Friendly+Pickets

"That was good news for Union and Confederate soldiers assigned to picket duty along the Rappahannock. By tacit agreement, opposing pickets agreed not to shoot at one another unless one side or the other attempted to cross. For several weeks, they walked their beats in full view of one another, occasionally stopping to converse or to exchange barbs across the watery divide. Some soldiers rigged up toy sailboats. When the wind was right, Confederates would send small amounts of tobacco plying across the river. Union pickets gratefully pocketed the fragrant cargo and when the wind shifted they sent back coffee in return. Officers eventually put a halt to the illicit trade. Relations between opposing pickets became so chummy that, in rare instances, soldiers from one army actually crossed the river under a flag of truce to talk and trade newspapers with their counterparts on the other side. One Confederate got more than he bargained for. When he reached the Stafford shore, he encountered a man who had been his enemy long before the war and was assaulted. To avenge the insult, Johnny Reb’s friends opened fire on the Yankees, killing several. Such behavior was an anomaly, however. For the most part, pickets scrupulously honored the informal truce". []

Mr. Johnson's note: "I remember when I was little my grandmom telling me that her grandfather (Joseph Stewart Co. A 12th NJ Vols) told her that on several occasions he traded with Confederate soldiers while on picket duty". This was pretty common during the war. See the Gallery of Soldiers elsewhere on the wiki to see an original photo of Joseph Stewart. A soldier on "picket duty" from the period drawing below.