Raiding McConnelsville

July 9-10, 2011

This event is one that the 1^st Tennessee goes to with mixed feelings.  There are those of us that like the event, and those that don’t.  It almost didn’t make it on our schedule this year, save for a barely large enough vote.

I like this event.  But it takes a lot for me to give a thumbs-down to an event.  If you attended the last year of the Granville, Ohio event (some years back), you experienced one of the few events I would give a thumbs-down to.

One of the things that turn off some of our members is in-town battles.  They consider this too farby due to the asphalt and street signs that we end up fighting around.  Personally, it doesn’t bother me—it’s a change of pace from normal field fighting.  Just don’t die on the asphalt—it can get so hot you might start thinking you’ve arrived at some fiery destination instead of the Pearly Gates.

McConnelsville’s Saturday battle is in-town while the early afternoon Sunday battle is held at a nearby farm.  They have followed this pattern for years. 

This year, however, the Saturday battle had some kind of strange scripting.  The script called for us Confederates to take the town with a small skirmish and the basically pillage—er “forage” for pre-established bounty, which included some apples and a few other period-type things.  In order for us to accomplish this, the battle was basically put on hold for a while until our pillaging was complete and the announcer called for the arrival of Federal troops.  This downtime for us was very awkward—we are not used to this kind of thing.  The 1^st Tennessee is a disciplined group.  We portray the Rock City Guards, and as such were all volunteers.  Our research showed that nearly all of the original soldiers had significant wealth, ranging from today’s equivalent of lower middle class merchants to wealthy planters that owned multiple slaves.  Although we wear the expected not quite matching and patch-repaired uniforms, we aren’t the ragtag group associated with the Confederate Army.  We aren’t perfect, but we are well drilled and are proud of our skill in formation.  Therefore, when we’re expected to act like the Federals at Fredericksburg, we feel out of place and grumble our disappointment.  I think the highlight was when Zach made off with the gentleman’s top-hat that seemed to be part of the bounty.  He left it in his tent back at camp—only to have the owner hunting camp-to-camp for it.

The complaint I heard concerning the pause in the battle was that when we go into a fight, we get an adrenaline rush, and that pause causes a letdown.  I never get that adrenaline rush (although I do enjoy the battling) so I think, as a side note, that event coordinators need to realize that we reenactors are not entertainers.  Yes, what we do entertains the public—but that’s not our goal.  We are educators, and in camp we will talk the public and educate them about the life and the times of the Civil War, but probably the best analogy to the battle is to consider that we are merely playing a game when we go out to fight.  We follow basic rules and one side wins—only we usually know which side will win before the game starts.  When something outside our paradigm is thrown at us—we’ll tend to get a little upset about it.  Maybe this is a flaw in reenactors, but if the event coordinators will keep this in mind, then when they need something unusual to happen, then perhaps things will work out better with the use of entertainers for those special things.

As Saturday wore away and Euchre playing picked up, our lieutenant showed me the script for the Sunday battle.  The battle was scripted?  The very concept shocked me.  I had never been to the officers’ meeting used to plan the battle, but I always imagine them to go something like this:

Federal Commander: Heads or tails?

Confederate Commander: Heads.

Federal Commander: Tails—the North wins today.

Confederate Commander: Okay—We’ll come in on the west side of the field and push you from your positions at the breastworks.

Federal Commander: Sounds good—we’ll fall back and have our company in reserve flank you to push you back.

Confederate Commander: Yeah—sounds like a plan.  See you at 2.

And so the battle would be fought.  If there is artillery, they’ll shoot at each other for awhile until they’ve used up enough ammunition.  If there is cavalry, they’ll dance around the field swing sabers and taking pop shots until they get bored.  Then we’ll come on the field and kind of—sort of follow the rough idea from the officer’s meeting.  The battle rarely goes anything like it was planned—or so our officers tell me.

But, the script for the Sunday battle at McConnelsville read like a chapter out of the Civil War Times.  Every cannon shot was noted, along with the response.  It described when the infantry should shoot and where they should be on the battlefield and when.  The entire script was roughly two pages long.  It scared me silly—it sounded stupid—like some kind of children’s story or comic book.

I have to give the Sunday battle credit.  Somehow it all worked.  The battlefield is a good-sized hill and somehow every year we seem to always have to climb it to the Yankee position at the top. 

The Sunday battlesite from my perspective among the casualties

Marching to our positions on the battlefield, we had to march through a swampy manure field.  I only mention this so that next time we remember to go around it.  Our lieutenant nearly disappeared when he got his boot stuck to his knee in it.  Big Dave had to pull him out.

Lt Sharp intentionally deviated slightly from the script early on, moving us into position to attack the Federal artillery and firing a couple of unexpected volleys, but otherwise the script was followed.  I was surprised to hear this because it seemed to go so well.

Sutlers were a definite issue.  There was only one, unless you count the going-out-of-business sutler that lasted about an hour clearing everything out at incredible prices.  I heard they had some great stuff—but I missed it all except for the $20 8 ½ size brogans that only Pvt Silvers could wear.  At least he got a deal out of it.

Powder was nice—there was a half-pound bounty for all soldiers

Personally I liked the event, other than the issue with the battle—and they could do something to improve the food—it wasn’t bad, but I just think there was room for improvement.  The Saturday breakfast of nothing but biscuits and gravy with biscuits that were a bit dry could have been better (I would have fried my usual bacon and eggs had I known this was what to expect), and the Saturday “Cowboy beans” really needed a bit of work.  Mercer, in the rank behind me, suffered from them at the Sunday battle when they finally caught up to me.  I didn’t partake of the Sunday breakfast (same as Saturday’s, except with the addition of scrambled eggs).  

However, by the sound of many of the members of the 1^st Tennessee, it seems unlikely we will return next year.  If the event does not conflict with an event on the 1^st Tennessee’s schedule, I’ll find my way out if I can get a few to join me.  In a worst-case scenario we’d just fall in with the 5^th Kentucky—unless we had enough numbers to form our own unit.  But we won’t be going in force like we did this year—our numbers were somewhere between 20 and 30 for the Sunday battle.

Zanesville Times Recorder article
McConnelsville Facebook page
News report on WHIZ

Cump's Backyard

Lancaster Ohio, July 3-4, 2011

There doesn’t seem to be very many Confederate generals born in Ohio.  But there are certainly lots of Union generals born here.  Over the Fourth of July weekend, a small contingent of us spent time in a rather precarious territory in the heart of the home of one of the most notorious (at least to the Confederacy) Union generals—William T. Sherman.  Lancaster, Ohio was not only celebrating Independence Day, but also celebrating the restoration of one of the cannons that Sherman had brought back after the Civil War.  Of course, they seem to keep pretty quiet about the fact that the cannon was captured Confederate artillery—but I don’t think it would go over too well if we tried to reclaim it.

Due to the fourth falling on a Monday, the event actually did not start until Sunday.  I had my 11 year-old nephew from Colorado with me to be our flag bearer.  It was a small event, and I think the six of us on Sunday were about an even match to the Federal count, who were mostly members of the 76^th Ohio and Sons of Union Veterans.  A pretty laid-back event, but with plenty of potential if the Union side cooperated.  We had the ambulance that we had rescued a couple of weeks ago parked near our camp, while the Federals had Sherman’s cannon and a couple other artillery pieces parked by theirs.  A few Cavalrymen also camped near the Federals, but I think they came more to look pretty than to play.  During the skirmishes we held, they pretty much either stood in place or quickly ran to the other side of the field.  Not that I’m complaining—the infantry numbers were so slight that you really couldn’t do much with the cavalry.

I have to give kudos to the Federal forces on that first day for giving us a surprise attack on our camp in the morning.  Sgt Shaw saw a platoon of them heading our way thinking that perhaps they were drilling—that is until they formed a skirmish line and advanced on our position.  Caught off guard, we had to dive into our tents to grab our traps and ammunition.  But we gave a good show and pushed them back.

In the afternoon we cootered up to prepare to return the favor, only to have a federal messenger approach to ask which side of the battlefield we’d like, spoiling any chance for a surprise.  But it was a fun attack.  My nephew hadn’t seen any kind of reenactment before—so marching out waving the Polk flag around was a real treat for him.

Before that afternoon battle I noticed Steve Winston’s speed with reloading to shoot down a couple of Federal prisoners and suggested we challenge the Yanks to a bit of a friendly speed shoot competition.  After the battle, the impromptu challenge almost went unmet as most of the Yanks complained they had already cleaned their guns (a little antsy, if you ask me—we had barely heated the water by that time).  Fortunately, a couple of the young soldiers accepted the challenge when their sergeant agreed to re-clean the guns.  Steve won the competition, save for a little detail.  Having never participated in such a competition, he wasn’t clear on the rule that you actually do ram paper—he simply rammed without pushing the paper tube in, which gave him a bit of a speed advantage.  But it was all just for fun, anyhow, so we didn’t worry about it.  I beat the Yank next to me by a second or two, keeping my time to about 55 seconds for three shots.  I would have been a bit faster had I not thrown my first tube to the ground, or fumbled around so much with my ramrod.

We returned the favor of the morning ambush with a sneak attack of our own near dusk.  We used a bit of Confederate ingenuity—splitting our group into two platoons.  I was with the color detail advancing down the front with double charges to draw their attention, while a slightly larger force flanked the Federal camp.  After about three shots the Federals were finally about to defend themselves—only to have the flanking force lower their muskets and force surrender.

Much less happened on Monday—with the parade taking our morning, and the Federals having to vacate to make room for parking for the fireworks, we could only hold an early afternoon skirmish, with the Camp Chase Fife and Drums playing to our gunfire.  We had a few late additions to our numbers, so we were a decent company. Since we were to lose, we gave them casualties until we were down to three, then gave them a final charge, only to discover they had empty guns.  I got lucky and found a federal on our flank able to fire before we got to close, but Sgt Shaw and Private Feeman had to perform an impromptu hand-to-hand, which is never really a good idea, but it was a good show, though Sgt Shaw suffered a bruise of some kind that he was complaining of the next day.

The event was held at Rising Park in Lancaster, and the Federals provided decent food for us throughout the event, including Sunday (first day) supper, Monday donuts for breakfast and McDonalds after the afternoon skirmish.  Rising Park didn’t seem large enough for numbers like we experienced at Reynoldsburg, but perhaps the event will grow—the Fairfield County fairgrounds are right across the street and could provide a good overflow.  All the Independence Day events both provide a foothold for the Civil War reenactment and a limitation for it (as focus will never be fully on the reenactment), but if there comes to be enough support, perhaps we can see the reenactment stand on its own.

Even so, the Lancaster 4^th of July event is good.  The laid-back nature gave us plenty of time for Euchre, which is always a bonus.

Home of the Tomato

Reynoldsburg, June 25-26, 2011

I was told that Reynoldsburg has become one of the largest events in Ohio. I think it came as a surprise to some that there were enough Confederate companies to form a battalion. It was two years ago at this event that I decided to join the 1st Tennessee once and for all—up to that time I was primarily Federal (which is why I’ve been nicknamed “Yankee”). Three years ago this event was merely an extension of the Tomato Festival, and I’ve watched this event grow from a single day event two years ago, to a somewhat decent small to mid-range event last year to an event with around ten sutlers and around seventy to a hundred reenactors on each side. Although the sutlers were small (with one exception) and had limited selections (and a little heavy on public-oriented farby selections), they were varied enough to show promise in the years to come. If they can get just one more large sutler—such as Fall Creek or the Regimental Quartermaster—I think Reynoldsburg will definitely rate as one of the best events of the year. The park has plenty of space to grow, so there is plenty of potential.

In addition to the good supply of food and the significant number of sutlers, there were two Saturday battles along with a planned Sunday morning tactical and afternoon battle.

Granted, the event is heavily supported by the 5th Kentucky, a unit we of the 1st Tennessee are very close with. I feel I should mention this so that you are aware of my bias. But the event is a very good one nonetheless. Food was excellent—three meals provided. A Saturday lunch (a hamburger), dinner (pizza), and Sunday breakfast (egg and sausage burrito) weren’t exactly period meals, but who’s to look a gift horse in the mouth? You can always cook your own meal over the campfire if you are a stickler for period-correct eatin’.

Yankees coming for us

Saturday, the 1st Tennessee was made the Color Company, and I was among those put on Color detail. I had not been part of defending the flag before, so I was honored for the experience, but it is not something I would want to do all the time, since all that is involved is marching at shoulder arms beside the flag for the entire battle. It was not until the second Saturday battle in the late afternoon that I realized I could take advantage of the situation and grab my camera out of my haversack and snap a few shots with no one knowing. Even the soldiers on either side of me had no idea I had my camera out shooting the Yankees (okay, so it wasn’t with a musket—but at least I got some satisfaction out of it).

The 1st Tennessee as Color Company

The Saturday battles seemed a bit on the chaotic side—it seemed the Yankees didn’t want to come out and play. They complained we pushed too hard, but hadn’t they head General Jackson’s statement that once you’ve got them on the run—keep pushing? My advice to the Yankees—get aggressive. Push us—we will respond accordingly, and you will find the battle to be more interesting for both us and the public. I know the scenario is worked out during the officer’s meeting, but you know that all goes to pot once the fighting begins.

Sunday’s tactical turned bust. That can squarely be blamed on the Yankees—the skies were spitting a bit during the morning—nothing a poncho couldn’t deal with—and so the Yanks chickened out. I always look forward to a good tactical—it will take a monsoon to scare me away since they are so few are far between—so I was very disappointed that something less than a light sprinkle was all that it took to keep the Yankees away. Yet, they drilled about an hour later in that same light drizzle—what’s with that? I don’t know—others of the 1st Tennessee tell me the unit has quite the reputation for winning tacticals—is that the real reason the Yank didn’t want to play? Perhaps if the Yankee colonels studied up more on some of the winning tactics used during the Civil War, they could present the 1st Tennessee with a significant challenge.

The Sunday afternoon battle did make clear that the Yankees did have a lot of Saturday Day-lilies. The Rebs had them too, but it seemed a bit more dramatic with the Yankees (maybe it was just due to my perspective?) The numbers were still good, at least, and (at least to me) the battle appeared more organized—the Federals seemed to put on a better assault.

Overall I had a terrific weekend. Let’s see how the home of the tomato grows the event for next year.

Rescuing the Rescuer

This weekend was not a reenactment, but a rescue of sorts.  A friend of Gary Shaw’s had in his barn loft a relic of the Civil War, and offered to allow us to display it during the Lancaster event over the 4^th of July weekend.  He told us it was an ambulance in the Civil War.

The ambulance as stored, before extraction from the barn.

After seeing it, both Gary and I doubt it was an actual ambulance—but, even so, it may have been used as one.  We do not have any research as to how it was used during the War—only papers indicating that it was from the War.  There were the remnants of two Civil War cots with it, and I was told there was a significant amount of other Civil War items with it as well at one time.  If you have information that can tell us more about this relic, please post your comments to let us know.

It was not easy fetching the wagon out of the hayloft.  The current owner had used his barn over the past 30 years or so as a giant work shed—it had all sorts of things cluttering it up, including a pump organ, a 50’s era gas stove, and two 50’s era sports cars in extreme disrepair (little more than shells with engines).   All of this, plus a ton of lumber had to be moved just to make a path to extract the horse cart.  And then there was a hundred years of filth (lots of coons had been in and out of there over the years) that we stirred up.

Moving the cart to the hole.  That's me on the left--those jeans
were blue when we started.

Once the path was clear, we then had to carefully move the ambulance to the center of the loft, which was an opening with beams to provide a temporary flooring.  Once we put the cart on these beams, an extension cord was used to support it while the beams were removed.  An aluminum ladder was used as a ramp to slid the cart down.

Lowering the wagon.

The wagon was in exceptional shape considering its age and the amount of neglect it had seen.  One wheel had a couple of spokes a piece of wood around the rim missing.  The rear of the buckboard had damage to the inside board.  The tailgate was fully intact, but was completely separated.  The bows for supporting the canvas appear to all have been cut off—but all were present and accounted for.  There were little details here and there that suggested post-Civil War modifications, but they were items that either could be removed in a restoration project, or easily left as part of the history of the relic.  These modifications were probably from no later than the 1910s.

While we rolled it the day’s final destination a little outside the barn, one wheel started to collapse where its wood finally broke at several rotted points.  The owner said he was going to try to tack together some repairs to the ambulance in preparation for the Lancaster event—nothing significant, but enough to make it presentable and deliverable.  He doesn’t have far to go—the event is only about a quarter mile from where the cart has been stored for over a hundred years, but for the safety of the cart he is going to deliver it on a flatbed.

The final result

We are looking forward to seeing it displayed for the public over the 4^th of July.  It took ten of us to get that cart out of the barn—six from the 1^st Tennessee.  It will give us satisfaction to share a piece of history.

The ambulance during the 4th of July celebrations in Lancaster.

Edit: My doubts about this being an ambulance have been laid to rest.  Gary Shaw forward an original photo of a row of ambulances (below), and as you can see, our wagon looks to be an exact match, other than a bit longer (ours is twelve feet long) and missing the canvas, which appears would have been painted black. 

Finally, based on this link: http://www.civilwarhome.com/ambulancewagons.htm, it appears it is an extended version of the Rucker ambulance.

Pickerington with Cubs

I had forgotten just how short the attention span of some kids could be.  This past weekend was a living history with several Cub Scout packs of the Pickerington, Ohio area.  A small contingent of us from the 1^st Tennessee held four half-hour sessions walking kids through the life of a soldier.  A few of the sessions had kids that sat as still as honey bees in a clover field.

Gary Shaw does some blacksmithing

Firing the cannon for the kids

It wasn’t until we started walking them through the school of the soldier, the loading in nine times and shooting that we grabbed their attention.  Lesson learned—we’ll probably focus on that for next year.  After we completed our session, we handed the kids off to the artillery crew.

It was a nice, easy weekend.  After spending time with the kids, we got a lot of Euchre playing in.

In General Rosecrans stomping grounds

When you go to an event in the hometown of a Federal general, you’d expect to see a decent showing of Yankees.

The first and biggest mistake of the event held at Sunbury, Ohio--hometown of General William Rosecrans--was to schedule the event opposite two larger events (Conner Prairie, Indiana, and Sharon Woods in Sharonville, Ohio).  For the Saturday battle, we kept worrying that there’d only be three Yankees to shoot.  We figured we’d have to shoot them about 40 times each to make a decent battle.  There were a few more than that, at least, but the Rebels still outnumbered the Yankees.

As a warning to the event coordinators—do not schedule the event on this same date next year.  The 5^th Kentucky was the only Confederate unit there—there were three of us from the 1^st Tennessee (the official 1^st Tennessee event was Sharon Woods), and we fell in with the 5^th KY.  If this event is on the same date next year, the 5^th KY has a prior commitment, and won’t be there.  The 1^st Tennessee will be going to Sharon Woods, and I can assure you that the three of us at Sunbury this year will be going to Sharon Woods next year.  If you choose a different date, not only will you have the 5th KY, but probably a signficant number from the 1st Tennessee, as well.  So, unless you want nothing more than a 10 Yankee living history, a different date is highly recommended.

But besides that—it was a decent event, although the previous year was better.  The organization that was to supply the food bailed on them at the last minute, so the Saturday meals left something to be desired—a bagel for breakfast and a hot dog for dinner.  At least they had some time to prepare for a good Sunday breakfast of eggs and sausage.

I don’t really like to complain about inefficiencies of an event, because I always enjoy myself and want to see the event return for the next year.  It will take a lot to turn me against an event, and Sunbury is no different.  I enjoyed the event, and I want to see it return.  I say that so that a few criticisms can be taken seriously.  Although I was rather disappointed with the food, I can understand since your promised help failed to live to their promise.  It wasn’t the worst food I had at an event, anyhow (it’ll be tough to get worse than Granville’s last year in the mid-2000s—Ohio re-enactors are still talking about that).  But the event should have some kind of security during the Saturday battle.  This battle is fought on the streets around the town square, and not much was roped off, cars were parked in the battlefield area (nothing like firing a sniper shot through the window of a Honda Civic), and the public often did not know where they needed to be to stay out of the way of the infantry and cavalry.  It worked out, but there was the potential for something to go seriously wrong.  Sunday’s battle, held offsite at a local park, was at least clearly roped off, so the public had no question where they needed to be, but it would have been nice for those of us (like me) that are from out of town to have a nice sign at the park entrance for the battle.  A little public Frisbee golf course sign, with no park name, kind of threw me—I drove for 10 minutes out the highway before I realized that I must have missed it.

Even though this is an in-town event and small, these kinds of events are idea for finding new recruits.  Being a more laid-back environment, you can take the time to drill them sufficiently for the battle so that they can truly feel like they are a part of the company.

Analysis of Navy Arms Musket Caps

I recently visit a gun show in Columbus, Ohio and stumbled onto a vendor (The Ammo-Man, http://www.ermcollc.com/, out of East Rochester, Ohio) selling Navy Arms musket caps for $20 for a tin of 250 caps.  Since this price is competitive with the RWS and CCI musket caps, I thought it prudent to test the caps out to determine if they’d be useful for re-enacting use.  The more choices we have as reenactors, the more the competition, and the better the prices.

Navy Arms Musket Caps tin

I used my 1861 Armi-Sport Springfield for this test, like I did for the CCI caps.  I capped (no powder) 10 caps, followed by two with powder.  The caps seemed rather stiff—if you needed to squeeze them to keep them from falling off the nipple, you might have a problem.  In my case, they were a rather snug fit onto the nipple of my Springfield—I had to give it a good push to fully seat it.  In the middle of the ten, I slipped in one RWS cap to see if anyone would notice.  The sound of all caps were about the same—you could not tell by the sound alone which one was the German cap, which seemed promising.  You can always tell when someone is capping with one of the six wing CCIs—they fire pretty hot.

Unfortunately, we spotted a pattern with the Navy Arms caps.  Every one of them had one of the wings knocked a bit farther out then the rest, with tearing all the way to the top of the cap—the caps fired with powder (about 65 grain) show about the same tearing.

Spent Navy Arms cap.  Note the tear into the head.

I therefore added a new test—firing with a double-load (about 130 grain) and paper-rammed.  Although paper-ramming is not something done during a battle, double-loading does happen.  The paper-ramming would just pack the power enough to get a bit of extra compression.  If the caps passed this test, then safety could be assured as this should be only an extreme condition.

Doing this last test twice produced exactly the same result—fragmentation.  Both times the Navy Arms cap blew off one of its wings.  This would be absolutely disastrous in a company line as it could seriously injure the man next to you.  To confirm the results, I tested once more with a paper-rammed double charge with an RWS cap.  The RWS cap hardly showed any difference—no fragmentation and no tearing.

The vendor I bought these caps from normally supplies them for the North-South Skirmish Association (http://www.n-ssa.org/), who does live-fire.  He assured me these work well, but I assume he was not considering the safety factor while in a company line—they probably fire better for live-fire situations.  I hope they only do it in skirmish lines or individually.  In a skirmish line, or capping-off in a safe distance from others, you are probably okay to use these caps.  But in a company line, you would not want to use the Navy Arms caps under any circumstances due to the danger of fragmentation.

Therefore I cannot recommend the Navy Arms Musket Caps for use by reenactors.  Only if you absolutely never fire in a company line would you even want to consider using these.  Every Civil War infantry unit should make it a clear company policy never to use these caps.

I never performed the paper-rammed double-charge on the CCI caps.  At my next opportunity, I will perform that test to confirm the safety of the CCI caps and edit my review of those caps with the results.

EDIT (05/24/2011): I performed the double-charge test with the CCI caps, (here).