Regimental
DispatchRegimental
Dispatch
July 2003 Sic Semper Tyrranus Richmond, VA
Gentlemen, so what are you going to do on your free weekend for July 4th. I am sure there are many of you when this is a new and strange feeling but we will all get through it together. This weather is amazing, we were in a drought last year at this time, wells drying up and the like and now we have farmers that can't even put crops in due to the muddy conditions. I hope for dry weather for the Gettysburg site and parking only. As nice as this past weekend was it reminded me of the many events where it was great weather, though they may have been few and far between. I also remember many others that we so bad that we slept in the mud and liked it. Oh well, as we get older we get smarter I guess.
Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate you never know what the weather will be in August, it may be 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity or it may be 90
degree and 100 percent humidity, either way you need to be ready for it. Please if you have not already started your hydration regiment, please start today so you will be ready for August. See our Website for Mr. Gregory's articles on the subject if you need more information. I hope to see you all soon.
***Captain Jones
1st lieutenant’s report
So far this season, other than the Heritage Parade, it has rained at every event. The rain has a better attendance record then some of our members. It was definitely present at Cold Harbor. Saturday started out nice enough with Pearson, Powell, Gammon, Stafford, Baird, and myself present for duty. 2nd Sgt. Firth was able to make it for Sunday’s actions. The 4th NC had a good showing of six members along with members of the 23rd VA under the command of Lt. Atwood. The combined units made a decent size formation with all three companies maintaining its own structure within the formation. It started raining Saturday morning about 10am, but subsided long enough for us to get a practice run in before our 1:30pm demonstration. All went well for the public and we made it back to camp just before the next bout of storms commenced …and the heavens opened up. Thank goodness for the she-bangs and shelter halves the men had set up. The 4th NC took cover under the modern day tarp that had covered the woodpile. The rain kept coming down, but during this storm, our potential new recruit, Mr. Harris, visited us. Mr. Harris had a chance to see us at some of our worst conditions, so this should help give him an idea of what we deal with out in the elements. Welcome to the unit Mr.Harris. It rained so hard and long that the NPS decided to cancel the torchlight tour for the evening. It was for the best, but the visitors were very disappointed. I noticed on Saturday evening that there seemed to have developed within the unit, a Forrest Gump contingent, complete with the fixation on ice cream. In keeping with that fixation and the urging of several members of the unit, we went on an ice cream run later that evening after the men had cooked their rations and cleaned up after the evening meal. By then, the rain had stopped and with the torchlight tour cancelled, we enjoyed a quiet and relaxing Saturday night. It wasn’t long before I was dead to the world. Sunday turned out to be a windy, but very nice day. After cooking breakfast, we had Church services, as the members of the 4th NC joined us. We then broke down our camp and took all that we didn’t need for the days two demonstrations back to our wagons. There was a 2:00 pm dedication of the new 2nd Connecticut Monument, which was attended by some of our men and we did a “Present Arms” to honor our Federal friends. All in all, despite Saturday’s rains, it turned out to be a very enjoyable weekend. Yes, unit attendance was a little low, but I think everyone who came had a good time. I will see you all at Gettysburg in August.
*** Respectfully submitted. Your humble servant,
1stLt. Turley
1st Sergeant’s Report
Reporting no report to report
McDowell’s Lost Fortunes
Well, it’s been almost 2 months and the mysterious loss of the Company fly has still not been solved, but not without extensive effort. Even though it seems as though we have been inactive, I’ve been continuing the search for the Holy Grail. I have been contacting other units as well as trying my best to get information from the town of McDowell. Things are not looking up. I can’t do much more than I’ve been trying for the last 6o days, but I will not give up. Someone out there surely has the respect for this hobby and what bond we keep within our ranks. Who knows where the next call or e-mail will come from to advise us of the discovery? In the meantime, I am also continuing my search for my tin cup. I have inside help at McDowell, and they, too, are doing whatever they can to come to my aid. I’m still calling this a search and rescue, not a recovery.
Cold Harbor Living History
Photo
credit: MaCalah
The joyous march towards the Firing Program. Hey look, you can actually see our shadows from the sunshine. For further info, please refer to the 1st Lieutenant’s Report.
140th Gettysburg
Who would have ever expected such a turn of events in the postponing of the 140th Anniversary of Gettysburg? Not I, nor anyone else who has been in this hobby for a long time. At least this change has given an opportunity for more members of all units to get in on registration. With the new deadline of June 30th, there is now an opportunity for those who didn’t want to go to change their minds. With this change, it has allowed the possible addition of Mr. Price, and Mr. J. Alexander. The more, the merrier. This change, however, has made it impossible for Mr. Powell to now make this historic event, much to his dismay and utter disappointment. The web site states possible schedule changes, but you can retrieve that info at http://www.gettysburg.com/ I will post all the new stuff in the August newsletter. Well, I hope you all enjoy your 4th of July holiday celebrations.
From the Secret Journals Of Private Gregory
I have said it before and I will say it again; I have never attended a reenactment that took place in the lobby of the Marriott or the Ramada. At numerous events I have had my brains baked, and been frozen at others. I have attended numerous events where there were sudden frog strangling downpours. Which have been the most disheartening? Without a doubt it was the rain.
I can find shade, slip my jacket off, strip my trousers off (good thing for sensitive spectators I wear period underwear), get a cool drink and cut back on the physical activities and I will be all right. In case of cold weather I can button that jacket, and put a greatcoat on. I can wear my sleeping hat and get close to the fire (Remember the old Indian saying; White man build big fire, sit far back, Indian build small fire, sit up close) and I will make it through the night or the event.
What’s a reenactor to do when the rain is coming down in the middle of the night? Should you run to your vehicle? Endure it with a true campaigner’s disdain for the elements?
Now before we get into the big debate I will state that I am a firm believer in Gregory’s Law of Getting Home. Gregory’s Law states, “If you want to get home from the reenactment, your first priority is to make sure that you can get your vehicle out of the reenactor’s parking lot.” Once there you face a hike back through the rain to your sleeping area. I leave it to you to decide what your course of action should be.
Let’s say you know your vehicle is safe or you are traveling with Captain Ken and his state of the art Durango so you need not fear the nighttime deluge and the subsequent parking lot morass. You are going to stay in the campaign area and endure the tempest.
Do you need an “A” frame tent to protect yourself from the elements? All you gain from having a tent at a reenactment is a large piece of wet, heavy canvas that needs to be carried to your vehicle and then dried out at home. With a little prior planning you can make it through the night with minimal discomfort.
For arguments sake you do not possess a shelter tent, even a single half of one. Does this mean that your weekend need be spoiled? Nay. Follow the advice below.
Before we talk about sleeping through the night lets have a discussion on how you are going to make it through the day. You are going to need a few items to make it through the rain. First you will need a poncho, not a gum blanket, but an honest to god poncho. You need the poncho because it has a slit in the middle that will allow you to put your melon through and keep your body relatively dry. Get one with the small grommets (Check the approved vendors list). Put a couple of pieces of twine through the grommets and use them to secure the poncho around you to keep out windblown rain. While you are at it, get a second one for later usage; the reason for which will become eminently clear later on.
The rubberized fabric on the poncho will do a much better job of keeping you dry than a linseed oil soaked canvas. For an added bonus the poncho will keep you warmer (for more information see the upcoming article on hypothermia). There are uses for the oilcloth that we will detail later.
The second item you will need is a slouch hat. The brim of the slouch hat keeps the rain off and if you get one with a brim as wide as Pvt. Triple Shot Ward’s, several people can take shelter under it.
Let’s pretend the day has been a steady drizzle and the company is marching along on its way to death or glory and the good captain calls a halt. The ground all around is muddy. Where are you going to sit and not soak the seat of your trousers? This is where that second poncho becomes exceedingly valuable. Just toss the folded poncho on the ground and you have a dry seat.
Where can you carry these two items? In between the two halves of your federal knapsack or Kibler style knapsack.
While you are trotting around the countryside something you need to consider is where are you going to stow your blanket. You see lots of reenactors with their blankets neatly rolled on top, encased in a rubber gum blanket. What is wrong with this picture?
The original intent of the 1851 knapsack and other similar double bags was that the blanket would be carried inside the pack protecting it from the elements. The so called “blanket roll straps” are actually meant to secure the great coat to the outside of the pack. The great coat was meant to be rolled and secured with two straps. A second set of straps was used to secure the greatcoat roll to the pack.
What is the purpose of this? One purpose would be that the greatcoat roll could be discarded if the commanding officer thought it too great an impediment to movement. They could be gathered up and transported easily to a designated spot. A second reason was that the greatcoat was made of much heavier kersey than the federal issue pants. If it is properly rolled it will not soak up a lot of rain. Meanwhile your blanket, which is designed to keep you warm while you sleep, is protected from the rain. For an interesting read see the upcoming article on how the prewar regulars without the benefit of a poncho or shelter spent winter nights during the Indian Wars or the Mormon War on the great plains using nothing but their great coat to sleep in.
Now that we have made the effort to at least explain how you can stay dry or at least reasonably dry during the day we will now tackle the issue of sleeping in the rain.
You need to try to get to the event in daylight hours if at all possible. This will give you some time to perform the most important part, which is picking your sleeping area. Look around the area you want to sleep in. It’s a bad sign if the surrounding ground seems higher than the area you want to sleep. That means that rain water which according to the laws of physics must run downhill will come bowling through your nest when you least expect it. So get yourself the highest ground you can find.
For some reason over the last several years; when the company picks a spot for camping we seem to pick an area that requires oxygen and a Sherpa guide to reach. Should you lose your tenuous grip on the incline on which we are camped, by the time you stop rolling downhill the event will be over. I understand the infantry compulsion to hold the high ground, however, we need to find the flat part of the crest for our campsite. The sites we have picked, although admirable for meeting the Abominable Snowman, do not make for good sleeping.
Take a look at the composition of the ground. The orange type clay we are so familiar with at Grant versus Lee has a tendency to hold water on the surface whereas a more loamy type of soil may allow even relatively large rainfalls to quickly soak in. So try not to pick an area that has the look of a construction site.
What about top cover on the ground? Is it covered with wet leaves? You may have to rake up a area to get to some dry ground or to turn over the top layers of leaves to find a dry area to spread your ground cover.
Next look for some overhead shelter. See what the trees in the area are like and for God’s sake, don’t pick a dead tree or one with a lot of dead branches visible or hanging in other branches. My old unit once had a muster type event at a member’s farm. One person had originally picked a spot spend the night under a tree with some dead limbs in it to. Getting up to use the “sink”, he had something else scared out of him when about 500 pounds of dead wood came crashing down on his recently vacated sleeping area.
So think about it. As the rain falls it adds weight to the branches above your head. Also as the storm moves through the wind will act to move those previously dead branches caught in the upper reaches of the tree down upon your sleeping form.
If you can find one, choose a live tree with dense spreading branches relatively close to the ground. This comes straight from my Special Air Service Escape and Evasion manual. The type of tree you are looking for is a hemlock or oak. Pine trees make an excellent covering tree, as the low branches will help keep wind and rain off you and deflect smoke from your fire. Since we are not playing Scott O’Grady or Bat 21 there is no need to hide in the base of the tree.
If you have a pine tree nearby, you might want to lop off some branches and build up a layer of nature’s insulation under you. Pine boughs and dry leaves make an excellent moisture barrier.
Now you can lay down your gum blanket or poncho. Lay your wool blanket down. Cover with your spare oilcloth/poncho. Now here’s the secret. Make sure your oilcloth/blanket is large enough t not only cover your blanket but yourself as well.
An oilcloth is amazingly simple to make. It must be if I can make one.. In the course of a couple of months I have made several oilcloths and am in the process of making an oversized one to serve as either a large blanket cover or as a shelter that could be strung between some trees. Learning to sew grommets is the only hard part and you can only get better with practice. You can also shop at your local hardware store and locate small diameter brass grommets and for a few bucks buy the tools to install them.
I went to a Jo-Ann’s Fabric Shop™ and purchased several yards of lightweight cotton drill. I measured and cut the fabric to the required size so that I would have a 1-inch seam all the way around. Pinned the seams and went to stitching. It took a couple of hours by hand, but I whiled away the time watching TV.
Once all the stitching was done and grommets sewn in place, the next step was to build a lightweight wooden frame to hold the finished oilcloth. Using a staple gun I attached the fabric to the frame.
From the hardware store I mixed up a batch of wallpaper sizing. I thoroughly coated the fabric on one side. The next step was the application of Semi gloss black latex paint from the Sherwin Williams dealer. I asked him to put a lot of extra color and he was happy to oblige. The first coat could take a day or so to dry.
I put on a second coat and in this one I mixed in a little bit of Japan dryer. I am a little unsure of exact proportions but it was a generous splash and it helps to speed up drying.
..…That’s it to making an oil cloth.….
To secure it if I decide to use it as rain gear I found a pair of J-hooks from an old knapsack in my junk drawer.
Well what if it keeps raining, do you have any other options? You can always try the dozing soldier routine. Put your gear on, put your poncho on and place as much of your musket under the poncho with you. Sit down and ride it out. You get tired enough you can always go to sleep no matter what the environment is like.
How many times have you been standing in a formation and in the distance you notice bad weather forming up and heading towards you? Well in my case it’s been a lot. The sky suddenly takes on this threatening aspect and we blithely stand there while the officers have another conference.
Let’s put it in perspective. Usually you are standing out in field where you are the tallest object around (not counting that Frankenstein sized recruit down the line). You are holding a steel musket tipped with a bayonet in your hands. On your authentic brogans are a pair of metal heel plates. Not real smart all around.
To put it bluntly we are a lighting strike waiting to happen. Now I can hear the event commanders. “Why that thunder is way in the distance, nothing to worry about.”
That’s same kind of smarts that said the Japanese would never bomb Pearl Harbor. Here is something to remember and I am going to bold it so that it stands out:
IF YOU CAN HEAR THUNDER, YOU CAN BE HIT BY LIGHTING.
Lighting can strike over twenty-five miles from the cloud formation.
So what should we do? Get the hell under cover might be the best action. However since buildings are usually scarce at a reenactment our best bet is to shelter in place.
How do we do that? Experts say the best possible thing to do if you are caught in the open during a lightning storm is to squat down and cover your head with your arms. If you can do that without losing your balance it is also recommended that you shift your weight forward onto the balls of your feet and lift your heels off the ground.
The theory behind this position is to not only reduce your profile to lightning strikes but by raising your heels off the ground you are minimizing your contact with the ground.
__________________
Submitted by Pvt. Gregory
Remaining Event Schedule
July has suddenly become an off month for the Unit, but if you could see the condition of the land, you’d surely understand why the Gettysburg date had been changed. Despite all of the criticisms I get from non-hobbyists, the event organizers made a very smart decision. As summer has now officially arrived, and I still look at the forecasts, we are going to be very lucky to see any events this year that won’t require ponchos and well-constructed she-bangs for the wet season still ahead. I don’t know if you hold any value to the Almanac, but they are not predicting much of a dry season. As I have asked in previous issues, please check the events and verify whether your name does or does not belong on the list. We need to have accurate registration. The balance of the season’s events is as follows:
August 8-10th: 140th Gettysburg
Jones, Turley, Firth, Wilson, Pearson, Cpl. Perry, Pvt. Perry, Gammon, Lawrence, Ramsey, Schirmer, Stafford, Talbert, Gregory, and Ward. We are also in the process of adding Mr. Price and Mr. J. Alexander.
Sept. 6-7: Chesapeake Library
Turley, Firth, Cpl. Perry, Pvt. Perry, Gammon, Powell, Gregory.
Oct. 18-19: Cedar Creek
Firth, Wilson, Pearson, Gammon, Ramsey, Gregory, Powell, Stafford, and Lawrence. (any Officers?)
Oct. 31-Nov. 2: Fort Branch
Jones, Turley, Firth, Pearson, Alexander CJ, Alexander JC, Baird, Cpl. Perry, Pvt. Perry, Gammon, Powell, Ramsey, Stafford, Gregory, Vice, Ward.
There is always something to write about, and this month is no exception. I have had a ninth addition to the list of my grandchildren. Even though I’m not the proud father, I’m the extremely proud Gramps. The tally, at this point: 7-to-2 (boys to girls). Yes, I will be raising my own Regiment in time for the 150th Anniversaries. Also, due to the date change for Gettysburg, I’ve succumbed to the shears. Not only facially, but on top as well. Hope you recognize me.
***Editor-at-Large: Cpl. Pearson
From the Chateau of Mr. Vice:
I have received information from Sutler Vice in regards to our wooden canteen orders. Presently, three canteens have been completed and three are still being manufactured. They will be available for sale to the membership shortly. Mr. Gammon and Stafford already have two reserved. The cost of the Cedar canteen is $72.00 and does not include strap or cork. I wish Sutler Vice much success, but I don’t think he’ll need the luck. It is more likely that the patrons will need earplugs and restraint from the persuasions that Mr. Vice instills on his unknowing victims. Oh……………...
No insult intended, Herr Vice.