Firing a Quaker Gun, Centreville, VA 1862
"[I]t was a favorite trick to run it out into the center of the road and go through the motions of loading a gun and pointing it at the enemy, who promptly stampeded, under the impression that we had a piece of artillery with us" - PVT Edgar Warfield, 17th Va., Munson's Hill, Va.
"Quaker Guns" - logs, usually painted black, have been used to deceive the enemy in North America since the American Revolution. Adding wheels to the log, made it virtually impossible to discern it was a fake from a distance. During the Civil War, both sides, including civilians would hoodwink their foe using logs, stove-pipes, kegs and more.
After the First Battle of Manassas, Va. on July 21, 1861, Col. J.E.B. Stuart's troops ended up approximately six miles from Washington D.C. at Munson's Hill, Va.. While Gen. Joseph Johnston reorganized the Confederate Army of the Potomac, Stuart dug earthworks that appeared to be up to 15' high and erected signal stations. Lacking actual cannons, he placed Quaker Guns in the trenches.
As Gen. James Longstreet later recalled, "the authorities allowed me but one battery. . . we collected a number of old wagon-wheels and mounted on them stove-pipes of different calibre, till we had formidable-looking batteries, some large enough of calibre to threaten Alexandria, and even the National Capitol and Executive Mansion."
For the next two months, Gen. George McClellan drilled the Army of the Potomac at the capital. Thaddeus Lowe would send up his observation balloons to check out the situation. Stuart was promoted to the rank of Brig. General. The Confederates kept busy firing at anyone approaching on the broad, flat plain called Bailey's Crossings below and the observation balloons above.
As there weren’t any major battles being fought, the newspapers focused on the Confederates above Washington, who alarmed everyone living at the capital by flying "an immense Confederate flag—the red, white, and blue stripes in which are at least five feet wide each—is the most prominent object upon the top of the eminence." According to the New York Times, it "was visible with a glass from the top of the shiphouse at the Navy-yard" in Washington D.C..
Longstreet recollected, "[w]e were provokingly near Washington, with orders not to attempt to advance even to Alexandria." Johnson on the other hand considered the Munson's Hill position as defensively unsound and logistically difficult to keep supplied. McClellan, by twice sending out heavy armed reconnaissance parties to probe the rebel lines, may have convinced Johnson that enough was enough. It was time for the troops to fall back.
On September 28, 1861, the Confederates abandoned Munson's Hill, leaving behind their Quaker Guns. After having been terrified by logs, the North proceed to mock the army in the newspapers and by song. McClellan was the target of "The Bold Engineer" and the situation was declared a "humbug - worse that a Bull-run" in the song, "The Battle of the Stoves-Pipes". However, as the war proceeded, the newspapers began to defend the generals by pointing out that without risking being fired upon, it is difficult to discern logs from actual cannons.
