What was the Confederate policy regarding land mines during the US Civil War?

Answer 1

The Confederacy's first incident of using land mines came in early 1862. The cavalry of Union General Gabriel were leading his army on a road between the James and York Rivers in Virginia. The cavalry horses set off a series of Confederate land mines designed by Gabriel Rains. The explosions were devastating. Panic prevailed and casualties were high. The mines were a design based on the ones of Samuel Colt that he created and abandoned long before the war. The Northern newspapers expressed outrage of the barbaric tactics of these weapons. Even Confederate General James Longstreet was outraged and banned their use. This created a controversy in the South and Rains appealed to Jefferson Davis to help him with the policy of Longstreet.

Davis assigned the matter over to the Secretary of War, George Randolph, who was Thomas Jefferson's grandson. After due consideration the landmine policy was issued. It called the use of the mines only for the purpose of protecting Southern parapets to repel an assault or in a road to help prevent Union troops from pursuing a retreating Confederate army. It would not be allowed, as in the case of General Gabriel incident, to plant mines merely to destroy life and without other design than that of causing the death or wounding of a small number of soldiers.

Answer 2

The Confederacy's first incident of using land mines came in early 1862. The cavalry of Union General Gabriel were leading his troops on a road between the James and York Rivers. The cavalry horses set off a series of Confederate mines designed by Gabriel Rains. The explosions were devastating. Panic prevailed and casualties were high. The mines were based on designs of Samuel Colt who created then abandoned them before the War. Northern newspapers expressed outrage over these barbaric tactics. Even Confederate General James Longstreet was outraged and banned their use. This created a controversy in the South and Rains appealed to Confederate Jefferson Davis to help him overturn the policy of Longstreet. Davis turned the matter over to the Secretary of War, George Randolph, who was the grandson of Thomas Jefferson. After due consideration, a land mine policy was introduced. It called for the use of mines only for limited purposes. This included using them to protect a Southern parapet to repel an assault, or in a road to help prevent Union troops from pursuing a retreating Southern army.

It would not be allowed as in the case of the Gabriel incident to plant mines simply to destroy life and without other designs other than to damage a small number of enemy troops in their assault or to slow down a Union army chasing a retreating Southern army. Here the idea was that having even a few mines explode would certainly halt the Union as they would not know if other mines were planted in their way.