Sitting By the Roadside

Grove City, OH

June 2-3, 2012

Arriving late afternoon on Friday, I was surprised at how cool the weather had come, especially after suffering from 90 degrees plus last weekend.  I was the first one of the Confederates to arrive, so I looked around for someone to tells us where the Confederate camp was supposed to be.  I stumbled into the 76th Ohio's camp and asked them--who weren't much help.  They suggested I camp out a few miles down the highway.  I just smiled, nodded, and backed away quietly--off to look for someone with a clipboard who looked a bit frazzled (or at least hopefully so).  It took awhile, but I did stumble into just the person.

He gave us a general area--anywhere between this gravel walk and the treeline in the distance.  Since it seemed to balance us with the Federals and kept us reasonably close to the public, I choose to set camp right next to the gravel walkway.  I should have noticed the lamppost I was setting up underneath--but I was focused on getting my canvas up so that I could relax for the evening.

I never did experience nightfall.  That lamppost made my canvas shine like the morning sun all night long.

But we got to chat a bit with the sutlers set up across from our camp.  That's one thing I have to say about this event--the sutlers were far better that Sharon Woods, even though this was a decidedly smaller event.  I replaced my cartridge box with the sutlers we talked with for one that I could fit tins in (my regular box was too small for tins, and I have another box I use for Federal only as it has a "USA" plate on the front).  A few other of our unit found other items to add to their gear.

The event coordinators did not have anything planned for us other than to be living history.  It was a timeline event, though there seemed to be a bit lacking from the timeline.  I saw a bit from Rev War, and some scraps from here and there that I'm not real sure what they were representing.  Capt. Sharp got with Capt. Jenkins of the 76th OVI to get something going.  We held a morning drill, made a raid on a sniper up a hill, then held a small assault on the Federal forces.

The event has potential--there seems to be good ground for us to work in.  Perhaps if the event is held next year, we can do more for it, though I doubt the 1st Tennessee will put it on its official schedule like they did this year.  It makes for a good auxiliary (filler) event, but as a strong all-out event, it is quite lacking.  I'm looking forward to Reynoldsburg at the end of this month.