A Civil War battle was briefly paused so that soldiers could watch a fistfight
In one of the more peculiar moments of the Civil War, an entire battle came to a screeching halt so that everybody — Union and Confederate soldiers alike — could watch a fistfight. A Confederate soldier named John H. Worsham recounted the incident, which took place on May 5, 1864, on Saunders Field in Virginia during the Battle of the Wilderness, in his 1912 memoir One of Jackson’s Foot Cavalry. Worsham wrote that a small ditch ran down the center of the battlefield that was first used by Union soldiers to shelter them from enemy fire. When the soldiers vacated the ditch, one of them stayed behind. Soon after, a single Confederate soldier jumped into the ditch to find shelter — and it wasn’t long before the two soldiers noticed each other.
After the men exchanged some words, they decided to have what Worshom called a “regular fist and skull fight,” in which the winner would take the loser prisoner. The soldiers took their duel to a road midway through the battle lines, and both sides stopped fighting and rushed closer to get a better view. Ultimately, at least according to Worsham, the Union soldier lost and let himself be taken prisoner — but bear in mind that the tale comes from a book of Confederate, not Union, war stories.
There’s just something about two people in a fistfight that’s irresistible to watch. We can’t look away. There’s something about the sound of a sliding barstool, the rising tide of voices shouting and the sudden rush of action in one spot that is just pure entertainment.
But there shouldn’t be any reason to stop and watch two soldiers fistfight in the middle of war.
That’s why it’s surprising that it actually happened. And all the onlookers were Americans; it was during the Civil War.
In May 1864, Union and Confederate armies clashed in a dense, wooded area known as “The Wilderness” over the course of three days. More than 120,000 Yankees fought some 65,000 Rebels to an ultimately inconclusive result. Both sides took tens of thousands of killed and wounded, and the Union Army of the Potomac pushed farther into Virginia.
Before anyone knew the outcome of the battle, however, one small skirmish captured everyone’s attention, Union and Confederate.
In the middle of the Wilderness, between the two armies’ centers, was a clearing called Saunders Field. Being the only real clearing in the area between two opposing armies meant that it was full of artillery shells and the holes made by those shells, along with bullets. Just tons and tons of bullets.
Union soldier hid there to avoid being captured by the enemy. Then a Confederate soldier threw himself into the gully to avoid the hail of Union bullets coming toward him. They were the only two in the gully and didn’t even see one another.
Until they did see one another. And then they started “bantering” to one another.
Eventually the two had enough of one another and took it outside … of the gully. They stepped into the road for a good ol’ fashioned “fist and skull fight.” Whoever won would take the other as prisoner.
They were halfway between both sides of the battle, in full view of everyone in each opposing army. And the men in each of those armies stopped fighting the Civil War to watch a fistfight. All the other soldiers even ran up to get a better view of the fight.
Did I mention the Civil War stopped to watch this fight?
The account, written by a cavalryman of the Virginia Infantry, doesn’t mention how long the fight lasted, only that “Johnny [Reb] soon had the Yank down.” The Union soldier, true to his word, surrendered. They both returned to the gully, fighting resumed, and the man was taken back to Confederate lines.