The common soldier

          One common thread for many commanders in both armies during the American Civil War was sewn years earlier when they served together in the United States Army during the Mexican War.

          Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, George Meade, James Longstreet and Thomas (not yet called ‘Stonewall’) Jackson served in that conflict. None were generals at that point of their careers, but they all played one role or another and all on the same side.

          The Mexican War does not get the same study or popular attention as does the

John Isaac Baird

Civil War. Reading some Civil War studies leads you to believe that Grant and the others mentioned above went down to Mexico with General Winfield Scott and pretty much handled everything by themselves.

          They didn’t, of course. There were lots of common soldiers involved in the fighting. Otherwise, the officers would have nobody to order around.

          One of the common soldiers in the army at that time was a Private named John Isaac Baird. Baird served in Cunningham’s Alabama Regiment in Mexico, mustering in on June 29, 1846.

Baird put his experience to work later when he enlisted in the Confederate Army in early July, 1862 as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the Cavalry Battalion of Hilliard’s Legion. The Cavalry Battalion, the Legion’s 5^th, was split off from the Legion very soon after it was founded to become part of the 10^th Confederate Cavalry.

Ironically, the 10^th was part of the Confederate Army of Tennessee, as was the Legion, by the fall of 1863. Serving in the brigade commanded by Brig. General Archibald Gracie, the Legion won fame during the bloody Battle of Chickamauga. The 10^th also fought valiantly in that battle.

Baird, however, was not at Chickamauga. He was promoted to Captain on April 15, 1863 but resigned due to physical disability on July 22 of the same year, a little less than two months before the clash at Chickamauga.

He became the Sheriff of Clay County, Alabama in 1867.

The information about Baird came from a great-great grandson of Baird’s, Monte Rogers, who also allowed this blog to use the image of Baird that you see here. Nice guy.

The point here is that battlefield histories must concentrate on officers, usually high-ranking officers, in order to explain decisions and actions that take place during battles. Regiments are identified by their commanders and so forth. But for every commander mentioned there are hundreds or thousands of common soldiers who carry out those decisions and determine whether the actions are successful.

We must never forget the courage of the common soldiers, then or now.

 

Thanks for reading.