'Going on Picket with the Boys in Grey...

    There follows a series of three quotations relevant to the duration of picket watches, the establishment of reserve posts, and to the equipment carried when on picket by Confederate troops. To these many more could be added, and a good deal of variation could be observed, but for me these are prime quotes.

    The following is an extract from Blessington's "Campaigns of Walker's Texas Division" (published in 1875). Walkers Division (also known as the Greyhound Division) was probably the most elite combat formation in the Trans-Mississippi in the later war. They were primarily responsible for the decisive Confederate victory in the 1864 Red River Campaign, and recorded some long marches to rival the best effort's of Stonewall Jackson's men. The following extract from pages 158-159 is very instructive for setting up of a picket line.

    We will accompany a regiment going on picket, in order to give our readers an idea of how the men got on. Their blankets are thrown over their shoulders; their guns are clean and bright; they take up line of march in the direction of the enemy, they halt and establish their reserve posts, while further on they place their pickets, with strict orders to keep a sharp lookout. It was night; the men have to scramble through the brush and trees, though ravines, to gain the different stations.
    Thus our pickets in front quietly and noiselessly keep their posts. They are relieved every two hours and go back to join their commands, who are grouped around a blazing fire in some ravine, sheltered from the enemy's observation. Here they refresh themselves out of their haversacks, and perhaps join in a game of cards, or listen to those wonderful tales that, like those of the "Arabian Nights" are got up to the entertainment of the company.
    Only the experienced can know the real state of a man's mind when on picket duty, especially if in hourly expectation of the enemies approach. They alone can understand the watchfulness and care necessary to protect the line, as well as the sentinel. Eyes and ears must be ever ready to catch the faintest sound, and the musket must be in place for instant duty in the event of an alarm.

    In Carlton McCarthy's oft-quoted (though sometimes dubious) memoir "Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia" (1882), McCarthy records the following about the mechanics of picket duty:

    Sometimes (at first) the whole detail for guard, first, second and third relief, would make it a point of honor to sit up the entire night, and watch and listen as though the enemy might pounce upon them at any moment, and hurry them off to prison. Of course they soon learned how sweet it was, after two hours on beat, to turn in for four hours! which seemed to the sleepy man an eternity in anticipation, but only a brief time in retrospect, when the corporal gave him a "chunk" and remarked, "Time to go on guard"..

    James M. Williams of the 21st Alabama Infantry (which served in the Western Theater of war) describes his experience of picket duty in a letter to his wife as follows (from "That Terrible Field", Folmar ed., 1981;

    Saturday morning at 7 & 1/2 o'clock we started for the last post of picket. King, one other man and myself each carried his arms and equipment complete, a blanket with two ends tied together thrown like a scarf over the right shoulder, a haversack filled with eatables, and a canteen full of water. An oil cloth covering and waterproof leggings tied to the blanket made it a heavy load under which we marched down to the post of the advanced picket, which is between four and five miles down the island.

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