Going on Leave for a week

[usmc1855]

Gents,

I'm out on leave for the next week. I hope all of you stay safe, and keep out of danger and out of the enemies gun sights while I'm gone.

Me? I'm off to trek the wilderness as the Orderly Sergeant for a small Infantry detachment escorting a dozen horse/mule and ox drawn wagons for the next six days. Our goal is to cover 54 miles. We are portraying a company of the 57th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment as they where assigned to the wagon train that supported Gen Kirby Smith's movement from Knoxville, Tn. going north into Kentucky in August, 1862. A few weeks later, they would be involved in the Battle of Peryville, Ky.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Good luck to you Brian. Have a great time, and keep your eyes peeled for those Yankees.
Rob.

[Oberst Hajj]

Have a good one man!

[Attila57]

Have a good time Brian. i read your profile, you does a very interesting job.

Attilio

[gregbond77]

Have a good time, don't step in any horse/mule plop!

[usmc1855]

Thanks Gents. I'm back, and I survived the extreme heat and high humidity. We had two Mule wagons, two horse drawn wagons, and one drawn by a quartet of the most marvelously trained Oxen ever produced.

We had a very small escort detachment of just 17 men. Due to the heat (92-95 degrees , with 95-100% humidity each day) we only averaged 6 miles each day. As each day progressed, the accumulative affect of the heat on the animals and men was telling. It was a great but very exhausting event. Rare in that lasted 6 days, vice our usual Friday afternoon til noon on Sunday type affair.

Hopefully I'll soon be able to post some pictures.

[Oberst Hajj]

Glad to have you back safe and sound... now get up in the air where it is cool!

[usmc1855]

Not too many pictures available yet. These are the few I took.

A few of these are of the infantry doing some engineer work on the trail. There where some areas that had a steep slope going over shelves of slate rock which the animals hooves would have slipped on, and the wheels of the wagons would have had great difficulty getting over the rocks. Our task was to layer dirt over these areas to reduce the slope angle, and cover the stone so the animals and wagons could make it up the hills.

[Volant Gun]

Hi Brian,
Are those muzzle loaders Flint lock or percussion?

[tuladin]

Glad to see you were wearing homespuns. I was thinking of y'all out there in that heat wearing wool uniforms!

[usmc1855]

Hi Brian,
Are those muzzle loaders Flint lock or percussion?

1x M1816 (1822) .69 Cal. Flintlock Converted to Percussion
9x 1861 .58 Cal. Springfield (percussion)
4x M1853 .577 Cal. Enfield Rifles (percussion)

[usmc1855]

Glad to see you were wearing homespuns. I was thinking of y'all out there in that heat wearing wool uniforms!

Our impression was of Co. A of the 57th Regt. of Georgia Volunteer Infantrymen out of Thomas County Ga. They where green Regt. at this stage, having been accepted into Confederate service in May of 1862, and had not yet seen combat. They where clothed by the commutation system.

What is the Commutation system you may ask?

In his landmark series of articles Confederate uniforms and the quartermaster clothing system, the Museum of Confederacy’s curator Les Jensen noted:

“At the same time, a second series of established the Provisional Army o the Confederate States (PACS) and authorized the Pesident to accept up to 100,000 volunteers for 12 months to man it. The Quartermaster’s Department, by law was responsible for clothing only the Regular Army.

The volunteers of the Provisional Army were to provide their own clothing, for the use of which the government would pay each man equivalent of the cos of clothing for an NCO or private in the Regular Army, generally $25.00 for each six months. This was the Commutation System. Initially i seems to have been intended to provide a means of clothing the troops without having to build government facilities to do i, to take advantage of the easiest way to clothe the army, and to avoid the risk of stockpiling mountains of material that might become useless surplus if there was no war. …

By 8 October 1862, the issue system was considered to be strong enough that the old commutation system was officially ended. Some troops, o course, had been on the issue system as early as the summer of 1861, while others did not get on it until late 1862 or early 1863. There is evidence that some troops in the far west did not get off the commutation system until 1864. Still, in the main armies, the issue system was pretty much in place and functioning by 1863.”

The commutation system is simply where the Confederate central government provided a stipend (typically $25) for uniforming each soldier. In some cases this money was paid directly to the troops and they were sent off to the local merchants to go buy themselves a suit of uniform. This might have been a group buy of similar garments, or it might be the case where the boys were told to go buy “anything so long as it looks like a uniform.” ”Commutation” is also used sometimes to cover homemade uniform items like overshirts, shell jackets, sack coats, frocks, and pants made and sent out from home.

[usmc1855]

Got some more images from this past week:

[usmc1855]

A few more:

[usmc1855]

And yet more....

[rrodrick]

Really neat pictures. A very unique undertaking and opportunity to interpret history. It must have been as hot as the devil, though.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Great pictures, to commemorate the adventure of a lifetime I guess. The nearest I ever came to this was a night march to surprise the enemy encampment at dawn. You should have seen those pickets run. However, it pales into insignificance when compared with this epic. Just been reading the exploits of Major Robert Rogers in the F.a.I.W. Looks like you had much the same experience minus the hostiles.
Well done that man.
Rob.

[flash]

That looks like an awesome time out Brian, thanks for letting us see the pics. Dave

[usmc1855]

Great pictures, to commemorate the adventure of a lifetime I guess. The nearest I ever came to this was a night march to surprise the enemy encampment at dawn. You should have seen those pickets run. However, it pales into insignificance when compared with this epic. Just been reading the exploits of Major Robert Rogers in the F.a.I.W. Looks like you had much the same experience minus the hostiles.
Well done that man.
Rob.

I've been fortunate to have participated in a few multi-day events in the past few years. In '06 and again '09 we did five day events in North East Louisianan portraying different elements of 1864 Red River Campaign. We had opposing columns of over 100 men each, and covered 30+ miles at each event.

In October we are doing a four day event here: http://www.geocities.com/scar_civilwar/WestvilleIndex


In March we have a four day garrison event here: http://www.armoryguards.org/mcallister2011/

[Flying Officer Kyte]

In October we are doing a four day event here: http://www.geocities.com/scar_civilwar/WestvilleIndex


In March we have a four day garrison event here: http://www.armoryguards.org/mcallister2011/[/QUOTE]

Both of these look incredible from the advertisements. Should be a real feel event.
We did a schools week for several years at Cheriton battlefield, which was a good way to immerse oneself in the period, but we didn't have a town to play with. The best we have done in that respect was at the Open Air Museum of Rural life. Here we had a village to live in. I always fancied doing a stint at Williamsburg, but never quite got there.
Keep the info rolling in.
Rob.

[Algynon]

Quite awesome. Certainly beats Bournemouth in a B&B for a week. Who carried the beers??? A most essential job.