Fifteen Eighty Four

Dread Danger: Combat and Courage in the American Civil War originated with my long-time interest in an anti-heroic, non-triumphant approach to war. Since graduate school, I have been drawn to trying to understand myths and the creation of historical narratives, especially how and why we collectively remember certain tales of the past yet forget others. My first book, General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend disassembles the biography of a Confederate general; in A Broken Regiment: The 16^th Connecticut’s Civil War I explore an ill-fated unit and how its members tried to recast their uneven military record into something valiant. Dread Danger builds on several of these themes by focusing on two regiments, one northern and one southern, and how allegations of cowardice in combat affected their officers and men in the ranks.

Cowardice in battle is a topic few scholars have explored, especially military historians. There is a tendency to want to explain it away or argue that it was not all that important to a soldier’s or unit’s complete service record. Some historians imply that studying this topic somehow dishonors the memory of Civil War soldiers. I have even been accused of denigrating these men’s reputations by writing this book. But soldiers and their families were acutely aware of cowardice; they worried about it, wrote about it privately and publicly, and heard repeated exhortations to celebrate the hero and shun the shirker. Why would historians not explore this subject since it was so central to 19^th century Americans’ conception of military service?

The two regiments highlighted in my book underscore the significance of this topic. The story of the Fire Zouaves began in New York City in the war’s early days. Its first colonel, Elmer E. Ellsworth was a self-styled drill master who rushed to New York City in April 1861 to raise a regiment of volunteer firemen and train them as Zouaves. Ellsworth had become a national celebrity the summer prior when he toured the country with his Chicago Zouaves, a military company styled on the celebrated French-Algerian troops. Civil war had begun, and Ellsworth believed his fearless firemen were “ready for instant service.” Instead, he struggled to control them and keep them out of trouble. After his shocking death at the hands of a southern civilian in Alexandria, Virginia, the regiment floundered.  In its first battle at Bull Run, the Fire Zouaves broke and ran from the field.  Without trusted leaders, stripped of their proud autonomy as firemen, and with few allies, the unit imploded.

The Fire Zouaves caught the imagination of the press, with many accounts focusing on their bad behavior and lack of discipline.

Far to the South, the 2^nd Texas Infantry formed later in 1861 and had equally high expectations of performing brave deeds in battle. As white southern men, there seemed little doubt that they would be excellent soldiers. But at the battle of Shiloh, they faltered and fled the fight. The Texans, unlike the Fire Zouaves, got another chance to prove themselves in combat, and they did, earning commendations and the special designation as sharpshooters.  Yet, the shadow of Shiloh lingered. Colonel William P. Rogers, who led them at the Battle of Corinth in October 1862, died in a desperate charge on enemy fortifications.  Waving the regimental flag and extorting his men to “Remember Shiloh,” his small force briefly retook the redoubt. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, however, the advance failed and survivors suffered capture or retreated. Rogers was shot multiple times and left to die in a ditch. A stark photograph of Rogers’ corpse circulated widely, illustrating a stark contrast to romanticized images of valorous combat. The details and ambiguities of the 2^nd Texas’ lived experiences, including Rogers’ gruesome death, soon dissipated. In the postwar, Rogers and his “no less brave followers who died at Corinth” became fodder for Lost Cause propaganda and its celebration of “Anglo-Saxon courage” and white supremacy.

This stark photograph of Colonel William P. Rogers’ corpse alongside other Confederate dead at Corinth, contrasts sharply with romanticized rhetoric that celebrated heroism in battle.

By interrogating these two regiments’ service records, we see that acts and allegations of cowardice happened and they mattered. Such humiliating charges challenged notions of manhood, affected personal and regimental reputations and undermined assumptions of what made a good soldier. The veterans of the Fire Zouaves and 2^nd Texas endured armed conflict in its rawest most violent form, and few who survived the war wanted to talk about it candidly. Nevertheless, by studying such accounts we gain a fuller understanding of how Americans collectively remember their Civil War and what’s often forgotten and why.

Dread Danger by
Lesley J. Gordon