Did It Really Happen that Way?

In his latest book Prof. Hippensteel (UNC Charlotte), who has written on how geology affected the Civil War and used microfossils to interpret the wreck of the submersible H. L. Hunley, applies his analytic scientific techniques to rebut several myths, frauds, and fabrications about the war that have proven remarkably durable. Some idea of his techniques and conclusions can be gained from a couple of his cases.

In his chapter "Sedgewick was Right," Hippensteel asks whether all the generals said to have been killed by snipers actually were deliberately shot by a sharpshooter. Examining several cases – Sedgewick, Reynolds, Weed – he addresses matters of weapons, reloading time, ballistics, wind, range, line of sight, and so forth. Hippensteel demonstrates that while a lot of generals actually were killed in action, it was most often by random rounds. He notes that some of the men claiming to have fired a fatal bullet could not possibly have done so considering range, timing, angles of fire, movement of targets, and so forth; one “sniper” claimed to have killed two men with a muzzle loader in under 20 seconds, both of them moving at the time!

In "Density of Death" Hippensteel takes on the claim, even by senior officers, of instances in which one could not cross a field without stepping on bodies. Offering some grim analysis he actually calculates how many bodies it would take to create such a situation, using actions in which the claim was made. He concludes that to cover the 24 acre Cornfield at Antietam with a "carpet of death" would have required 22,250 corpses, although he does demonstrate that the narrow Sunken Road at the same battle, about two-thirds of an acre, may well have seemed carpeted with the dead.

His chapter "Lead Precipitation," takes on the oft made claim that bullets fell thick as hail, looking at ammunition loads, rates of fire, number of troops firing, and, by no means coincidentally, number of casualties.

Hippensteel goes on to discuss lots more, touching on the uses of rifled muskets, manipulation of scenery by photographers (e.g., moving, even faking corpses), fabrications introduced by painters of battle scenes and makers of motion pictures, and more, all of which have influence our perception of combat during the Civil War.

Myths of the Civil War is an immensely useful book for anyone interested in the experience of battle during the Civil War.

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Note: Myths of the Civil War is also available in e-editions.

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