Mattress Tick Question

[JohnSeever]

I was told to look up the USSC info on the proper way to make a mattress Tick, and I am having no luck in finding it via a search engine. Anyone happen to know where to look? I know that I am looking for USSC Bulletin, Vol. 1, Number 31.

Thanks in advance.

[Will Eichler]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

John,

Shoot me a PM with your email address and I'll get you set up.

Even have made a stamp for the USSC bed sacks (proper name).

Best regards,

Will

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

It's here. Page 962 has the written instructions:

http://books.google.com/books?id=mr8HAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0p9Eus7g3E48CgNiBBhL#PPA962,M1

BEDDING FOR HOSPITAL USE.

Bed sack of burlap or ticking, 2 yards and 12 inches long; 40 inches wide. Sew all round. Cut opening in middle 27 inches long: close with three [3] buttons; put a stay at each end of opening and one under each button. Required, 3 knots linen thread.

Pillow Sacks of ticking or crash; 16 inches wide, 3Q inches long. Leave opening in middle of one end. Close with 2 buttons.

Sheets. Linen and cotton. 8 feet long. 4 feet wide. Required, one-half skein of cotton or one-twelfth part of a hank.

[lojafan]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

Just because I'm curious, does anyone have any documentation as to how common these sort of mattresses were in the field?

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

Not very. I say this because bed sacks and the like are generally described as garrison or hospital equipage. As I recall, the number procured by the QM department during the war (and reported in Meigs' end of 1865 report in Series III, Volume 5 of the ORs) was pretty small. Larger numbers were procured by the Medical Department or provided by the Sanitary Commission and other private sources. Even if they appeared earlier in the war in the baggage of officers or well-appointed enlisted men, orders later in the war seem to have limited what soldiers could carry in the field.

That said, a search turns up:

A mention of bed sacks in a Union field hospital on the Peninsula:

http://books.google.com/books?id=AMB6WyapTGQC&pg=PA161&dq=%22bed+sacks%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=1862&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1866&as_brr=1#PPA160,M1

A bed sack used to carry Confederate medical supplies on the Peninsula:

http://books.google.com/books?id=5a1IykJaSAIC&pg=PA308&dq=%22bed+sacks%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=1862&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1866&as_brr=1#PPA307,M1

Bed sacks provided to a New Hampshire regiment camped near Alexandria Virginia in late 1861:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZMIZwAEnou4C&pg=PA37&dq=%22bed+sacks%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=1862&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=1866&as_brr=1#PPA38,M1

Most other references I've seen apply to the use of bed sacks in hospitals, their provision by the Sanitary Commission, and the like.

[JohnSeever]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

This is very helpful. thank you.

[GrumpyDave]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

Ergo,

Why carry a tick on the march if you don't know if there'll be anything where you stop to fill it up with. And, would you have the energy to carry the thing let alone take the time and effort to fill it up?

[Danny]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

Ergo, Why carry a tick on the march if you don't know if there'll be anything where you stop to fill it up with. And, would you have the energy to carry the thing let alone take the time and effort to fill it up?

Better question would be, regardless of how practical we think it would be, did they commonly carry a bed bag? An empty bag, after all, is still at a minimum a ground cloth or a mosquito net of sorts. Not to mention a ready source for clothes patches. Not to mention if you roll up a spare shirt in it it's at least a pillow, even in bivoac.

Dan Wykes

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

We have no evidence that soldiers "commonly" carried bed-sacks in the field.

First, as Grumpy points out, there's the practical matter. You can just as easily stack leaves loose and throw a gum blanket over them as you can stuff a bed sack.

Second, if you look at Ingall's study of knapsacks, Hunter's orders to his troops marching up the Valley, or any similar instruction, a bed sack would likely have been thrown out during a knapsack inspection as an item not allowed to soldiers on the march. If the army specified how many shirts or drawers you could carry -- and they often did -- they would not likely tolerate bedsacks.

Beyond that, we can look at numbers. The United States government procured about a quarter of a million bedsacks over the course of the war. That sounds like a lot, but it compares to six million blankets and twenty million pairs of socks, or, for that matter, half a million camp kettles. They're relatively few compared to the number of troops and references to them usually occur in the context of barracks or hospitals. From what I've seen, the Sanitary Commission viewed their bed sacks the same way.

I have seen no reference to a bed sack used as a pillow. I have seen references to pillow-ticks in hospitals. In the field I've found that a sack coat rolled up on top of a cartridge box makes a great pillow, so long as you don't smoke in bed. Other "pillows" I've seen references to include fence rails, logs, shoes, and sword hilts. All sorts of things provide good neck support without encumbering yourself with superfluous items.

An untreated bed sack would make a poor groundcloth, soaking up moisture and leaving you with a wet item to tote the next day. Toting wet things you don't need generally sucks.

As I've suggested elsewhere, there's no telling what sort of baggage some of the units might carry early in the war, but problems of transport quickly began to impose increasingly stringent limitations. The bed sack would fall into the category of something that hadn't enough value to justify its bulk or weight.

[PogueMahone]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

Boy, you all just jump to conclusions!! The guy asked about USSC information for a bed tick and the discussion has become whether they were PEC/NUG in the field. He never said anything about using it in the field.

Besides that, there are plenty of events where a soldier might have a tick and so should YOU. Some early war scenarios, garrison impressions, hospital scenarios, etc.

Open your minds, fellers. There are other impressions than "campaign".

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

I answered the original question the way it was asked. Then somebody else asked some different questions and I answered those.

What I'm really waiting for though is the question about air mattresses and water beds. They had and used those, too. :)

[Clark Badgett]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

How about air matresses and water beds? Come on if they'd a had em, they'd a used em. hehehehehehehehe:wink_smil

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

How about air matresses and water beds? Come on if they'd a had em, they'd a used em. hehehehehehehehe:wink_smil

As I said, they did have them, and they did use them. A little. If you have a copy of Mike Woshner's book India Rubber and Gutta Percha in the Civil War Era, you'll see some examples. But at $10 each, the air mattresses were definitely a luxury item. One occasionally encounters those or waterbeds in a general hospital. So I wasn't entirely joking.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

Edited to add: oops, crossposted with Michael!

How about air matresses and water beds? Come on if they'd a had em, they'd a used em. hehehehehehehehe:wink_smil

Well, I know what Pvt Schnapps knows but I don't know if Clark knows what Pvt Schnapps knows and I know that I don't know what Clark knows, but....

Somewhere in there is an excellent point about how they did have things but they didn't always use them, except in certain contexts which may not have been the same as ours.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[PogueMahone]

Re: Mattress Tick Question

Yeah, I can see it now ... the ol' farm wagon draped with a cover, a water bed in the back and a sign on the tailgate "If this wagon's rockin', don't bother knockin'".