If true, it would change my perception of Civil War armies, and indeed lead to the question: how many Confederate troops were gunned down by their own units?
At least as early as the spring of 1862, the file closer’s job description expanded. They were given the added task of following behind the lines of battle and ensuring that the men fought and did not run. Anyone who attempted to flee the front line was forced back at sword or gunpoint. File closers were also empowered to execute any man who failed to do his duty. During the siege of petersburg on the 22nd February 1865, R. E. Lee included a circular to his general Orders No. 4. It was distributedthroughout the Army of Northern Virginia and underscored the need for keen military discipline in the face of internecine fighting along the siege lines. With regard to file closers, he wrote:-
I call your attention particularly to the following order with reference to the duties of file closers, which you will immediately carry into execution.... The whole number of file closers in each company shall be one for every ten men.... They will be required to prevent straggling and be held responsible for their respective squads of ten. In action they will keep two paces behind the rear rank of their several squads .... with loaded guns and fixed bayonets. They will be diligently instructed to aid in preserving order in the ranks and enforcing obedience to commands and to permit no man to leave his place unless wounded, excused in writing by the medical officer of the regiment or by order of the regimental commander. For this purpose they will use such degree of force as may be necessary. if any refuse to advance, disobey orders or leave the ranks to plunder or to retreat, the file closer will promptly cut down or fire upon the delinquents. They will retreat in the same manner any man who uses words or actions calculated to produce alarm among the troops.... It will be enjoined upon file closers that they shal make the evasion of duty more dangerous than its performance.
In light of Lee’s instructions, the role of file closer was not a popular one. Although the Official Records gives no hint that soldiers sometimes turned on file closers in combat, it is not unlikely such actions occurred frequent;ly enough to prevent most men hankering for the job.
http://www.acws.co.uk/nl/nl0701/fileclosers.htm
“It was probably 3 o’clock or later in the afternoon when the cannon fire of the enemy ceased. General Pickett went to Longstreet and asked if he should make the charge according to the orders issued. He (Longstreet) did not reply by word of mouth. He simply nodded. We were ordered to fix bayonets. The Colonel spoke to us. ‘See that wall there; it is full of Yankees: I want you to help take it.’ He told the file-closers to see that all the men kept up, and if any lagged shoot them, or he would have the file-closers themselves shot. Just before we reached the Emmitsburg Road a shell killed three and wounded three, a loss of six out of my company of only 25. Our pace was regular time.
http://richmondthenandnow.com/Newspaper-Articles/Pickett%27s-Last-Man.html
Jackson also shot stragglers on his marches. His biographers pass over that, claiming he was ‘a magnificent marcher of men.” How he got the men to march so far, so fast— best not to talk about that.
http://www02.us.archive.org/stream/campfiresconfed00breegoog/campfiresconfed00breegoog_djvu.txt
Above link to an interesting compilation of anecdotes. Thought it would amuse you.
He Forgot His Brains.
There was a desperate fight in Tennessee, in which a colonel very largely distinguished himself, and, as the result of such distguishment, had most of the top of his head shot off. He was
carried to the rear, and the surgeon in charge of the field hospital, seeing that it was a severe case, applied heroic treatment. He scooped out the brains and proceeded to wash them in an old army bucket near at hand. While this was going on a message came from the commanding general saying that the wounded colonel had been promoted to a brigadier-generalship for gallantry on the field, and requesting him to report at the front immediately. With the top of his head in the hands of the surgeon, and his brains in the bucket, the colonel mounted his horse and prepared to obey the order.
Thereupon the surgeon said to him :
“Here, you have forgotten your brains!” “What of that?”
said the late colonel, as he cast a glance of pity toward the men with whole heads about him. *’ What need have I of brains ? I’m a brigadier-general now!”
File Closers Don^t Count.
Captain Cleveland, of the Fifth Texas Infantry, Army of
Northern Virginia, on one occasion offer’d a reward of one hundred dollars to the man who first reached the enemy’s works. In the regiment was a sergeant named Keyes, a most notorious coward — one who would have a chill the hottest day in July if he heard picket firing, and to whom the prospect of a fight was the signal for a severe attack of bomb ague. After the fight the question of the identity of the man who was entitled to the premium came up, and was settled by a wag claiming that Keyes, the coward, was the winner, for he had heard Captain Cleveland shout out to him just as he reached the works : “Stop, Keyes; file closers don’t count.”
page 118 of the previous reference.
I guess that the joke was that Keyes was always a bit behind the lines, and so was mingled with the file closers.