Peter, the battle memoir you quote is very interesting. It looks like an account of some sort of mock battle between Breckinridge and Cleburne using blanks. Division sized units sometimes had "sham battles" using snowballs, but this seems much more elaborate. The Louisiana Tigers engaged in an early 1864 snowball sham battle in Virginia that involved 8,000 men, with officers ordering flank attacks, etc. just like regular battlefield tactics.