I'm not sure what the thermometer reads where you're at, but it is HOT here in Central Virginia.

And I’m not just talking about ‘hot’ as in 'a nice day to wear shorts to work’… I’m talking about scorching, stifling, sweaty, take your breath away ‘hot’ that sucks the hydration right out of your body as you walk to your car, and then causes rashes to occur in places that you never even knew you had.

For weeks, we've been sweltering, and cruelly teased by Mother Nature with lots of lightning and thunder, but very little rain. Everything outside (and organic) is dead, and brown, and wilting. The water in my pool is evaporating an inch or so every day, and people who work outside for a living are dropping like flies from heat exhaustion. As of this hour (4:30pm), it says that it is 93-degrees here in Fredericksburg, with a high of 96 and a heat index of 98. And we are slated to hit 100 tomorrow!

I’m not exaggerating either, as I just returned from a late lunch where I parked in a lot opposite one with an ambulance that was peeling some poor, unconscious soul off the pavement.

I cannot imagine what it must have been like to experience these kinds of heat waves during the Civil War. Honestly, I would not have lasted a day with a wool uniform and no central air-conditioning. (I’ve been a Virginian for going on 14 years now, and I distinctly remember getting used to the climate after I moved here from Western Pennsylvania. It’s a process of transforming your blue ‘Yankee’ blood to gray.)

Anyway, this got me thinking about heat and it’s affect on the war...

So, I did a little research online, nothing major, and found some information on an event that transpired under similar conditions. After doing a Google search for ‘hottest temperatures recorded during the Civil War,’ I was able to find an article on The Battle of Richmond, which was fought from August 29-30, in 1862.

According to the accounts that I read, “The battle was fought in three phases -- at Kingston, Duncannon Lane, and in the Richmond Cemetery -- during a time when Madison County was in the throes of a severe drought.  The temperature was some 96-100 degrees in the shade as crops withered in the fields and livestock were short on water all along Old State Road from the southern border of Madison County at Big Hill to the county seat in Richmond.”

Records indicate that, “Of the 6,500 Union troops who went into battle, some 4,300 were taken prisoner and more than 1,000 were either killed or wounded. The Confederates, who were some 6,600 strong, lost only 128 men, 118 who were killed, and 10 listed as missing in action.”

It appears (to me) that the Southern forces managed far better under these conditions than their counterparts from the North. I wonder if the extreme temperatures had much to do with the overwhelming Confederate victory of these engagements?

I’m gonna go jump inside an ice machine and ponder this. Stay cool.