The Weight of the World

A soldier during the Civil War. heck all wars, have to carry their entire world on them. Everything the need to live and fight needs to be within reach. Sure when times were good units would have supply wagons to take some of the burden, but when speed of march is an issue it would not be unusually for the men be a day or two ahead of the wagons. This diagram breaks down how much each piece of a soldiers kit weighed. A little hard to read, so I will break it down here.

Knapsack that contained a wool blanket, gum blanket, shelter half and personal items 16 lbs

Canteen with one quart of water 3 lbs

Haversack with 3 days marching rations 7 lbs

Cap pouch, Waist belt, Bayonet and Scabbard 3 lbs

Shoes and Clothes 5 lbs

Cartridge box and 40 rounds of ammunition 5 lbs

Extra Ammunition (In pockets) 2 lbs

Rifle-Musket 9 lbs

In total about 50 lbs of kit. A normal march would be between 6 and 8 miles a day (sometimes up to 20 or more). In the warm weather of campaign season wearing a wool uniform that does not make for a comfortable day. One thing that the Union troops found out early in the war was that all that equipment tended to make running away much more difficult, so they would ditch anything they could. A long trail of debris would mark the path of a retreating unit. Of course to the pursuing Confederate forces this was a windfall as they could pick up the leftovers and do pretty well.