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Life as a Garrisoned Union Soldier
It has often been said of the Civil War soldier that life consisted of moments of sheer terror followed by months of sheer boredom. For the garrisoned soldier, it tended more towards boredom. For many Union garrisons occupying Clarksville, daily rituals consisted of guarding the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad, the Hopkinsville Turnpike, and the river. Soldiers also checked citizen passes, handled supplies, and drilled. Some were dispatched around Montgomery County on anti-guerilla patrols and were subject to attack by Confederate cavalry. The rest of the time was spent writing letters home, playing cards, repairing personal items and equipment, and cooking.
Officers often resided in homes or hotels in town. Enlisted troops on the grounds at Stewart College and at the fort lived in tents or small huts of chinked logs. Huts typically had a door at one end and a chimney at the other. A tent canvas usually served as a roof, but if the tools were available, a wooden roof might be added. Soldiers frequently added a wooden floor and a window. Latrines (toilets) consisted of trenches dug in the ground away from the living quarters.
Food supplies, often tainted, lacked variety and nutrition. Safe drinking water was not always available. Living conditions were generally unsanitary. With so many men living in close quarters, diseases and infections were easily spread. Illnesses, including measles, colds, influenza, eye infections and dysentery, put hundreds of men into hospitals and graves. The average soldier believed the bullet was his greatest danger, but disease was actually the biggest killer of the war. In the Union army, nearly three out of five deaths were from disease, while in the Confederate army, disease was responsible for two our of every three deaths. |