More about myths

Here's an interesting article. It describes a study of Civil War veteran's health records.

What is the myth here? This line:

"Civil War battles frequently culminated in hand-to-hand combat..." (emphasis added)

I know it makes for great Hollywood and many of the paintings and illustrations made at the time show gallant hand-to-hand battles, but it just ain't so. [I'll try to find specific references in Catton.]

The Civil War had the typical problem that the tactics were from the last war while the weapons had changed. Many authors note this fact. The use of rifled .58 caliber Minnie ball ammunition against essentially Napoleonic troop concentrations meant that hand-to-hand combat actually occurred very seldom. Especially by the end of the war, trench warfare was the norm. The defense had an enormous advantage over the attackers. Most troops never used their bayonets for anything more aggressive than picking weevils out of hardtack.

That is not to say that hand-to-hand combat never occurred - it did. But it happened very infrequently indeed. You can read about the battles of the war yourself and see how seldom it actually occurred.