What did union soldiers do to train in the civil war?

Answer 1

What training there was usually amounted to "drill". This was practicing, over and over different types of movements. Most Civil War soldiers were infantrymen - foot soldiers. When the army was moving they usually went in "column" - usually four men wide, one row behind the other. These columns could stretch for miles along a road if the entire army was going somewhere. But when the enemy was encountered, the men had to get from "column" to "line". Both armies used linear tactics. The men lined up in two long rows, one behind the other. Every man had his place in the line, and to get them there in an orderly fasion from marching in column took practice. Once in line, standing side by side, there were various maneuvers the lines might be called on to do, and these had to be practiced, over and over.

There was also loading drill, going through the motions of loading their weapons, so it would be automatic under the stress of combat. Even with all the practice actual combat was incredibly, deafeningly noisy and disorienting. After the Battle of Gettysburg the Union Army picked up 21,000 rifle-muskets off the battlefield. About half of them were found to be double-loaded - the soldier had loaded the weapon but forgot to fire it, or thought he had but could not distinguish the sound of his own gun going off in the incredible noise, and then rammed another load down the barrel. This was very dangerous and likely to cause the gun to explode if he tried to fire after loading the second round. One musket had 21 charges rammed down the barrel.

Cavalry and artillery had their own forms of drill.

All branches drilled, usually morning and afternoon, when they were in a camp and had time.

Answer 2

To begin with the Southern militia was much better trained than the Northern volunteers because the South stepped up their training following Harper's Ferry. It took time for McClellan to train the volunteers and turn them into a credible army. As with most wars, the soldiers' experience consisted of "days and nights of unspeakable boredom punctuated by several minutes of absolute terror."

Answer 3

Most of the people who fought in the civil war were farmers and market workers, so they trained a lot. They repeatedly did drills everyday. Some officers didn't even bring their troops into battle and just repeated to do drills everyday. As stated in a letter from a soldier, "They drilled us to death."

Answer 4

they did running drills, shooting and target practice, and gambled when bored.