Comrades Ready to Kill

Evidently every man in uniform quickly came to know what file closers were ordered to do but there seems to have been a conspiracy of silence concerning this functionary. In the approximately 133,000 pages of the Official Records, file closers are mentioned only eighteen times. Most of these are casual to the point of meanignless, asserting that the file closers did their duty without hinting at what that duty was.

The functional title of these men seems perfectly clear. Obviously, it was their duty to see that the men making up a file did not spread out or mess up a line that was supposed to be straight and tight. In the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language (1934) a terse description of this role describes a file closer as "A commissioned or non-commissioned officer in the rear file of a line or on the flank of a column to rectify mistakes and insure steadiness in the ranks.

During the Civil War, file closers were non-commissioned officers. Officers might occasionally serve in that capacity but only when they had no one else to do the job. File closers were hand-picked men who were not allowed to question the task to which they were assigned.

At least as early as the spring of 1862, the file closer's job description expanded. They were given the added task of following behind the lines of battle and ensuring that the men fought and did not run. Anyone who attempted to flee the front line was forced back at sword or gunpoint. File closers were also empowered to execute any man who failed to do his duty. During the siege of petersburg on the 22nd February 1865, R. E. Lee included a circular to his general Orders No. 4. It was distributedthroughout the Army of Northern Virginia and underscored the need for keen military discipline in the face of internecine fighting along the siege lines. With regard to file closers, he wrote:-

I call your attention particularly to the following order with reference to the duties of file closers, which you will immediately carry into execution.... The whole number of file closers in each company shall be one for every ten men.... They will be required to prevent straggling and be held responsible for their respective squads of ten. In action they will keep two paces behind the rear rank of their several squads .... with loaded guns and fixed bayonets. They will be diligently instructed to aid in preserving order in the ranks and enforcing obedience to commands and to permit no man to leave his place unless wounded, excused in writing by the medical officer of the regiment or by order of the regimental commander. For this purpose they will use such degree of force as may be necessary. if any refuse to advance, disobey orders or leave the ranks to plunder or to retreat, the file closer will promptly cut down or fire upon the delinquents. They will retreat in the same manner any man who uses words or actions calculated to produce alarm among the troops.... It will be enjoined upon file closers that they shal make the evasion of duty more dangerous than its performance.

In light of Lee's instructions, the role of file closer was not a popular one. Although the Official Records gives no hint that soldiers sometimes turned on file closers in combat, it is not unlikely such actions occurred frequent;ly enough to prevent most men hankering for the job.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, Winter 2007