Chemical Warfare and the Howlett Line

   In the minds of many, the War of the 1860s was a stand-up fight. Early on, armies met each other on a field of battle, duking it out until one side quit the field. That system of warfare had existed for millennia. Later, the war moved into the trenches. However, it was still a traditional fight.

   On both sides of the conflict, people, usually citizens, often proposed chemical warfare to their respective governments as a means to bring the conflict to a speedy end. There were proposals to pack artillery shells with phosphorus and hydrogen cyanide, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrogen chloride. Stink bombs (or stinkpots) were frequently proposed as an effective, and non-lethal way of driving soldiers out of their fortifications.

   Probably the only such weapons developed and used successfully during the war were incendiary devices commonly known as “Greek Fire.” “Greek Fire” was nothing new. It was possibly being used by the Byzantine Empire in the mid-7^th century. They sprayed it on enemy vessels, setting them on fire.  “Greek Fire” is often described as “a fluid or solid substance that would ignite spontaneously (or upon being lit), burn on or under water, engage objects in flame, and resist being extinguished by conventional means.” There are of course many stories of “Greek Fire” being used against the civilian populations of Vicksburg, Mississippi and Charleston, South Carolina.[1] 

Fort Brady (Library of Congress) 

   There is at least one account of some form of “Greek Fire” being used against the defenders of Richmond and Petersburg, and even under the personal watch of Federal general U. S. Grant. On November 24, 1864, Grant, with fellow generals George C. Meade and Benjamin F. Butler, gathered at Fort Brady on the James River to observe a demonstration of liquid fire. The concoction was the scheme of Alfred Berney, a New Jersey citizen. Berney had been trying to persuade the Federal government to invest in his schemes. He had approached the Navy about equipping the USS Monitor with chemicals and a pump to spray fire on the CSS Virginia. While no contract for the pump was issued, the Navy agreed to supply some of their ships at Hampton Roads with the concoction. Some of these were used on Confederate positions at Yorktown on April 30, 1862, but the results were mixed. It was some of Berney’s shells that were fired into the city of Charleston later in the war.[2]

   In a test before Grant, Meade, and Butler arrived, writing from Fort Brady, Capt. H. H. Pierce, 1^st Connecticut Artillery, made the following report on November 19, 1864:

   “Birney was here to try a few shots at the house near the rebel battery that fires at Dutch Gap… distance 1,500 yards. Used two common shells to get the range. Struck the chimney the first time, and made a perceptible hole in the roof the second time. Then loaded with one of his shells, which went a trickle over, owing to the greater weight, and struck in the water without bursting. Tried another, which passed in at the front door, struck the chimney on the opposite side, burst, and completely filled the building with burning liquid. Just as the fire began to appear through the roof [we] sent another shell, which burst like the previous one and in an instant almost the whole house was wrapped in flames; the most beautiful site you ever saw…”[3]

   That was just a test. The real demonstration came a few days later. The New York Daily Herald reported that during a demonstration on November 24, “Five frame houses, distance near a mile, were successively fired and burned to the ground.” Also reported was the destruction of a magazine containing shells.[4]

   Did Confederate forces make any mention of the incendiary shells? That is hard to say, given the loss of Confederate records. The New York Daily Tribune article goes on to say that on November 26, Confederate artillery opened fire on the Federal position. The Confederates “poured the shell very lively for near two hours into Fort Brady.” Nothing really coincides with the account in the Official Records, although there is an account of an engagement on the morning of November 29.[5] The Confederate position was along the Howlett Line, and under the command of Maj. Gen. George Picket. Maybe more research can produce a Confederate account of the events.

   If you are interested in learning more about Chemical Weapons and the War, check out Guy R. Hasegawa’s Villainous Compounds: Chemical Weapons & the American Civil War (2015). It appears to be the only book on the subject.

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[1] Hasegawa, Villainous Compounds, 7.

[2] Hasegawa, Villainous Compounds, 17-18.

[3] Official Records, Vol. 42, 3:664-665.

[4] New York Daily Herald, December 1, 1864.

[5] Official Records Vol. 42, 3:1231.