per second of what was certainly a slower-burning propellant than what was available by WWI.
I can't thank you enough for these videos. they get me through my days and bring a smile to my face. So glad to be part of the journey!! Also congrats on 150k (:
Woo! This daily content has gotten me through what has been an otherwise boring summer of work between college semesters. Thanks for creating such an engaging and well rounded community!
"Napoleon was not irreligious in the ordinary sense of the word. He would not admit that there had ever existed a genuine atheist; he condemned Deism as the result of rash speculation. A Christian and a Catholic, he recognized in religion alone the right to govern human societies."
Speaking of lethality, the minie ball was also a BIG hunk of lead at .58 caliber. A typical military rifle round today is around .22 caliber. Powder back then propelled a projectile at a fairly low velocity, hence the large ball in compensation. Now, a smaller round can be used because advances in propellant technology results in a round with much greater velocity. This enables the smaller round to pack greater destructive power, making up for its reduced size in comparison to the rounds used in the Civil War.
Considering how loud artillery barrage were, I guess the movie stereotype of the white bearded and nearly deaf Civil War veteran holding an ear trumpet is probably more accurate then we think.
Love that you’re so into the civil war. It’s always been a major interest of mine as well. I was just wondering , what are your thoughts on Ken burns “civil war”, as far as the accuracy of it and how it was presented, from an expert’s perspective. Just discovering your channel, and very much loving it.
I love his documentary. It's what got me into the Civil War in the first place. It's usually what I recommend to people who are interested in the war but don't know where to start. Welcome to the channel!
Thanks for your additional content to the video. I'm a former HS history teacher and a Civil War nut. Got to visit Gettysburg many years ago. It was July 2. I was in shorts and a tee walking Little Round Top. I was the only living person on that hill. I swear I was not alone. Can't describe or explain it. Definitely felt it. And it was broad daylight. I'd never do that at night after what I felt. Keep em coming, Coach!
Kind of a strange request, but I would love to see his reaction to Iced Earth’s trio of songs (The Devil to Pay, Hold at all Costs, and Highwater Mark) about Gettysburg. It’d be something a little different, I know there are videos compiling them into one song, he could even shorten it to skip over the instrumental bits, lots to talk about. I love the collection of songs and I’d love to hear more about them.
I'm a recently graduated bachelor of history and soon to be first time father so to me, looking at you in that uniform is a vision of my future as I wait to know what my child likes to play
@@VloggingThroughHistory my wife and I have wanted children our whole lives, but she has always been told she couldn't due to birth defects of her own. We were extatic when we found out we were pregnant. Next month is our gender reveal appointment so we're about half way through the pregnancy now
I think death count had much more to do with size of the armies. It's been reported that the average hit rate of a typical soldier during the civil war was about 5%. Thats actually similar to what it was during the revolutionary war and many of the European wars in-between. Even though the Minie is more accurate, firing typically occured over longer distances effectively evening it out with the smooth bores of the revolution. So it becomes purely a numbers game. Faster rate of fire plus armies that in the civil war number 70 to 120K whereas in the revolution maybe 8 to 10K.
A lot of Armchair's more recent episodes are much more polished than the videos you've covered so far, and go far more into depth into topics by what I'd assume would be more research and the like. I highly recommend seeing their videos on the Franco Prussian War or WW1 from the Austrian perspective.
As always, I enjoy you reaction video. The Armchair Historian makes excellent videos. I agree that EmperorTigerstar makes some of the best maps. The great historian Shelby Foote said in his interview for Ken Burns Civil War that "Someone could earn a PHD estimating how many handkerchiefs it would take to absorb all the blood of The Civil War." The Civil War is still my favorite documentary ever. I had a great great Grandfather and Uncle who fought in the Southern Army of the Tennessee against General Grant's Army of the Tennessee during the Fort Henry and Donaldson Campaigns. My Great Great Grandfather survived the war. His brother's fate was not as good. His brother was captured in the winter of early 1862. The Union soldiers were too few to hold him prisoner so they tied him to a tree. His family found him there is a weakened and sickened condition. They took him back to the farm where he died of pneumonia a week or so later. No wounds, but died just the same. I love that you point out the ammunition for the cannon in the Civil War featured the earliest explosive shells and prior to that the shells were solid shot. One of the best illustrations of the use of cannon with solid shot was Master and Commander: Far Side of the World. The tactics displayed how solid shot cannon balls were used to target the rudders, masts and send splinters flying as shrapnel. I love that movie
Slow moving, large soft lead bullets. Adjacent wars were pretty short, Crimea to Franco-Prussian. The war was taught extensively in foreign military academies during and after it's duration. A British officer named Shrapnel invented those as spherical shells filled with small balls early in the 19th Century.
If you get the chance, go see the Nationals competition for the North-South Skirmish Association. I grew up listening to cannon fire by a roaring campfire
I'd add that the issue of the Minié ball shattering bones was that surgeons were being confronted with thousands of men with these wounds, where the bones broke into possibly hundreds of little shards that would dig into the surrounding tissue. It was totally impossible to get in and remove all of them and if they left even a single splinter it could lead to infection or worse. The only option available to the surgeons was to amputate and get to the next casualty to do the same. If the wound was to the head or torso, there was little they could do.
As a student of technological history, rifling changed a lot of things, but it was not new. Rifling as the concept of imparting spin to a projectile actually predates writing. Otzi the Iceman's arrow fletchings wrapped around the arrow. Only ancient fletchings to be recovered to date, fascinating stuff.
It is interesting to me it is still true "find, fix, flank, finish" has a long time application. Even when in WW1 France the great responsiveness through maneuver in the early months by the French and Allied led to being one of the greatest German motivators to their beginning their trench warfare defense. The great experimentation by the WW1 generals showed they hated it, too, and were willing to try a lot to get out of that murderous madness.
Two more things came to mind that the video didn't really mention: 1. Poor strategic mobility (which was partly caused by ineptitude on both sides and part by the technology of the time) meant that very seldom did significant forces get caught, trapped and forced to surrender. Vicksburg and Fort Donelson come to mind. Surrenders save lives, getting away to fight another day means getting killed another day. 2. Lack of bayonet action, caused part by insufficient discipline but also part by firepower making it less viable than before. European observers would comment on what massive carnage it would cause when units would just shoot it out over time, rather than charging and one side breaking fairly quickly from the shock of a bayonet fight.
As far as the loudness of these artillery pieces. My dad was a Corpsman serving with Marines in Vietnam at places including Dai Do. He is close to deaf from the all-night artillery fire and he never fired one or was on a team that worked to fire a Howitzer (or the like). It's all from being near it over 2 tours.
Someone may have mentioned this, but i would add each nations/army's objective as a huge reason for the loss of life. Each wanted a quick end to the war and saw whatever means necessary to do it. Battles were no longer small engagements with parts of armies, but huge corps converging on each other to get the decisive blow. You (VTH) have said it many times before in these reviews that very thing. Tactics were outdated, but the strategies both sides had were very important, get the win, and get it over with, no matter the cost. Hit 'em, and hit 'em hard.
My ancestor Hiram J Round died of dysentery ( then called "Diarrhea Chronica" ) contracted at a Salisbury, NC prison in 1865, and died 3 days after a prisoner exchange in March 1865. A sergeant in the 14th New Hampshire Volunteers. Buried in Annapolis, on Naval Academy grounds. He was 33 when he enlisted, made a sergeant likely because of his age/maturity, died at the age of 35, and left behind a wife 28 years old with 4 children, one of whom he never saw.
The first use of what sounds like specifically designed anti infantry rounds. That's what hollow points were designed as to avoid shooting through targets and confirming kills. Spalling lead though does not sound fun at all.
Bit of reflection on how vicious the Napoleonic wars were, take Gettysburg and Waterloo, roughly same amount of troops, roughly same amount of casualties, Alot of rifled weapons at Gettysburg, Waterloo was mostly smoothbore weapons, Gettysburg lasted 3 days and Waterloo lasted about 8 hours.
Weapons tend to evolve faster than tactics in the first place. And tactics are slow to change due to a combination of inherent conservatism in armies (which is not a bad thing), the generals who were formally trained were trained, and trained well, in tactics that were still the norm of the time, and their own experience as well. It took a couple of years for a lot of the changes to become the norm, but they were already happening almost from the start. The generals weren't stupid, even if a good number of them were woefully unfit for their positions, they would have done better and even very well as staff officers or at lower command levels.
I did visit the excavation site of the Teutoburg Forest battle yesterday, inspired by the On Location videos. It's only 20 km from my home. They had a miniature display (something like 1:100 scale) of the full three legions with baggage train, and it's absolutely massive. Not much of Roman artifacts in the museum, as the Germans completely looted all the fallen.
Ever thought of doing videos for say more in depth history videos by like say, channels like TIK or Stalingrad Battle Data? Both have also grown the habit of providing proper references to the sources used in their videos which is refreshing. I know Military History Visualized also does, but they're normally more broad/short videos.
The minie ball would also travel much slower than modern bullets which would heat up and essentially sterilize mid-air. Any disease particle on the minie ball would then transfer to the soidler the bullet came into contact with
I read an interesting article that actually lowered the true death count. The armument was that fairly large percentage of those that died of disease, perhaps as high as 30%, may have died at home of some disease. Disease and death were common in everyday life back then.
That one's easy to refute (though admittedly I haven't read the article). Many men, having contracted disease while in the service, were sent home to recover, or were discharged from service and sent home sick. Those deaths can and should be counted as war casualties, whether or not they died in an army hospital. If anything the number should be even higher because many men like my 3rd great grandfather contracted diseases like tuberculosis and died several years after the war ended. They died as a direct result of their service but are not counted in the totals
I'm so glad you don't seem to be allergic to wasps because you were just stung in literally top 3 worst places to be stung if you are allergic. Cheers to life!
There isn't enough mention of the deafness that was so widespread from the war. There is video from the last Gettysburg reunion with many of the men holding the primitive horns to their eyes to hear. Likely that wasn't just age related deafness.
Even Grant didnt learn that old tactics were a bad idea in 1864 the result was Cold Harbor, Sherman gave us Kennesaw mountain. On the confederate side Lee give us Picketts charge and Hood gave us Frankiln.
I have a suggestion for you because it's a really well done and interesting battle scene. Look up cold mountain battle scene. Its from a movie in the late 90s early 2000s.
The casualties are much higher than recorded. This is due to the fact that birth and death records were not well kept. Plus, most of these men were far from home. The expression tied up in red tape comes from The Civil War Veterans.
Any idea how many fatalities were inflicted per volley? Per hour? The numbers of casualties varied per battle, with some in the West averaging 10-15% per total troops, while other grand battles in the East jumped as high as 30%. Any one know if engagements lasted hours or were the fights shorter? A friend is working on Kriegspiel Civil War battles, and would like some input on how to calculate casualties.
Those are a lot of variables since Civil War regiments varied in size and many fatalities weren't due to the initial volley, but because the injured soldier was taken to the hospital where he endured amputation surgery and gangrene infection. The 1st Minnesota Regiment during the fighting on July 2nd, 1863 charged the Confederate position for fifteen minutes. That regiment started with 262 effective men. 215 ended up as casualties for an 82% casualty rate. Of those, 40 were KIA and 175 wounded. So for fatalities, that's a rate of 15.27%
Think about the 24th Michigan and the 26th North Carolina. They were about 30 yards or less apart at the height of their fight at Gettysburg. You basically couldn't miss at that range and the casualties on both sides bore that fact out. Absolute bloodletting.
I don't know if this is a realistic POV or not but I think (I'm from UK btw) that the reason it was so bad was because the Americans were fighting to shape the future of their very young country and they knew that the outcome of the war would have a drastic effect on what the country became afterwards. And so they weren't just fighting a war against another country, they were fighting to protect their country from 'an invasion' despite it being from their own countrymen. The amazing part I found was that the union did not stop advancing when the casualties started to rack up. So the high casualty rate was just as much down to the tenacity and stubbornness of the 2 armies as it was by anything else. Like I say I'm not American and probably don't know what I'm talking about because I've only learned about the American civil war in the past couple of years and knew nothing about it when growing up.
You exaggerate the softness of a pure lead bullet. As metals go they are soft. Without looking up the numbers,I would say the hardness of pure lead is similar to pure gold. You can easily scratch one with a finger nail and an adult may be able to deform the hollow base skirt of a Minie ball but I doubt any one is going to flatten the solid portion of the bullet in their fingers. In addition to being an avid blackpowder shooter and bullet caster, I have a few battlefield pickup bullets from Fredericksburg. Loving the channel!
The generals all studied Napoleon at West Point. Jominian tactics didn't work with the evolution of more modern weaponry. They still believed they had to mass their men to mass their fire making excellent targets of their units.
The book "Carnage and Culture" by Victor Davis Hansen goes into great historical depth of "the Western way of war" as it has developed from ancient times to modern. It gave great advantages when Western militaries went up against other cultures. It resulted in great carnage when Western militaries fought one another; especially true in the U.S. Civil War, or WW1 and WW2. It wasn't just technology that made the Civil War so deadly, but a host of other cultural, social, and economic reasons as well.
Minié ball could be considered as the first "dumdum" ammo. It's very lethal and it's forbidden to use by Geneva Conventions. But in some parts of the world it is used. Mostly in 3rd world countries.
Don't tell archaeologists that you dug up stuff from these battlefields; they'd freak the hell out, as they do with just about anything else that is relatively inconsequential.
the most modern weapons to go along with 18th century tactics make for a bloody mess. You still had Generals massing their men as they did before the minie ball and the rifled musket . But now the effective range of the infantry weapon went from less than 100 yds to 4-500 yds. Same with the artillery. Good old tech, making life easier, even way back then.
Depends on your definitions for "man made sound" and "on the North American continent", but I think the Halifax Explosion in 1917 which killed over 1700 people on land and sea would've been the loudest before the first atomic bomb detonation at Los Alamos in 1945. Again, depends on those definitions (while not a faultless one, the Halifax Explosion is largely considered to be an accident, and while it impacted Halifax itself, it occurred over water), but it might take the cake over the artillery at Gettysburg.
Coach on the football field and historian on the battlefield!
Or historian on the soccer field and coach on the battlefield? 🤔
@@riccardosartori3822 oooh you’re right 🤝
@@robertmccarl5498 it's considered football in most countries so it does technically work.
@@matthewjacques287 They both work, just didn’t wanna start any arguments.
@@robertmccarl5498 too late lol
I’m an 1812 reenactor and I can attest when the heavy arty pieces start firing if you’re close by the concussion actually shifts your innards around. It’s unsettling to say the least
I gotta know . What loss do you reenact? Or does everybody just do New Orleans?
@@jeffgarberding4499 I reenact British in Canada, mostly the Niagara campaign but some stuff around Detroit as well. So I reenact mostly victories. Except the American destruction of fort Erie, fort York, fort George, the entire backpedal from queenston to Burlington heights… lots of victories….
Another reason.
Many of the commanders had last served in war fairly recently during the Mexican American war when many of the technological innovations had yet to be widely distributed. This led to a lot of “well this is how I did it 15 years ago when I was marching in the ranks”
They believed they understood what the dangers were the rank and file faced as earned by their personal hard experience when in fact they did not
Yeah with the civil war they didn't have to get so damn close to shoot each other. But many generals had their men get really damn close which allowed the defending side to just open fire
I am pretty sure that the Mexican-American war era US army vs the Mexican-American war era US army would have been a useful lesson for the Civil war era US army. They had percussion cap smoothbores (plus a few rifles) and somewhat similar artillery (although half the weight of shot compared to the workhorse 12 pounder).
The Mexican Army's equipment, however, was obtained from an obsolete Napoleonic weapons garage sale.
It is difficult to learn anything when you have such a firepower advantage that you can take on enemy formations 3x your size or move your artillery to practically point blank range and just start unloading canister.
Actually. There was no real innovation since the " flying artillery" of the army invading Mexico. The War dept. sent Mac Clellan, and 2 older officers to the Crimea to observe the British and the French taking on Russia.
How else would you do it, the shortage of psychics being what it was. Another reason for the close ranks, is Command and Control. With only your voice, bugle and drum calls all of which can't be heard once the artillery has started firing, having your guys close together ensures they will act in unison. No one had any idea how lethal the latest munitions would be.
By 1864, most units would advance in "open order", which literally separated the "rank and file" and greatly improved survivability.
@@grumblesa10 this. It's worth noting that the Austrian army fought in close order in 1866 and the French in 1870. Also that the Prussian army that fought against both in open order did suffer from command and control problems as a result, whereby the advantage from having its line infantry in open order was nowhere as large as one might expect it to be (even if definitely worth it).
My dude isn't just a great history teacher but also out there coaching the kids. Good on ya brother.
I would assert that the Halifax explosion during WWII would be louder than the barrage at Gettysburg primarily because almost all of the related munitions at Halifax ignited within a few seconds creating a concussion that dispersed the pressure generated by thousands of tonnes of munitions in that short duration whereas the artillery at Gettysburg was in aggregate likely only igniting a few tons per second of what was certainly a slower-burning propellant than what was available by WWI.
You post pretty much every day and I still audibly said "WOOOO!" When I saw you upload 🔥🔥
Post some OC video essays so you can get paid!
I can't thank you enough for these videos. they get me through my days and bring a smile to my face. So glad to be part of the journey!! Also congrats on 150k (:
Thank you Kian. Glad to have you as a part of this community.
I love that you can tell when he is about to talk because he moves his chair and leans forward a little in order to hit the space bar
Woo! This daily content has gotten me through what has been an otherwise boring summer of work between college semesters. Thanks for creating such an engaging and well rounded community!
"God is on the side with the heaviest artillery" Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon was an atheist you know.
modern warfare who has the most mobile artillery
"Napoleon was not irreligious in the ordinary sense of the word. He would not admit that there had ever existed a genuine atheist; he condemned Deism as the result of rash speculation. A Christian and a Catholic, he recognized in religion alone the right to govern human societies."
Napoleon worshipped power and pretended to be whatever religion most people in the area were.
Vlogging Through History: "I call it the mini bullet."
Wasp: "Hold my beer."
Bullet Ant: “ *hold my sting* “
Well Minie ball. Claude Minie might take offense
@@jeffgarberding4499 Hey, as long as we're not dissing on James Garfield, I think we're doing pretty good! ;)
Or was it Frank Minie? I believe Claude was the impressionist painter.
You should do more stuff from Armchair Historian, especially some of his more recent stuff, it’s incredible! Great video as always
I grew up 10 miles from Manassas Battlefield. As a kid, I could hear the cannons during the reenactments from my house.
Your videos have greatly increased my interest in history, so thank you! Your videos are truly great.
Oof that wasp looked like it hurt, i would have panicked and ran out, but you were very calm
Ever been stung by a wasp? Think bee sting but ten times worse.
Worst part is they won’t just sting you once
I'm allergic to wasps so seeing him getting bit on the neck freaked me out!
16:02 for anyone who wants it lol
Speaking of lethality, the minie ball was also a BIG hunk of lead at .58 caliber. A typical military rifle round today is around .22 caliber. Powder back then propelled a projectile at a fairly low velocity, hence the large ball in compensation. Now, a smaller round can be used because advances in propellant technology results in a round with much greater velocity. This enables the smaller round to pack greater destructive power, making up for its reduced size in comparison to the rounds used in the Civil War.
Considering how loud artillery barrage were, I guess the movie stereotype of the white bearded and nearly deaf Civil War veteran holding an ear trumpet is probably more accurate then we think.
Love that you’re so into the civil war. It’s always been a major interest of mine as well. I was just wondering , what are your thoughts on Ken burns “civil war”, as far as the accuracy of it and how it was presented, from an expert’s perspective.
Just discovering your channel, and very much loving it.
I love his documentary. It's what got me into the Civil War in the first place. It's usually what I recommend to people who are interested in the war but don't know where to start. Welcome to the channel!
VTH: The minie ball did a lot of damage to the human body.
Wasp: And I took that personally.
Well, a Minie ball did sound like a bee or a wasp buzzing when it passed by you. 😊
Thanks for your additional content to the video. I'm a former HS history teacher and a Civil War nut.
Got to visit Gettysburg many years ago. It was July 2. I was in shorts and a tee walking Little Round Top. I was the only living person on that hill. I swear I was not alone. Can't describe or explain it. Definitely felt it. And it was broad daylight. I'd never do that at night after what I felt. Keep em coming, Coach!
Even after coaching all day with your kids and you still put out content for us …such a nice guy
Such a fan of your work.
Thank you very much!
Kind of a strange request, but I would love to see his reaction to Iced Earth’s trio of songs (The Devil to Pay, Hold at all Costs, and Highwater Mark) about Gettysburg.
It’d be something a little different, I know there are videos compiling them into one song, he could even shorten it to skip over the instrumental bits, lots to talk about. I love the collection of songs and I’d love to hear more about them.
My new favorite channel to listen to while I’m driving.
Liked the bits of informative text at the bottom, hope you do more of those Vlogging!
I was like "how the heck does that guy have a home library"
It's a backdrop 😂😂 that guy is good with sets
Loving the videos, keep up the good work!!!
Ever think of doing a collaboration with Mr. Terry History? Great vid
It gets suggested often. I’m sure he would be up for it if we can come up with a good idea.
@@VloggingThroughHistory I'm sorry if it gets annoying, just love both of you.
@@collinpomplun6230 Not annoying at all. Appreciate your input!
I'm a recently graduated bachelor of history and soon to be first time father so to me, looking at you in that uniform is a vision of my future as I wait to know what my child likes to play
Your life will never be the same, and I mean that as a good thing. Being a dad is the most challenging and rewarding thing I get to do.
@@VloggingThroughHistory my wife and I have wanted children our whole lives, but she has always been told she couldn't due to birth defects of her own. We were extatic when we found out we were pregnant. Next month is our gender reveal appointment so we're about half way through the pregnancy now
@@OneRealSilverRaven that is such awesome news. So happy for you guys.
Smoothbore muskets: effective to about 200 yards.
Rifled musket w/ Minie ball: 600 yards.
I'm a civil war reanacter, I know how artillery feels while I was on on.
Your videos are really good. Lot more fun to watch your stuff than the videos directly.
I think death count had much more to do with size of the armies. It's been reported that the average hit rate of a typical soldier during the civil war was about 5%. Thats actually similar to what it was during the revolutionary war and many of the European wars in-between. Even though the Minie is more accurate, firing typically occured over longer distances effectively evening it out with the smooth bores of the revolution. So it becomes purely a numbers game. Faster rate of fire plus armies that in the civil war number 70 to 120K whereas in the revolution maybe 8 to 10K.
A lot of Armchair's more recent episodes are much more polished than the videos you've covered so far, and go far more into depth into topics by what I'd assume would be more research and the like. I highly recommend seeing their videos on the Franco Prussian War or WW1 from the Austrian perspective.
As always, I enjoy you reaction video. The Armchair Historian makes excellent videos. I agree that EmperorTigerstar makes some of the best maps.
The great historian Shelby Foote said in his interview for Ken Burns Civil War that "Someone could earn a PHD estimating how many handkerchiefs it would take to absorb all the blood of The Civil War." The Civil War is still my favorite documentary ever.
I had a great great Grandfather and Uncle who fought in the Southern Army of the Tennessee against General Grant's Army of the Tennessee during the Fort Henry and Donaldson Campaigns. My Great Great Grandfather survived the war. His brother's fate was not as good. His brother was captured in the winter of early 1862. The Union soldiers were too few to hold him prisoner so they tied him to a tree. His family found him there is a weakened and sickened condition. They took him back to the farm where he died of pneumonia a week or so later. No wounds, but died just the same.
I love that you point out the ammunition for the cannon in the Civil War featured the earliest explosive shells and prior to that the shells were solid shot. One of the best illustrations of the use of cannon with solid shot was Master and Commander: Far Side of the World. The tactics displayed how solid shot cannon balls were used to target the rudders, masts and send splinters flying as shrapnel. I love that movie
Great video coach!
I'd also have added the horrific casualties incurred from prisons
great channel, great videos
Slow moving, large soft lead bullets. Adjacent wars were pretty short, Crimea to Franco-Prussian. The war was taught extensively in foreign military academies during and after it's duration. A British officer named Shrapnel invented those as spherical shells filled with small balls early in the 19th Century.
If you get the chance, go see the Nationals competition for the North-South Skirmish Association. I grew up listening to cannon fire by a roaring campfire
I'd add that the issue of the Minié ball shattering bones was that surgeons were being confronted with thousands of men with these wounds, where the bones broke into possibly hundreds of little shards that would dig into the surrounding tissue. It was totally impossible to get in and remove all of them and if they left even a single splinter it could lead to infection or worse. The only option available to the surgeons was to amputate and get to the next casualty to do the same. If the wound was to the head or torso, there was little they could do.
At least the wasp waited until the end of the video.
As a student of technological history, rifling changed a lot of things, but it was not new. Rifling as the concept of imparting spin to a projectile actually predates writing. Otzi the Iceman's arrow fletchings wrapped around the arrow. Only ancient fletchings to be recovered to date, fascinating stuff.
It is interesting to me it is still true "find, fix, flank, finish" has a long time application. Even when in WW1 France the great responsiveness through maneuver in the early months by the French and Allied led to being one of the greatest German motivators to their beginning their trench warfare defense. The great experimentation by the WW1 generals showed they hated it, too, and were willing to try a lot to get out of that murderous madness.
Two more things came to mind that the video didn't really mention:
1. Poor strategic mobility (which was partly caused by ineptitude on both sides and part by the technology of the time) meant that very seldom did significant forces get caught, trapped and forced to surrender. Vicksburg and Fort Donelson come to mind. Surrenders save lives, getting away to fight another day means getting killed another day.
2. Lack of bayonet action, caused part by insufficient discipline but also part by firepower making it less viable than before. European observers would comment on what massive carnage it would cause when units would just shoot it out over time, rather than charging and one side breaking fairly quickly from the shock of a bayonet fight.
As far as the loudness of these artillery pieces. My dad was a Corpsman serving with Marines in Vietnam at places including Dai Do. He is close to deaf from the all-night artillery fire and he never fired one or was on a team that worked to fire a Howitzer (or the like). It's all from being near it over 2 tours.
Great video, hope the team did well!
Love the civil war content, thanks for posting!
This man does everything! Excellent historian, coaches football and also preaches at church (I think I heard you say that).
Correct. I'm actually working on my sermon now! Also sing, play guitar and keyboard (more about that coming soon)
@@VloggingThroughHistory amazing stuff! You’re living your best life that’s for sure. Love the content and 200k here we come!
No one is perfect, but I'm confident he is doing his best.
Where did you hear he was preaching? I don't think I've ever heard that from him.
@@thegreattrooper1635 Yes, I do. I talk about it in streams sometimes.
Someone may have mentioned this, but i would add each nations/army's objective as a huge reason for the loss of life. Each wanted a quick end to the war and saw whatever means necessary to do it. Battles were no longer small engagements with parts of armies, but huge corps converging on each other to get the decisive blow. You (VTH) have said it many times before in these reviews that very thing. Tactics were outdated, but the strategies both sides had were very important, get the win, and get it over with, no matter the cost. Hit 'em, and hit 'em hard.
My ancestor Hiram J Round died of dysentery ( then called "Diarrhea Chronica" ) contracted at a Salisbury, NC prison in 1865, and died 3 days after a prisoner exchange in March 1865. A sergeant in the 14th New Hampshire Volunteers. Buried in Annapolis, on Naval Academy grounds.
He was 33 when he enlisted, made a sergeant likely because of his age/maturity, died at the age of 35, and left behind a wife 28 years old with 4 children, one of whom he never saw.
The first use of what sounds like specifically designed anti infantry rounds. That's what hollow points were designed as to avoid shooting through targets and confirming kills. Spalling lead though does not sound fun at all.
@3:38 in current nomenclature, ball refers to standard FMJ, not hollow points.
Bit of reflection on how vicious the Napoleonic wars were, take Gettysburg and Waterloo, roughly same amount of troops, roughly same amount of casualties, Alot of rifled weapons at Gettysburg, Waterloo was mostly smoothbore weapons, Gettysburg lasted 3 days and Waterloo lasted about 8 hours.
"I just got bit by something" and keeps going. Was that a reenactment of Teddy Roosevelt getting shot while giving a speech?
It was good to see that you guys agreed that weapons outdated older tactics. I'm glad they figured it out.
Weapons tend to evolve faster than tactics in the first place. And tactics are slow to change due to a combination of inherent conservatism in armies (which is not a bad thing), the generals who were formally trained were trained, and trained well, in tactics that were still the norm of the time, and their own experience as well. It took a couple of years for a lot of the changes to become the norm, but they were already happening almost from the start. The generals weren't stupid, even if a good number of them were woefully unfit for their positions, they would have done better and even very well as staff officers or at lower command levels.
According to the VA in WWII Battle deaths were 291K (72%) non-Battle 113K (28%)
I did visit the excavation site of the Teutoburg Forest battle yesterday, inspired by the On Location videos.
It's only 20 km from my home.
They had a miniature display (something like 1:100 scale) of the full three legions with baggage train, and it's absolutely massive. Not much of Roman artifacts in the museum, as the Germans completely looted all the fallen.
Would love to see you react to “Memoirs of WW2”. They do an amazing job at getting the actual views of veterans and others who were in the war.
Ever thought of doing videos for say more in depth history videos by like say, channels like TIK or Stalingrad Battle Data? Both have also grown the habit of providing proper references to the sources used in their videos which is refreshing. I know Military History Visualized also does, but they're normally more broad/short videos.
The minie ball would also travel much slower than modern bullets which would heat up and essentially sterilize mid-air. Any disease particle on the minie ball would then transfer to the soidler the bullet came into contact with
Let me know if those wasps are a problem. I live in Canfield. I could do a treatment on the house
I read an interesting article that actually lowered the true death count. The armument was that fairly large percentage of those that died of disease, perhaps as high as 30%, may have died at home of some disease. Disease and death were common in everyday life back then.
That one's easy to refute (though admittedly I haven't read the article). Many men, having contracted disease while in the service, were sent home to recover, or were discharged from service and sent home sick. Those deaths can and should be counted as war casualties, whether or not they died in an army hospital. If anything the number should be even higher because many men like my 3rd great grandfather contracted diseases like tuberculosis and died several years after the war ended. They died as a direct result of their service but are not counted in the totals
I'm so glad you don't seem to be allergic to wasps because you were just stung in literally top 3 worst places to be stung if you are allergic. Cheers to life!
good timing to log onto youtube
There isn't enough mention of the deafness that was so widespread from the war. There is video from the last Gettysburg reunion with many of the men holding the primitive horns to their eyes to hear. Likely that wasn't just age related deafness.
Even Grant didnt learn that old tactics were a bad idea in 1864 the result was Cold Harbor, Sherman gave us Kennesaw mountain. On the confederate side Lee give us Picketts charge and Hood gave us Frankiln.
I have a suggestion for you because it's a really well done and interesting battle scene. Look up cold mountain battle scene. Its from a movie in the late 90s early 2000s.
100% LOVE IT!! Your the best keep it up!!!!!
To this day, non-hollowpoint or non-frangible ammunition for rifles/MGs/handguns is still called "Ball ammunition"...
I would add that weather played a part in feeding the disease and attrition suffered in the American civil war. Shouldn’t be overlooked
the Halifax explosion 1917 must have been louder than all the artillery of the civil war, but i don't know the decibels offhand
Also, the WILHELM SCREAM also made CIVIL WAR documentry reaction videos more deadly as well...
I'd really like to see him react to the Armchair Historian's crimean war videos
Seeing Burnsides bridge was horrible when you realized the Antietam creek was probably 2 or 3 feet deep and the men could easily have crossed it
The casualties are much higher than recorded. This is due to the fact that birth and death records were not well kept.
Plus, most of these men were far from home.
The expression tied up in red tape comes from The Civil War Veterans.
I'm curious why the Gatling gun wasn't used more often. It would seem to be more lethal than just using muskets and rifles.
Take a look at “25 events that changed the world” featuring Rufus Fears sponsored by The Great Courses. Very good.
Any idea how many fatalities were inflicted per volley? Per hour? The numbers of casualties varied per battle, with some in the West averaging 10-15% per total troops, while other grand battles in the East jumped as high as 30%. Any one know if engagements lasted hours or were the fights shorter?
A friend is working on Kriegspiel Civil War battles, and would like some input on how to calculate casualties.
Those are a lot of variables since Civil War regiments varied in size and many fatalities weren't due to the initial volley, but because the injured soldier was taken to the hospital where he endured amputation surgery and gangrene infection.
The 1st Minnesota Regiment during the fighting on July 2nd, 1863 charged the Confederate position for fifteen minutes.
That regiment started with 262 effective men. 215 ended up as casualties for an 82% casualty rate.
Of those, 40 were KIA and 175 wounded.
So for fatalities, that's a rate of 15.27%
Have you ever considered reacting to a Kings & Generals video?
Think about the 24th Michigan and the 26th North Carolina. They were about 30 yards or less apart at the height of their fight at Gettysburg. You basically couldn't miss at that range and the casualties on both sides bore that fact out. Absolute bloodletting.
Yep. Perfect example of the brutality of the Civil War between those two regiments on July 1.
we need a video of that wasp being punished for its crime
I don't know if this is a realistic POV or not but I think (I'm from UK btw) that the reason it was so bad was because the Americans were fighting to shape the future of their very young country and they knew that the outcome of the war would have a drastic effect on what the country became afterwards. And so they weren't just fighting a war against another country, they were fighting to protect their country from 'an invasion' despite it being from their own countrymen. The amazing part I found was that the union did not stop advancing when the casualties started to rack up.
So the high casualty rate was just as much down to the tenacity and stubbornness of the 2 armies as it was by anything else.
Like I say I'm not American and probably don't know what I'm talking about because I've only learned about the American civil war in the past couple of years and knew nothing about it when growing up.
Would love to see you do a video on The Rising 1916 on the Irish fight for independence
I heard a civil war area canon and your right it’s loud and I was about 100 feet away
Hey there, great vid. Any chance for Sabaton song reaction video soon?
Also availability of seven shot spencer and 13 shot Henry rifles during that period
Maybe Battle of the Crater is louder? Although I suppose it was muffled by it being underground.
You exaggerate the softness of a pure lead bullet. As metals go they are soft. Without looking up the numbers,I would say the hardness of pure lead is similar to pure gold. You can easily scratch one with a finger nail and an adult may be able to deform the hollow base skirt of a Minie ball but I doubt any one is going to flatten the solid portion of the bullet in their fingers. In addition to being an avid blackpowder shooter and bullet caster, I have a few battlefield pickup bullets from Fredericksburg.
Loving the channel!
The generals all studied Napoleon at West Point. Jominian tactics didn't work with the evolution of more modern weaponry. They still believed they had to mass their men to mass their fire making excellent targets of their units.
glad to know that there is another nerdy jock out there. (my specialty is animals)
The book "Carnage and Culture" by Victor Davis Hansen goes into great historical depth of "the Western way of war" as it has developed from ancient times to modern. It gave great advantages when Western militaries went up against other cultures. It resulted in great carnage when Western militaries fought one another; especially true in the U.S. Civil War, or WW1 and WW2.
It wasn't just technology that made the Civil War so deadly, but a host of other cultural, social, and economic reasons as well.
There's no way the barrage was the loudest thing until the atomic bomb. Look up the Halifax explosion for example, it had to be louder.
Hello from Russia ! Love your channel !
Because of the miniè ball it's where we get the saying, "bite the bullet" Because there was no painkillers
well, there were plenty of times that some kind of anesthetics were tried, but shortage of medical supplies does happen.
Minié ball could be considered as the first "dumdum" ammo. It's very lethal and it's forbidden to use by Geneva Conventions. But in some parts of the world it is used. Mostly in 3rd world countries.
Don't tell archaeologists that you dug up stuff from these battlefields; they'd freak the hell out, as they do with just about anything else that is relatively inconsequential.
the most modern weapons to go along with 18th century tactics make for a bloody mess. You still had Generals massing their men as they did before the minie ball and the rifled musket . But now the effective range of the infantry weapon went from less than 100 yds to 4-500 yds. Same with the artillery. Good old tech, making life easier, even way back then.
when will the second part to civil war com out
Tomorrow.
Depends on your definitions for "man made sound" and "on the North American continent", but I think the Halifax Explosion in 1917 which killed over 1700 people on land and sea would've been the loudest before the first atomic bomb detonation at Los Alamos in 1945. Again, depends on those definitions (while not a faultless one, the Halifax Explosion is largely considered to be an accident, and while it impacted Halifax itself, it occurred over water), but it might take the cake over the artillery at Gettysburg.