SNOWBALL FIGHT!!

Sick of the snow yet?

I know I sure am. I've spent a lot of time over the years shoveling the driveway with my family, and at only 5' tall, I found the 2 1/2 feet of snow we got this year not to my liking. Anyone know what I mean?

Of course, you may be sitting there laughing at me right now since there's no snow where you live. Huh, Rub it in.

To get through the shoveling, I was trying to find a way to make it fun. That's when I looked over and saw my 5 year-old sister throw a snowball at my grandfather. Yeah, she missed, but it was adorable to see her try. That brings me to my topic for this week: Snowball fights.

In the Civil War, soldier life wasn't as glamorous as we make it out to be today. These men weren't running into battle and becoming instant heroes every day. Instead, most days they were being bored to death with drilling. One soldier said this:

"The first thing in the morning is drill, then drill, then drill again. Then drill, drill, a little more drill. Then drill, and lastly drill. Between drills, we drill, and sometimes stop to eat a little and have roll-call."

— Oliver Norton, 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry

Get it? Lots of drill.

So to keep from going insane, (a lot of soldiers would go crazy from more than just the battle trauma; they'd go crazy from the boredom!), soldiers would make life interesting. Music, cards and sports were some of their favorite pastimes.

In the winter, the monotony was especially bad; they not only had to fight boredom, they also had to fight the cold! Not to mention, armies didn't usually move during the winter, making for a long, cold, wait for warm weather.

In the winter, soldiers acted just like boys as they built snowmen, ice skated and went sledding. Others were more ferocious; leading snowball fights with battle-like fury.

They would literally line up in battle formation (complete with buglers and drummers, all the works), and charge the other company, regiment or even whole battalion who was throwing snowballs at them. It was intense; many were bruised and battered, and some men got a broken bone or two. The unfortunate man who was caught on the enemy line of this "battle" was then dragged into the snow and had snow shoved down his shirt. Usually, Officers were the main target of these snowballs, and no one was allowed to sit out (the men would make sure these soldiers participated).

There you go: Proof that the snow can be fun and intense all at the same time. I guess that's what happens when you have soldiers, in the same confines, drilling for battle, and entirely bored to death for months at a time.
 And, by the way, I did join in in my sister's sledding down the 4' bank that was made by shoveling out the driveway...and it was pretty fun! 

How did you have fun with the snow this week?

Sources:

htlinetp://www.battleofolustee.org/related/video.htm

http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/a-desperate-snow-battle.html?referrer=https://www.facebook.com/

http://www.civilwar.org/education/pdfs/civil-war-curriculum-3.pdfhttp://gettysburgcompiler.com/2016/01/06/soldiers-and-sportsball/