“Like a Game”: Henry C. Wright’s First Time in Combat

The Civil War saw men mobilized to fight and die at a scale that was utterly unprecedented in American history. Millions of young men faced the prospect of a violent death for the first time – as well as the idea of killing their peers. That is a fairly singular human experience; very little could have prepared them for lining up in a field, loading a musket, firing it at other men very much like themselves, and then repeating the process over and over.

Some of the most compelling accounts from Civil War soldiers describe their first time in combat  – “seeing the elephant,” as the saying went. Each is unique, but Private Henry C. Wright’s account has stuck with me since I first read it a few months ago.

Wright was twenty-one years old, born in New York City but transplanted to the small town of Moscow, Texas. Like so many others, in 1861 he answered the call to enlist. He signed on with Company F of the Fourth Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers, imagining a war that would end quickly and triumphantly. [1]

He first saw combat at the battle of Valverde, the largest battle fought during Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley’s invasion of New Mexico. That fighting culminated in dismounted Confederate cavalry desperately charging a Union artillery battery. After the war, Wright recalled:

“Before the battle I felt very uneasy, and after it was over, shivered with dread as I thought of the many narrow escapes I had. But during the fighting I was as carefree as though I was in a frolic and, filled with excitement, thought of nothing but to shoot straight and get to the river. When we captured the guns and turned them upon the fleeing men, it was all to me like a game, and not until all was over did I realize what a terrible thing a battle was.” [2]

His account was written well after the war, and he could have easily whitewashed it. Instead, we see two distinct themes come through. The first, “shivering with dread” afterward, is a common physiological response to combat, but indicates a level of fear that not all veterans were willing to admit to.

To my eye, the more striking thing is that Wright admits to having fun – “in a frolic”, “filled with excitement”, “like a game.” This comes across as remarkably bloodthirsty, and feels more genuine and honest for it.

It’s especially noteworthy because Wright’s account as a whole is extremely thoughtful and measured. He has kind words for some of the Union officers after he’s captured later in the campaign. He also dissects the extent to which Sibley’s invasion failed to win the hearts and minds of Hispanic and Native American residents of New Mexico, showing a level of analysis and thoughtfulness in the 1800s that would be noteworthy in an account from a modern war.

But none of that perspective results in Wright pulling his punches or shying away from being honest about what he actually felt that day. Reading his account, I’m reminded of a much more famous quote, from a much more experienced soldier. Later in 1862 and almost two thousand miles from the Valverde battlefield, while watching the devastation wrought on the Union Army of the Potomac in its hopeless attacks on Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg, General Robert E. Lee is purported to have shared a sentiment very similar to Wright’s: “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”

[1] Tate, Michael L. (1987) “A Johnny Reb in Sibley’s New Mexico Campaign: Reminiscences of Pvt. Henry C. Wright, 1861-1862, Part I,” East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 25: Iss. 2, Article 7. 

[2] Tate, Michael L. (1987) “A Johnny Reb in Sibley’s New Mexico Campaign: Reminiscences of Pvt. Henry C. Wright, 1861-1862, Part I,” East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 25: Iss. 2, Article 7.