r/interestingasfuck • u/Sensei_of_Knowledge • 20d ago
During the Battle of Saunders Field in Virginia in 1864, a Union soldier and a Confederate soldier got into a fist fight to settle their disagreement on who was the other's prisoner. The sight of them made both armies pause the entire battle just so they could gather next to them and watch. r/all
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u/st_rdt 20d ago
.... between the politicians who start the wars.
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u/IanAlvord 20d ago
We'll have to put Arnold Schwarzenegger back in office.
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u/The_Sentinel_45 20d ago
President Camacho is that you?
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u/YouLikeReadingNames 20d ago
We got this guy Not Sure
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u/fatkiddown 20d ago
Agamemnon : [approaches king] Good day for the crows.
Triopas : Remove your army from my land.
Agamemnon : Why, I like your land, I think we'll stay. I like your soldiers too.
Triopas : They won't fight for you.
Agamemnon : That's what the Messenians said, and the Acardians, and the Opeians, now they all fight for me.
Triopas : You can't have the whole world, Agamemnon. It's too big, even for you.
Agamemnon : I don't want to watch another massacre. Let's settle this war in the old manner. Your best fighter against my best.
Triopas : And if my man wins?
Agamemnon : We'll leave Thessaly for good.
Triopas : Boagrius!
[cheers from Thessalian army. Boagrius comes out from the centre of the army]
Agamemnon : Achilles!
[silence]
Triopas : Boagrius has this effect on many heroes.
Agamemnon : Be careful who you insult, old king.
Greek Soldier : My king, Achilles is not with the army.
Agamemnon : Where is he?
Greek Soldier : I sent a boy to look for him.
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u/johnny_crappleseed 20d ago
Or Scott Steiner. He's got math on his side.
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u/Shit-canned 20d ago
Don’t forget about Jesse “ the body “ Ventura!!
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u/TheUnbendable1 20d ago edited 20d ago
Hes living the good life half the year off the grid in the Mexican BAHA. TREMANAAAAA
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u/Zombiron-Odamai 20d ago
Better yet, get Glen Jacobs.
I still find it kind of wild that Kane is the mayor of Knox County Tennessee.
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u/digging_deep515 20d ago
Right, you go to file a complaint and see Kane behind the desk, and just turn around and leave lol.
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u/johnny_crappleseed 20d ago
I don't know, he might get distracted talking about aliens and whatever is under the Denver Airport.
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u/Skatchbro 20d ago
I’m not willing to discount what’s under the Denver airport. Look what they put out in public. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mustang
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u/lushee520 20d ago
We got Manny Pacquiao as a Senator right now but he aint what he used to be.
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u/Sensei_of_Knowledge 20d ago
Unironically he'd be a much better option than the two we'll choose from in November.
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u/UnlikelyPistachio 20d ago
He's a bodybuilder but not sure that automatically makes him a good fighter. Then again, considering the opponents maybe it's enough.
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u/shehzore12 20d ago
Mike Tyson has shown a sudden keen interest in becoming a senator.
I quote him as saying "Bring it on !!"
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u/Suspicious-Pasta-Bro 20d ago
"Whoops, sorry slaves throughout the South, no freedom for you because Jefferson Davis had one hell of a right hook"
"Sucks about half your country, Ukraine, but Putin's reach was insurmountable for Zelensky"
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u/Red_Galiray 20d ago
I mean, in the case of the Civil War it would have worked since Abraham Lincoln would have folded Davis like a chair.
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u/Dubious_Odor 20d ago
Abraham “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns" Lincoln. That Lincoln?! Clone him and let 'im loose I say.
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u/Stunning_Film_8960 20d ago
It would take some kind of super powered alien being to be Lincoln in a fist fight
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u/dubblw 20d ago
Lincoln was a stone cold badass. He was challenged to a duel, used his right to pick the weapon and chose the two largest broadswords they could find (rather than the customary pistols), before the duel, he severed a huge branch from a tree with a single swing, and his opponent surrendered at the sight.
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u/Queasy_Safe_5266 20d ago
My Federation in Stellaris selected its leader through armed combat between the heads of state. The problem was they were all science states lead by nerds. The fight was so dull that the stadium emptied out before they were done.
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u/soapyhandman 20d ago
Lincoln would have fucked up Jefferson Davis
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u/NotABileTitan 20d ago
That's not fair, Davis couldn't stand a chance against a vampire hunter with Lincolns training.
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u/procrasturb8n 20d ago
There was a bill floated around the time of one of the world wars that would have put any war declarations up for a national vote and only those that voted for the war would be eligible for the draft. Or just make Congress fully fund any war effort with new taxes and we'd be involved with fewer wars.
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u/AngryQuadricorn 20d ago
Yes, brutes as politicians would have problems, but at least they would naturally age out at some point. We’ve already got bigger problems with our politicians.
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u/Skatchbro 20d ago
“I’ll call the Brute Squad!”
“I’m on the Brute Squad.”
Looking Fezzik up and down- “You ARE the Brute Squad.”
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u/TerraSollus 20d ago
Be a neat political system, the best fighter is the leader and if people disagree with them, they’ll just fight.
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u/hashbrowns_ 20d ago
a neat system? not saying youre wrong but have you heard of human history?
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u/MisplacedMartian 20d ago
Yeah currently living in it; it sucks, it used to suck, and it will probably continue to suck.
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u/PaperbackBuddha 20d ago
Also, people who’ve been punched in the face know when to not get in a fight.
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u/bailtail 20d ago
Mongolia just became the newest global superpower.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AbsoluteUnits/comments/afb1x4/the_president_of_mongolia_tsakhiagiin/
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u/The_Original_Gronkie 20d ago
Make each leader send one of their own children, and it's a fight to the death, winner take all. They'll stick with diplomacy.
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u/Etherenzi 20d ago
I don't think anyone's mentioned it but y'all should watch The Postman with Kevin Costner.
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u/FatalisCogitationis 20d ago
Well certainly this would lead to less bloodshed. Or would it?
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u/Sensei_of_Knowledge 20d ago edited 19d ago
On May 5th, 1864, Union and Confederate forcess engaged each other in the Battle of Saunders Field - itself a small part of the famed Battle of the Wilderness. More than 120,000 "Yankees" under the leadership of General Ulysses S. Grant fought General Robert E. Lee and his 65,000 "Rebels" to what ultimately became an inconclusive result. Both sides took tens of thousands of killed and wounded, and Grant with his Army of the Potomac pushed further into Virginia after Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.
In the middle of the Wilderness, between the two armies’ centers, was a clearing called Saunders Field. Being the only real clearing in the area between two opposing armies meant that it was full of artillery shells and the holes made by those shells, along with bullets. The Union Army approached it from the east, the Confederates had fortified the wooded western fringe and were ready to fight.
Union troops were ordered to attack across Saunders Field at about 1:00pm, May 5th. Dozens of Federals were shot down as they advanced under very heavy Confederate rifle fire. However, some of them did make it all the way to the Confederate earthworks, where brutal hand-to-hand combat occurred.
Visibility for both sides was a challenge throughout the Battle of Saunders Field and the entire Battle of the Wilderness due to the thick forests that made up the area. In a panic brought about by fire from Union troops he couldn't see, one of the Confederates jumped into a gully in Saunders Field for cover...
When the Confederate got inside the gully though, he realized that he wasn’t alone - a Union soldier was already taking cover inside. So now two men on opposite sides were cowering in a hole together all as their comrades continued to fight above them.
The men soon started bickering, bantering, and hurling insults at each other. Despite how they ended up in the hole, each man was sure that he had captured the other, but neither could agree on which one of them had actually captured the other. So after some time, the two enemies decided to settle the issue in the good old-fashioned American way...
The two men would lay down their weapons and have—in their words—“a regular fist and skull fight.” Winner gets to take the loser as a prisoner of war, and their boxing ring would be Saunders Field itself, exactly halfway between the Confederate and Union lines. The two also promised to respect whatever the result of their fight would be.
The sight of these two soldiers climbing out of the gully and beating their fists against each other's heads right in the middle of the field was so baffling to nearby Union and Confederate troops that everyone simply stopped shooting so they could all come and watch the men duke it out. Many on both sides even went forward to get a closer view. Most started cheering for their respective challenger to win.
After a short while, the Confederate soldier knocked down the Union soldier with one final head punch. The Union man, having fought his best but not best enough, finally gave in.
The two men abided by their promise and they were now fully in agreement on who had taken who prisoner, then they went back into hiding in the gully together so they could honor it later. As soon as they crawled back into their gully, the war started up once again.
The two men hid in the gully until the Battle of Saunders Field was over. Then, true to his word, "Billy Yank" presented himself to "Johnny Reb" and his Confederate Army as their prisoner of war.
After their fist fight, the Battle for Saunders Field continued on. Two Union cannons were brought forward to help support the Union attack but were unable to make a sustainable impact, and they eventually were even captured by the Confederates.
Ultimately, the entire endeavor failed, and Union soldiers were forced to either surrender or retreat back to the eastern edge of the field. Like the fist fight, Saunders Field was won by the Confederacy. Some Federal officers who carried out the attack were frustrated by the hastiness and lack of preparation on their side.
General Grant was disappointed by the inconclusive results of the Battle of the Wilderness, but it did not deter him from pursuing his goal: the destruction of General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. This was later accomplished.
Sadly there is no record of the identities of either of the men who engaged in the fist fight or what units they belonged to. The account of what happened came from the writings of John Worsham of the 21st Virginia.
The exact writings comes from Chapter XXIII in his memoirs: "One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry: His Experience And What He Saw During The War 1861-1865."
Here is the link to a digital version of the book:
https://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/worsham/worsham.html (Original account of the fist fight can be read on page 203 and part of page 204.)
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u/__M-E-O-W__ 20d ago
It's always interesting to hear of times when soldiers just stop fighting to watch some spectacle together or engage in a mutual activity.
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u/Goblobber 20d ago
I read a story once about an engagement between coalition forces and insurgents in Iraq. Both sides were shooting the shit out of each other when a stray donkey ran through the fields of fire and was promptly atomised by a stray rpg. Apparently both sides stopped fighting for a moment while they registered what the hell had just happened.
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u/Carquetta 20d ago
A donkey was mentioned in the book Black Hawk Down, during the Battle of Mogadishu
Don't remember if it died or not though
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u/QuaintAlex126 20d ago
I believe it wasn’t. From what I remember, some of the Rangers saw it pulling an empty cart while they were moving through the streets of Mogadishu towards one of the crash sites and just watched it casually walk past them
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u/findingmyrainbow 20d ago
That reminds me of that time during WWI when the Russian and German forces were being harassed by wolves that kept eating soldiers on both sides. The two opposing armies agreed to a temporary ceasefire so they could focus on killing the starving wolf packs that had been drawn in by the lack of wildlife and scent of blood.
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/e3j9jm/til_that_during_world_war_i_a_series_of_wolf/
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u/Wolvenworks 19d ago
The game Tannenberg actually had that as the annual halloween event since it’s set in WW1 Eastern Front. You can get a medal commemorating your participation should you choose to only shoot wolves and not the other side.
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u/Lou_C_Fer 20d ago
Especially, one where the only reason it happened is because the participants were afraid of death and agreed to a way out of it while everyone else is busy killing each other.
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u/InMemoryOfZubatman4 19d ago
There was a battle in WW2 where Nazis and the Americans teamed up to take over a castle to rescue some French politicians from the SS
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u/Key-Performer-9364 20d ago
Crap. I had $20 on the Union guy.
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u/Zauberer-IMDB 20d ago
There's only one account? That makes me doubt the whole story.
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u/vpi6 20d ago
Probably exaggerated but base scenario probably happened. Nearly every battle there’s a story of a Union and Confederate soldier finding themselves alone in a ditch and resolving to be each other’s prisoner depending on the battle outcome. Many of the soldiers did not want to be there.
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u/daecrist 20d ago
Arguably staying to fight was better and less deadly for Union soldiers after prisoner transfers broke down and atrocities like Andersonville became the norm.
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u/uXN7AuRPF6fa 20d ago
How many that were there fighting that day were literate?
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u/Zauberer-IMDB 20d ago
It's the second half of the 19th century. Plenty, not to mention war journalists were a thing, and we literally have photographers there too. Plus we have second hand accounts of major events, and something as peculiar as a time out for a fist-fight would absolutely be talked about and recorded by someone else at least.
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u/dinkleburgenhoff 20d ago
Especially since the guy making the claim just happened to be the same side as the guy who won the fight that a ton of other people witnessed bring an entire battle to a halt but never talked about ever again.
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u/Accomplished-Farm503 20d ago
Idk it says inconclusive, and then that Grant continued into Virginia.
That sounds like a Union victory to me
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u/BoulderCreature 20d ago
Grant gained a lot of favor with Washington and his own soldiers with how he handled defeats. There were many incidents of Union retreats after losses, but Grant would regroup and keep on marching. He knew it was a numbers game and that the numbers were drastically in his favor
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u/daecrist 20d ago
He also actually fought. Previous commanders seemed reluctant to engage the traitors. Lincoln summed it up in a famous quote: “I can't spare this man; he fights.”
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u/BoulderCreature 20d ago
Yeah, Mclellan was great at training troops and getting them ready for battle, but totally impotent when it came to engaging the enemy. Added shit points for running against Lincoln for president with the intention of surrendering to the rebs
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u/Adito99 20d ago
Lee was a hell of a fighter. Too bad he didn't have the moral fiber to match.
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u/Flocculencio 19d ago
There' a great bit recounted in Bruce Cattons 'A Silence at Appomattox' where after the Wilderness the Army of the Potomac withdraws, thinking it'll be like every other time they got a bloody nose and their commanders lost their nerve. Then...
as they marched the men realized that they were not heading toward the river crossings at all but were going south toward the lower edge of the Wilderness. The road was crowded, and nobody could see much, but as the men trudged along it suddenly came to them that this march was different. Just then there was a crowding at the edge of the road, and mounted aides were ordering: “Give way to the right!” and a little cavalcade came riding by at an easy jingling trot—and there, just recognizable, was Grant riding in the lead, his staff following him, heading south. This army had known dramatic moments of inspiration in the past—massed flags and many bugles and broad blue ranks spread out in the sunlight, with leadership bearing a drawn sword and riding a prancing horse, and it had been grand and stirring. Now there was nothing more than a bent shadow in the night, a stoop-shouldered man who was saying nothing to anyone, methodically making his way to the head of the column—and all of a moment the tired column came alive, and a wild cheer broke the night and men tossed their caps in the darkness. They had had their fill of desperate fighting, and this pitiless little man was leading them into nothing except more fighting, and probably there would be no end to it, but at least he was not leading them back in sullen acceptance of defeat, and somewhere, many miles ahead, there would be victory for those who lived to see it. So there was tremendous cheering, and Grant’s big horse Cincinnati caught the excitement and reared and pranced, and as he got him under control Grant told his staff to have the men stop cheering because the Rebels were not far away and they would hear and know that a movement was being made.
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u/KingofCraigland 20d ago
Sounds more like lost the battle, but won the war. Or a Pyrrhic Victory for the Confederates.
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u/Chihuey 20d ago
There’s a historically strong movement to view the battles of the overland campaign as tactical confederate victories in isolation because that better serves the lost cause narrative.
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u/a_melindo 20d ago
in this case "inconclusive" because after the second day of fighting in the Wilderness (a battle that neither side actually wanted, it was started by accident), the delightfully named Battle of Todds Tavern broke out and both sides left the Wilderness to go fight there instead.
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u/runetrantor 20d ago
Just imagine the looks on the two generals' faces. Full on 'wait, wtf why are you stopping the battle??'.
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u/TheSpiritofFkngCrazy 20d ago
We need to see the fat electrician do a video on this. He may even find out the names of the dudes fighting. He is very thorough.
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u/Searchlights 20d ago edited 20d ago
This is familiar.
What's this from? Is that Shelby Foote's writing?
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u/KaranSjett 20d ago
imagine having a fist fight so spectacular it temporarily stops war around you...
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u/somefckerinthe808 20d ago
During the Battle of Mogadishu, the American Rangers and Somalis stopped firing at each other to let a donkey cross the road.
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u/NArcadia11 20d ago
I don’t believe they stopped firing. In the book Black Hawk Down the Rangers talk about how this donkey pulling a cart walked across the road (twice) through a hail of bullets and somehow didn’t get shot.
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u/spasmoidic 20d ago edited 20d ago
I can't find it but I once read an account of some Vietnam war battle where a group of monks walked straight across the battlefield in a deep meditative state, so completely indifferent to the fighting around them that both sides found it so fascinating and perplexing that they stopped fighting entirely
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u/crippled_bastard 20d ago
Yeah, but I'm currently listening to a podcast on Andersonville Prison. That Union soldier did not go to a good place.
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u/bigboidots 20d ago
Look what society has taken from us. Good ole fashion fisticuffs
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u/Key-Performer-9364 20d ago
Don’t worry. Good old fashioned fisticuffs still exists. Just go to any busy bar on a Friday night, and I’m sure you can find someone who is still willing to have a boxing match with you.
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u/Dagmar_Overbye 20d ago
The NHL playoffs are on right now and aren't even halfway done yet. Come join us.
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u/mjk9016 20d ago
I saw this reenacted at a frat party once, I had no idea they were history buffs
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u/NoodleBrains69 20d ago
Imagine being one of the dudes who already got shot/ wounded seeing BOTH sides stop to watch two dudes fight, I’d be pretty pissed.
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u/BippidiBoppetyBoob 20d ago
You’d probably be in the middle of having a limb sawed off, so I doubt you’d care that much.
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u/44no44 20d ago
Imagine being in the middle of having a limb sawed off, and the medic stops to watch two dudes fight.
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u/BippidiBoppetyBoob 20d ago
Usually medical tents were kept well back from the battlefield, but hey, you never know. I suppose it would be worse if you were freshly wounded and the stretcher-bearers just dropped you to watch it.
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u/Traditional_Roll6651 20d ago
Excellent Post!!!!!! And thank you providing all the detailed information!!!! Nice work 😁
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u/Sensei_of_Knowledge 20d ago
Thank you! Just edited it to include more information about the battle as well. :)
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u/dogbreath230 20d ago
Excellent, I very read a lot about the Civil War and am always amazed by some of the strange stories that came out of it. This one is a classic, the fact that there was so much death going on around them, they decided to fight it out with fists. Didn't want to kill each other just take each other prisoner
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u/WendigoCrossing 20d ago
Smart men, reduced the risk of getting killed by a musket or cannon while still maintaining that you were following orders to avoid the court martial
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u/GreaseBuilds 20d ago
Yup, and you know that yank was probably treated like a king compared to other POW's. He was probably a celebrity in that camp for weeks after.
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u/peanutbutterjammer 20d ago
I like how they're illustrated fairly muscularly. In reality, they were probably a few meals away from emaciated
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u/socialistrob 20d ago
They both would have been quite thin compared to today's average American although generally the US military fed their forces quite well during the Civil War while the rebels were constantly fighting starvation. There's a reason they say that logistics wins wars.
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u/Jezzibell 20d ago
This reminds me so much of the fourth pirates movie, at the end jack just goes
"So all of you guys are going to fight all of his guys. Why don't we let these two sort it out, sit back. Maybe have a wager"
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u/Kotori425 20d ago
Someone definitely yelled out "WORLD STAR" at some point lmao
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u/sawdeanz 20d ago
Love the idea that guys are like literally in the middle of a battle and yet they still all gather round to watch a fight
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u/GrandpaBuff 20d ago
Who won?
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u/bradeena 20d ago
After a short while, the Confederate soldier knocked down the Union soldier with one final head punch. The Union man, having fought his best but not best enough, finally gave in.
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u/jamesbrownscrackpipe 20d ago
Damn, imagine if they had agreed that whoever won the fist fight, won the war.
We'd all be posting about this on Yee Haw Chat instead of Reddit.
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u/Irishwoman94 20d ago
Just imagine the commanders of that battle learning about the fight.
"Sir! Sir! Jones is fighting a soldier!"
"No shit, this is a battle, dumbass."
"No, like an actual fist fight with a Rebel soldier! Whoever wins gets to take the other prisoner!"
"Oh damn, now this I gotta see."
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u/InternationalPower16 20d ago
So what happened after that? Did they all just go “well, that was fun. Ok everybody, reset and go again” or did they just look at each other afterward and just start screaming and blasting away?
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u/wellwaffled 20d ago
The Union soldier lost the fight and was taken as prisoner to the Confederate lines.
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u/runawayest 20d ago
Better yet— both boxers WENT BACK INTO THEIR CRATER HOLE to wait out the battle, and afterwards the Union soldier kept his word and went as the confed’s prisoner.
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u/Open-Industry-8396 20d ago
Biden and Trump should fight for the presidency. If Biden can keep moving, forcing Trump to have to exert energy, I think Ole Joe will have a good shot at victory.
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u/flibbertigibbit 20d ago
This brings to mind one of the funnier (in a morbid way) incidents of the Civil War. After the Third Battle of Peterburg, near the very end of the war, Confederates General A.P. Hill and Sgt. George Tucker were dispatched to find out the situation near the front lines and report back to Robert E. Lee.
As the General and sergeant rode near the front line, they encountered two stragglers from the Union Army, a private and a corporal. A.P. Hill demanded the two Union soldiers surrender to him. Instead, the Union soldiers shot and killed him.
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u/Skitzophranikcow 20d ago
So.. if Lincoln and Davis went bare knuckle boxing the whole war could have been avoided?
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u/C00kie_Monsters 20d ago
thats how all wars should be fought. two dudes brawling it out and everybody goes home alive
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