Camp furniture on campaign

[lojafan]

Before I ask my question I will let it be known that I do not bring camp furniture of any kind on campaign, reenactment, living history, what have you. I have often wondered how prevalent camp furniture was used by common soldiers on campaign rather than in camp.

So with that, does anyone have any documentation for furniture, particularly chairs, carried by common soldiers while on campaign? I've been told by a few fellas in my unit that they would tear apart empty boxes and make chairs out of them. Just seeing if anyone has proof that this happened and if any kind of furniture was carried by common soldiers.

Thanks!

[26th NC]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

Their camp furniture was probably the same as mine in my first apartment; early American ammo box. Or hardtack box.

Seriously, I (others may vary) don't believe any common Soldier carried any camp furniture on campaign. The first question you have to ask is "why", and the second is "how". They used the same philosophy we light infantrymen still do, " travel light, freeze at night". A chair or furniture of any kind would have been cumbersome, heavy and discarded. And the next part of the equation is; you are on campaign, moving constantly, when do you have the static time in any one location for any period of time to sit around? You want to eat, sleep and rst while you can. Not set up camp. Comfort was not part of the equation back then (still isn't). As you mentioned, maybe something hastily fabricated from a box, nothing more, if that.

Layton Pennington

[lojafan]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

Thank you for your response Layton. Yes I agree, most furniture that would have been available to them would be heavy and cumbersome, which is why I often wonder why some people at events choose to bring these huge chairs that weigh 20 pounds. I figured if I ever wanted a chair to just use a stump, log, or as you said, a cracker box. For a Trans-Mississippi Confederate, would a cracker box be apropriate, or would another box of some type be more apropriate?

[Charles Heath]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

In the Federal realm, serviceable cracker boxes (Type I at least) and barrels could be turned in for credit. I've often wondered if the Confederates had a similar system of returnable containers. In the early portion of the war, the reb cracker factories in the Raleigh NC area were begging for cracker containers in newspaper ads. Just a thought only marginally related to the quandry of field furniture for the common infantry impression.

[DougCooper]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

So with that, does anyone have any documentation for furniture, particularly chairs, carried by common soldiers while on campaign? I've been told by a few fellas in my unit that they would tear apart empty boxes and make chairs out of them. Just seeing if anyone has proof that this happened and if any kind of furniture was carried by common soldiers.

Thanks!

It was as prevalent as it was for privates to own their own wagon to carry it all in...unless of course they made a chair for themselves every night, then burned it in the morning. You know the routine:

march 20 miles
drink some bad water
boil some coffee
munch hardtack
build a chair
fall asleep where you drop
wake up
burn or toss chair
boil coffee
munch hardtack
get back in line
and so on... ;)

Seriously, nobody below the rank of regimental commander or surgeon had a wagon...yet the wagon park for even a division covered many acres and was a mile long on the road (Charles would know this exactly). Furniture (both soldier made and retail) was pretty far down on the list of army impedimentia, below ammo, medical supplies, food, sick and lame soldiers, etc.

Now in garrison or winter quarters, the ingenuity of your average American private knew no limits.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

Doug,

You laugh, but even I have a hard time envisioning Bobby Lee's 18-mile long train for the G'burg campaign, or one of Uncle Billy's 27-mile long wagon trails. That's a lot of little hooves pounding the road.

Harvey Riley left us with a great resource. Even for those with little or no interest in long eared motive power and wheeled vehicles of the period, this oft linked book provides but a glimpse into what it took to field some of those hooves:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10878

That url heads to the Gutenberg Project version of The Mule and others exist online. This goes beyond what Billings had to say about mules in his seminal work.

[ajhamler]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

Some good points made by all, and I agree that privates would not have carried camp furniture with them. (Nor would they have carried much of the other camp items commonly seen at reenactments, like bulky wooden lanterns, folding stools, etc.)

For officers with wagons, that wouldn't have necessarily been the case, of course.

However, it is possible that when on campaign near populated areas -- especially areas where farmers/homeowners may have fled in the face of the advancing forces -- private soldiers may have, with enough time on their hands, "borrowed" comfort items from farms, barns and homesteads over the course of their encampment. I'm sure this wasn't routine, but rather more of an occurrence based on opportunity and the conditions in the area through which the campaign advanced. No abandoned houses equals no forageable comforts. But, were I a marching private camping for the night within sight of an abandoned farmhouse, I might certainly have sneaked off to see what camp comforts I could find. (Depending, of course, on the strictness of my NCOs and officers regarding such matters.)

In the above case, a forged piece of furniture would likely not have been one of those ubiquitous sutler folding camp stools. A private doing a campaign impression, wishing to appear that he had foraged a piece of furniture from a nearby farmhouse, would more likely have found a light dining or parlor chair, rigid (non-folding) stool, or small five-board bench.

A lot depends, too, on the impression you wish to achieve and the personal level of immersion you wish to experience. Depending on the event, I admit that I've stashed a stool and lantern among my gear to be used for my personal comfort after public hours... IF that was the practice by others for that event. During public hours those items were hidden in my gear and nowhere to be seen (or I just walked them back to the car). I find few things more annoying that seeing a camp open to the public during an event that is supposed to depict a campaign scenario, than observing countless folding stools, wooden lanterns and other items that simply wouldn't have been there, on display for the public to think that "this is what a campaign camp looked like."

As I said above, after public hours camp comforts are another whole debate, as are non-campaign scenarios.

A.J. Hamler

[AZReenactor]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

A.J. Sounds like your talking about that other hobby...

Also, please remember to sign your first and last name, as per the forum rules.

[Old Reb]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

After public hours! Camp comforts! I have to agree with Troy (as much as I hate doing so) he is correct that camp comforts and after public hours refers to a different hobby.

[TMAN]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

Gents.

"So with that, does anyone have any documentation for furniture, particularly chairs, carried by common soldiers while on campaign?
Thanks!"

Charles has given us some documentation on transportation and methods of using mules, Does anyone else have any documentation as asked in the original post, such as letters, reports, pictures?

Tim Fretwell

[ephraim_zook]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

Likely everyone is familiar with the photograph of Grant and his staff sitting outdoors on church pews. Not carried on campaign, but dragged out of the church for comfort's sake.

A couple of years ago at McDowell someone took that scene to heart and dragged along a pew. It did look good, and insofar as the federal troops had been in McDowell for a while, there is a church in town, and many residents had fled there was a modicum of realism there..

Ron Myzie

[GrumpyDave]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

Any excess wood would have gone where it would do the most good. Into a cook fire. Considering the camp duties, Guards and Fatigues associated with the armies and then moving them 12 or more miles a day. It' s a wonder those guys even took the time to sent up shelter tents...wait, unless it was going to rain, they didn't. Walk...eat(maybe)...walk... eat(maybe)...sleep(maybe)...get up...eat(maybe)...walk...repeat.

[kaelin]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

Here is a link to images...

http://www.cwreenactors.com/~sykes/equipment/LOC_camp_furniture.php

respectfully

[MarkTK36thIL]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

36th Officers in June of 1864. Modified barrels, crates, and chairs.

[Horace]

Re: Camp furniture on campaign

After expending all of your energy all day long in marching, and then being pulled off for various fatigue duties, you do it all on the ground. Even if a house was near I don't think the energy would be expended to pull furniture out of it. Given the amount of time and energy available to you, and the overriding pressure to keep up and survive, thoughts of chairs would not be on your mental list. You might happen across a cracker box, but I don't think the commissary staff would be giving these away when they could be using them themselves, or needed to keep track of them. These are my opinions.
Someone should do an event where you park your car and then march 20 miles away from it, in say, Kisatchee National Forest or somewhere, to see what this would actually be like.