How does this relate to beer and alcohol? Well, whiskey and a few other variations of alcohol played prominent roles in many of the campaigns throughout the Civil War.
Both the Northern and Southern Armies made good use of whiskey, bourbon etc. whenever the opportunity arose. It was considered a necessity for raising morale in certain instances. You know you've seen movie scenes when someone is hurt in battle and there's always someone with the booze saying "Here, have some of this. It'll help!" A recent book I've read about the Gettysburg campaign pitted numerous Confederate soldiers acquiring the ingredients for and thus making Mint Juleps.
For whatever reason I find this subject of the battle intriguing. I find that the combat tactics of 17th century warfare are fascinating. Standing in lines in order to mass your fire and shoot at each other seems utterly insane to some of us today. The tactics were not up-to-date with the technology that was available. I find it surprising that there aren't many more cases of generals over-indulging at the time of battle.
Ulysses S. Grant was well-known as a big partaker of drinking. Sometimes taking it to the extreme. I tried to focus this a little more towards Gettysburg since I'm headed there on Friday. There was one quite evident case as well as two plausible ones I've discovered at Gettysburg.
General Thomas A. Rowley
Rowley's case is the one of the three that I've found that holds the most amount of water. Coincidentally, Rowley hailed Pittsburgh. Rowley inherited a division of the Federal I Corps on the first day of fighting at Gettysburg.Multiple reports indicate him screaming incoherent orders as well as being spotted falling from his horse quite a few times. He was eventually removed from command by General Abner Doubleday before day's end.
Keep in mind that there was always a great portion of speculating back-stabbing and smearing in the post-war years between many generals. There is also a very new story claiming that Rowley had infected and very painful boils on his legs at the time of the battle. This could explain his fall(s) from his horse. Use your own discretion.
General James Barnes
If you're even somewhat familiar with the battle, you might not recognize General Barnes' name. With that said, you'll definitely recognize one the regiments in his division and its actions at Little Round Top when I say the 20th Maine.There isn't much to find as to where and what Barnes did on the second day of fighting at Gettysburg. Nobody is entirely sure. Almost all of it is pure speculation. I haven't been able to find many official reports mentioning him either. One thing that's a certainty is that he didn't personally direct all of his units on the second day.
It's of the opinion of a few historians that part of the reason Colonel Strong Vincent took such initiative into heading towards Little Round Top in order to defend it is because he was familiar with Barnes' drinking habits and that it was highly possible that he was preparing for battle by jumping back on the wagon.
General Alfred Iverson
Of the three generals I've mentioned in the post, the one about Confederate General Alfred Iverson seems to be the most unlikely. Iverson was part of General Robert E. Rodes' division that took action in the vicinity of Oak Hill on the first day.Iverson's brigade of North Carolinians had quite a rough afternoon that day. The plot of land that it marcheded over towards Union troops is now known as "Iverson's Pits." It wasn't a pretty site.
It's pretty clear that Iverson didn't march into battle with his troops and rather stayed behind. This led to numerous accusations in the days after the battle. According to some of these accusations, Iverson might have been a coward, a terrible general or a drunk at the time his brigade went into combat.
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