The Worst Jobs You Could Have In The American Civil War

The Civil War was fought with strange, outdated tactics, and its battles involved children facing the enemy with drums, spies posing as slaves, and sailors operating primitive submarines. Let's find out just how bad these troops had it, as we travel back in time and charge into the worst jobs you could have in the American Civil War!

H.L. Hunley Submarine

In 1861, 11 pro-slavery states tried to violently secede from the USA and form a new country called the Confederate States of America. The Unionist states in the North fought to stop them, and this led to a full-blown war that caused 620,000 American casualties.

The Civil War was mainly fought with muskets and cannons, but there were also incredible technological advancements, and both sides tried to up their game by deploying primitive submarines! In 1862, the Union launched the USS Alligator; a 47ft-long submarine that was propelled with wooden oars. But the sub never saw battle, and it sank during a storm before it could complete a single combat mission.

The Confederates got slightly further with the H.L. Hunley; a small cylindrical sub that could travel 30ft-underwater. It was constructed out of a converted steam boiler, so its eight crewmembers had to bend over to fit into its 4ft tall interior. One of these men would steer the vehicle, while the other seven operated a hand-crank that manually spun the propeller.

Serving in the cramped submarine sounds miserable, and unsurprisingly, it was also incredibly dangerous. On its first two combat deployments in 1863, the sub flooded with water and sank, dragging 13 of its 16 sailors to a watery grave. But the Confederates figured third time’s the charm, and repaired the Hunley for another mission that was marginally more successful.

In 1864 it became the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, when it snuck underneath the USS Housatonic and rammed it with a ‘spar torpedo’. This weapon was essentially a bomb on the end of a 20ft pole, that would detonate when it was pushed into its target. The Hunley successfully used it to destroy the Housatonic, but the sub was also caught in the blast radius, so it was blown up too.

The Confederates couldn’t find the wrecked submarine to dredge it up for repairs, but that’s probably for the best. Of the 24 people who served onboard the Hunley only three survived, and crouching down in that pitch-black tin-can as the water started to flood in must’ve been absolutely terrifying.

Union Army Balloon Corps

Today, Air Force pilots fly around in heavily-armed fighter jets; but air warfare during the Civil War was a bit more basic. In 1861, an inventor called Thaddeus Lowe founded the Balloon Corps; a branch of the Union army that spied on Confederate troop movements during battle by looking down at them from hot-air balloons.

Surveying a battlefield in an aircraft filled with explosive hydrogen gas is pretty dangerous, and the balloons were also tethered to the ground, so they couldn’t move much once they were airborne. This made them incredibly tempting targets for the Confederates, who’d fire on them with muskets and cannons whenever they were raised in the air.

The pilots would fly 1000ft-high to stay out of musket range, and the balloons were made of silk, which is actually strong enough to stop musket balls. However, the Confederate’s most widely used cannons and artillery rifles could fire at ranges between 2000 and 5700ft, and if a cannonball or artillery round hit a balloon, it wouldn’t end well for the pilot.

Fortunately, these cannons weren’t that accurate, and no Union balloons were actually shot down during the war. In fact, it was ultimately more dangerous to be a member of the ground-crew that held the tethers, as the balloons and ropes above them clearly gave away their position.

The Confederates would simply have to aim at the bottom of the tethers to target the ground-crews, and in 1862, a prominent Union General called George McClellan was nearly hit by cannon-fire while raising a balloon. So whether you were dodging cannonballs in the air or explosions on the ground, serving in the Balloon Corps must’ve been pretty scary, and you could say the job definitely had its ups and downs!

Color Bearers

In the Civil War, some Union and Confederate soldiers charged into battle completely unarmed, holding nothing but a flagpole. It was easy for troops to get lost in the chaos of a Civil War battlefield. So each regiment had a “Color Bearer,” who’d carry the unit’s flag during a charge, which the other soldiers would follow to stick together.

Unfortunately, this flag was also extremely visible to the enemy, and they’d specifically target the color-bearer to disrupt the opposing charge, so the job was incredibly dangerous. But they weren’t ever allowed to retreat no matter how bad it got, because the rest of their unit would follow them. So, if they did try to flee the fight, their desertion would be punished with a trip to the firing squad!

This all meant that a Color Bearer had a much shorter life expectancy than a normal soldier, and if they fell in battle, somebody else would have to pick up the flag and take over. But this replacement color bearer would immediately become a target themselves, and it wasn’t unusual for a Regiment’s flag to be picked up by a new soldier, and then get blown up again several times throughout a battle.

So, multiple soldiers could serve as a regiment’s color bearer during a clash and the role’s turnover rate was disturbingly high. It looks like that’s what happens when you’re made to charge against the enemy without a gun!

Drummer Boys

With chores, homework and early bedtimes, being a kid can suck, but growing up in the 1860s was even worse. While the Union and Confederates both had a loose rule that nobody under 18 could be an armed soldier, their recruiters regularly let teenagers join anyway and it’s estimated that 20% of the war’s combatants were underage. Furthermore, kids as young as nine were officially allowed to serve in unarmed non-combatant roles, that were still incredibly dangerous.

Both sides of the war had “Drummer Boys,” who would stand behind the infantrymen during a battle and play drum beats to convey orders from the Officers. They’d use different rhythms to tell the men to “attack” or “retreat”, and although they stood behind the front-line, they were still in incredible danger from stray cannon fire or an unexpected charge. In fact, the youngest casualty of the entire war was a 12-year-old Union drummer-boy called Charlie King, who was hit by Confederate artillery fire during the Battle of Antietam in Maryland.

The Union’s navy wasn’t any different, and they actively recruited 10-year-old boys to serve on warships as powder monkeys. This job involved carrying sacks of gunpowder from the ship’s storerooms to the cannons so the adult sailors could load and fire them.

It was extremely cramped inside these boats, so it was difficult for grown-men to move around them quickly. In contrast, the boys were small enough to easily squeeze through the ship’s nooks and crannies, which sped up the process and increased each cannon’s rate of fire.

Tasking a 10-year old with transporting a famously explosive material like gunpowder is pretty messed up, and a single spark could’ve immediately terminated a powder-monkey’s employment. Furthermore, the kids weren’t even paid fairly, and their salary of $140 a month in today’s money was half as much as the lowest-ranked grown-up sailors.

Battle Of The Crater

On June 15th 1864, the Union Army began the longest siege in American history, as they spent 292-days attempting to capture the Confederate city of Petersburg, Virginia. The Confederates had set up strong defensive trenches just outside the city, making a charge difficult. So, 10-days into the siege, the Union Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants came up with an insane plan, as he ordered his men to dig a tunnel underneath the Confederate line, fill it with gunpowder, and blow the enemy up from below.

After a month of digging, the 586ft long tunnel was filled with 4-tons of gunpowder, and on July 30th, they lit the fuse and waited for fireworks. But 45-minutes later the gunpowder still hadn’t gone off, so Pleasants demanded that two men volunteer to crawl through the explosive mine and check whether the fuse was still lit.

It was a pretty terrible job offer, but incredibly, Sgt. Henry Reese and Lt. Jacob Doughty took up the call and started crawling through the tunnel, knowing that the gunpowder around them could ignite any second. As they reached the halfway point of the mine, they discovered that the fuse had broken, preventing ignition.

So, the men fixed the fuse, re-lit it and crawled like hell to the exit, as the spark raced towards the gunpowder behind them. They made it out in time, and turned around to see a gigantic explosion that took 278 Confederate lives and left a 170ft-long crater in its wake.

As soon as the fire subsided, the Union soldiers charged into the crater, hoping to climb out the other side and advance to the Confederate’s next line of defenses. But, when they got there, they found that it was too steep for them to climb back out again, and they were stuck in the hole.

By this point, the Confederate reinforcements had started to arrive, so, they simply stood at the crater’s rim and shot down at the Union troops below, like fish in a barrel. This resulted in a massacre, and the surviving Union soldiers were forced to retreat back to their original positions. By the end of the Battle of the Crater, there were 3,798 Union casualties and just 1,491 Southern casualties. This allowed the Confederates to strengthen their defences and hold Petersburg for another 239-days, until the Union finally took it in the last week of the Civil War.

So, while Reese and Doughty’s death-defying crawl and the futile charge into the Petersburg crater were undoubtedly two of the worst jobs during the war. Pleasants’ plan didn’t speed up the siege and they were both ultimately pointless.

Coal Torpedo

Today, the military uses trucks and tanks to traverse the battlefield. But in the 1860s, steam trains were the fastest means of overland travel, so they were essential for transporting troops and supplies during the Civil War. Both armies built new military railways during the conflict, but they were huge targets, and working as a train driver was actually one of the most dangerous jobs around.

Both sides regularly damaged the enemy’s tracks to derail trains that passed over them, and they also attempted to directly raid enemy trains and set their carriages on fire. Trains were heavily-guarded to deter these attacks, but in 1864 the Confederates came up with a plan to attack them more covertly, with a booby-trap called the “coal torpedo.”

This was a small bomb that would be painted with coal dust to disguise it as a lump of coal. Then it would be smuggled onto a Union train or steam boat and hidden in the coal storage near the engine, so when the driver shoveled coal into the furnace, the bomb would ignite and explode.

The Confederates actually failed to successfully smuggle a coal torpedo onto a train. But in 1864, they did manage to sneak one onto a Union steamboat called The Greyhound and sink the ship! The Union Admiral David Dixon Porter said this attack put Yankee ingenuity to shame, and from this point Union steamboat captains and train drivers knew that each time they shoveled coal they were at risk of exploding. This must’ve made the jobs pretty terrifying.

Blockade Runners

The Civil War was fought with muskets, but it was won with tactics, and one of the Union’s boldest strategic moves was their “Anaconda Plan”. From April 1861, they stationed 500 ships around the Southern coast from Virginia to Texas, to destroy or capture any boats bringing supplies to Confederate ports.

The South wasn’t industrialized, so they got their weapons, medicine and machinery by exporting cotton to Caribbean islands, and trading with the European nations that controlled them. The Union’s blockade disrupted these trades, and because the South’s navy was tiny compared to the North’s, they couldn’t fight through it.

So instead, the Confederates started recruiting sailors as “Blockade Runners”, who’d use small, fast steamboats to sneak past the Union’s web of patrolling warships. The runners painted their ships grey, and sailed on moonless nights to decrease their chances of being spotted and blown up.

This job was pretty terrifying, but the South heavily relied on these trades, so if they managed to get through the blockade and sneak back again with valuable supplies they’d be paid incredibly well. Ultimately, over 600,000 rifles were smuggled into the South, which sounds impressive. But more than 1100 blockade runner ships were captured by the Union, and over 300 were blasted out of the water.

In the end, the Union blocked 95% of the Confederacy’s cotton exports, which disrupted their trades and ruined their economy. This meant the South suffered with supply shortages throughout the war, which directly led to the Union’s victory, and showed that the Blockade Runners ultimately put themselves in danger for nothing!

War Surgeons

The Civil War was brutal, and an estimated 476,000 soldiers were wounded in battle. As a result, the doctors on both sides had their work cut out for them, as they had to treat these life-threatening injuries in gruesome conditions. Instead of a sterilized operating room, they performed surgeries in tents or houses that were converted into emergency hospitals, and in multiple instances barn-doors were torn off and used as operating tables.

At the time, surgery wasn’t very advanced, and the number of limb injuries meant that nearly three-quarters of the operations performed during the war were amputations. This resulted in literal piles of arms and legs outside the hospitals, which isn’t very hygienic.

But knowledge of germs at the time was limited, so the doctors didn’t sterilize their medical equipment and disease was rampant. Two-thirds of the war’s casualties were caused by diseases like dysentery and smallpox, and the conditions in field hospitals meant that twice as many doctors caught them as regular soldiers. So, a surgeon’s job essentially involved performing thousands of horrific operations, while constantly trying to avoid catching deadly diseases.

First Minnesota Infantry Regiment

On July 1st 1863, the Confederate invasion of the North culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg; the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil. 51,000 of the 167,000 combatants became casualties, and one regiment had it worse than all the others, as it statistically became the worst regiment to serve in for the entire war.

On the second-day of the battle, a section of the Union line began to collapse under an attack from 1800 Confederate soldiers, and the First Minnesota Infantry Regiment were the only men close enough to plug the gap. Despite being outnumbered nearly 7-1, General Hancock ordered the 262 Union soldiers to charge, and hold the enemy back until reinforcements arrived.

The men couldn’t disobey the order, so they were forced to fix their bayonets and face the much larger force. Incredibly, the Confederates were taken by surprise, and the Minnesotans drove them back until reinforcements strengthened the Union frontline. But when the fighting was done, only 47 of the 262 First Minnesotans made it off the battlefield.

Their sacrifice was huge, and without it, the South might have broken through and won at Gettysburg, which could’ve drastically changed the outcome of the war. So, while their bravery directly allowed the Union to win the battle, under one in five of them survived, and serving as a First Minnesotan was undeniably one of the worst jobs around in the 1860s!

Abraham Lincoln Bodyguard

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President on a platform that opposed slavery and rejected the South’s wish to leave the USA. This led to the Civil War and made him public enemy number one for the Confederates who made several attempts to violently end his presidency.

As a result, being Lincoln’s bodyguard was pretty stressful, and in February 1861, they had to go undercover in a pro-slavery group in Baltimore, to foil several plots targeting him while he was celebrating his election. Then, later on in 1864, they had to protect the President after a sniper shot at him outside his country home. They kept Lincoln out of danger but the attempt was so close that it shot off his trademark top-hat.

Still, Lincoln’s bodyguards managed to keep him safe until the end of the war, and weeks after the South surrendered in 1865, the President decided to take a trip to the theatre. He’d sent his usual bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, to Virginia on an errand, so a police officer called John Frederick Parker guarded him instead.

Parker was posted right outside the door of Lincoln’s presidential box, but he got bored because he couldn’t see the play, so he decided to have a drink at a nearby tavern during the intermission. He got so drunk that he fell asleep, and as he snoozed a Confederate sympathizer called John Wilkes Booth snuck into Lincoln’s box with a loaded gun, and ended his presidency.

In polls, Lincoln is still considered to be America’s most beloved president, and Lincoln’s wife personally blamed Parker for letting Booth get to him. So while all of the President’s bodyguards had a stressful, high-stakes job, Parker’s role, and his failure to perform it, meant that he’s gone down in history as the man responsible for Abraham Lincoln’s passing. The only person with a worse job was Lincoln himself!

Barrel Punishment

The Confederates were the first military force in history that regularly used landmines, so specialized mine-clearing tools didn’t exist yet, and the Union had to dig them up by hand. This was one of the most perilous jobs in the entire war, and in 1862, a Northern Lieutenant called Francis Tupper had his leg blown off after his horse stepped on a mine.

General William Sherman was furious, and he was so disgusted by the South’s use of these weapons that he thought the Confederates should dispose of the mines they buried. So, he gave his prisoners-of-war the terrible job of marching ahead of his army to either find the mines and dig them up with a shovel or set them off with their feet.

In his memoirs, Sherman said that he ‘could hardly help laughing’ as the terrified Confederate prisoners tiptoed down the road, which seems pretty cruel. But, the Union were just as harsh on their own men, and both sides of the war disciplined serious crimes like desertion with a trip to the firing squad.

Even minor offences were cruelly punished, and if a soldier was caught stealing or drinking they could be forced to wear something called a “barrel shirt”, before being paraded around camp. That sounds pretty embarrassing, but, most would still rather throw on a barrel and face some public humiliation than take the job of walking across a minefield!

Picket Guards

After a long day of fighting, Civil War soldiers must’ve relished the idea of setting up camp and dozing off in a tent. But each night, a group of 40-50 soldiers called “pickets” weren’t allowed any rest, as they were stationed far away from camp, so-close to the enemy that they could occasionally hear them speaking!

The pickets were essentially guards that were tasked with keeping an eye on the enemy and watching out for any incoming attacks. But they were posted around half-a-mile away from their own camp, so if the enemy attacked without warning, they’d reach the isolated Pickets before they could escape, and the guards would have to face the advancing army alone.

It was easily one of the most deadly jobs given to both Union and Confederate infantrymen, and it was rotated through the ranks, so anyone could be stuck with Picket-Duty on any given night. Furthermore, the Pickets couldn’t abandon their posts as it would allow the enemy to freely advance, so if you were caught fleeing your punishment would be a trip to the firing squad.

As a result, in the freezing winter of 1862, the Confederates discovered that a unit of their Pickets had frozen solid, and two of them were still standing with guns in their hands. Instead of returning to camp and facing capital punishment, the men had to brave the cold, and in their final moments they were forced to face the enemy with no backup and no choice but to stand their ground and freeze.

Mule Bombs

Serving on either side of the Civil War was pretty terrible. But one of the worst jobs during the conflict didn’t belong to a soldier, it belonged to an animal. Animals were used extensively by both sides, as horses were ridden in cavalry regiments, dogs came along as regimental mascots, and on one-occasion, mules were used as attack bombers.

Well in 1862, the Union Captain James Graydon was planning to raid a Confederate camp in New Mexico, right on the banks of the Rio Grande river. Graydon had a reputation for using strange tactics, and this time he decided that instead of charging the Confederates, he’d strap bombs to two of his mules and send them towards the enemy.

Graydon and his men stealthily led the mules to the edge of the Confederate camp, before lighting their fuses and shooing them towards it. But these attack mules were too loyal to their owners, and as Graydon’s regiment ran away, the mules turned around and chased after them. The Northerners ran for their lives, and they all just managed to escape as the bombs exploded.

So Graydon’s ass-inine idea didn’t blow up the confederates and it almost cost him his life. But as a consolation prize, the explosions did cause 200 of the Confederates’ mules and horses to panic and flee from their camp, which weakened them and forced them to retreat from the area a month later.

This meant that, in a way, Graydon’s plan was successful, but there was no consolation to the mules. These devoted beasts were forced to carry bombs into battle, and as they tried to follow their owners back home, they were betrayed and blown up. Human or animal, it’s hard to imagine a worse job than that!

Mary Bowser: Freed Slave, Black Union Spy

In Hollywood, being a spy involves driving sports-cars and slamming martinis, but espionage during the Civil War wasn’t so glamorous. The punishment for spying was final, so volunteering to go undercover was incredibly courageous, and one of the Union’s bravest spies was undoubtedly Mary Bowser.

Bowser was born into slavery in Virginia in 1840, but her owner’s daughter Elizabeth Van Lew became an anti-slavery advocate as a teenager. So when Elizabeth’s father passed in 1843 she freed all his slaves, and when Mary was a teenager she paid for her to move to Philadelphia and receive an education.

Mary returned to the South in the 1860s, and discovered that Elizabeth had become a key figure in the anti-slavery movement by setting up an organized spy-ring that collected intel on the Confederates. Mary wanted to get involved, so Elizabeth arranged for her to go undercover in the Confederate White House in Richmond, Virginia, and work as a servant to the Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Davis’s racist views meant he didn’t suspect Bowser of being a spy, so he left her alone with top-secret documents that she could read and copy-down while pretending to tidy-up. Mary was even able to eavesdrop on the Confederate Senate’s top-secret meetings, before passing the valuable information to Elizabeth, who’d send it straight to the Union Army’s leader General Grant.

Unfortunately, few intelligence records survived the Civil War, so we don’t know the exact information that Mary stole. But after the war, Elizabeth received personal thanks from General Grant, and Mary was one of her best spies, so it’s likely that Mary’s intel directly helped the Union win the war. Furthermore, the fact that she willingly went back to the South and posed as a slave after being freed, shows how incredible she was, as she put her life on the line to fight the Confederates and put an end to slavery in the USA!

If you were amazed at the worst jobs you could have in the American Civil War you might want to read about the deadliest jobs of WW1. Thanks for reading!