Some historians believe the GIs in Europe during the 1944-1945 winter had it much easier than Johnny Reb or Billy Yank during the Civil War winter of 1864-1865, 80 years earlier. They could not have been more wrong.[1]

In the winter camps of 1864-65, Civil War soldiers … on outpost duty … swapped tobacco, coffee, and insults with the enemy. At night they cooked and ate, sang around the campfire, and retired to bunks. Night was the best time for Johnny Reb and Billy Yank.

It wasn’t like that at all in the winter of 1944-45 in France. Night was the worst time.

Civil War cannon seldom if ever fired at night, as the main body of the enemy was out of range and anyway Civil War gunners could only fire at what they could see—and then inaccurately.

World War II gunners could fire much farther, arching high-trajectory shells in with precise accuracy to hit targets on the other side of the ridge, using a variety of exploding shells.

Civil War soldiers had only limited, crude mortars.

World War II soldiers had a variety of relatively accurate mortars and their small arms were much more accurate, with much greater range and rate of fire.

Civil War soldiers at night could light their pipes, and gather around a campfire in total security.

World War II soldiers hardly dared have even the smallest fire at the bottom of their foxhole or smoke a cigarette.[1]

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[1] Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, 251.

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