Staying warm

Re: Staying warm

I got miserably cold at my first event when I didn't sleep next to the fire. The main culprits were wind and cold feet. I remedied the cold feet by changing into a dry pair of socks as I slid between the blankets.
The wind seemed to always find the "seam" where the folded edges of my gum and wool blanket met. Plus, I would invariably open the "seam" every time I rolled over. I remedied the problem with some "blanket pins." I take my blanket and fold it in half lengthwise. Then, fold the bottom foot or so up, to form a pouch. Pin it with the blanket pins. This keeps your feet from poking out and wind from getting in. Then, lay the pouch on your open gum blanket (an oilcloth will work here,too) and fold the gum over just like you did the wool blanket. Stick the pins through the grommets in the gum and right through the wool blanket. This will secure the gum and the wool blanket together and stop all the drafts. You are basically making a sleeping bag with all period ingredients. Then you just slide down in your bag with your dry socks and sleep warm all night. Don't expect to be able to crawl out in a hurry, though! It's a tight fit.
I also highly recommend the procurement of some type of sleeping hat or balaclava. I wear one of Karin Timour's balaclavas to sleep in and it makes an unbelievable amount of difference on a cold night! I sleep toasty warm on nights when everything around me is covered in frost.
Good luck!

Cpl. Tommy Rollings
8th SCVI

[JohnTaylorCW]

Re: Staying warm

I especially remember a very comprehensive list of suggestions from Charles Heath. If anyone has that "keeper" in a form that they could repost, it would be a really valuable addition for people new to the hobby.

Charles' article is still on-line at the Rowdy Pard's site. It's accessible through the AC website by clicking Links: Articles: Sleeping Campaign.

John T.

[john duffer]

Re: Staying warm

I may have missed it in the other replies or it may be too obvious to mention but the biggest difference a "trick" has made for me is pulling the cover over your head and harnessing the 98.6 exhaust. Try this tonight with your regular covers and see how quick it's too hot to stay there. I also endorse the 'sleep next to a fire' and 'don't expect to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time' schools of thought.

[billwatson]

If you can...

... pick your spot to sleep with some thought.
Wind and wet are your big enemies. Find a spot -- for yourself or for a group -- where wind is blocked. Even a little blocking can help. A log, a rock, a bush, a windrow of hay or grass, even "wind defilade" in a dip in the ground -- anything so that the air around your body is still, or at least quieter than the air out in the open, on the ridge, etc. If cold is an issue, pick a defensive site with some built-in advantages.

Generally speaking -- generally, there are always exceptions -- the side of a hill is better than either the very top (exposed to wind) or the valley at the bottom (cold collects there overnight). The problem is that the top and the valley are both superficially more attractive -- picturesque, almost.

I don't worry too much about how many cloth blankets, but I do try to carry a lightweight oil cloth in addition to the rubber blanket. One goes under, the oil cloth goes on top. In the absence of anything else, it will block the wind very effectively and it keeps the dew off.

So will trees or brush. Dew will form on the highest object, whether that is a tree, a bush, grass, or you. Give it a choice besides you: Sleep under something.

Whether or not you can have a fire depends on what the event is. If you're out on picket on active campaign, actively maneuvering, only the supports might have fires, and a concern there would be to put the supports in a dip where the fire wouldn't give away the location. The front posts would not have fires even if things were arranged so some folks were supposed to be able to sleep. If the lines have been settled, the armies not moving, we know from accounts the pickets would arrive at a condition at some times and places where they didn't chew on each other, and the situation with fires might be relaxed. They all knew where the other guys were at that point, which is one of the purposes of pickets.

Some of this never changes, just as essential military principles haven't changed since the Assyrians or whatever. "Band of Brothers", "Crossroads" episode, shows the 101st arriving outside Bastogne on a bitter cold night. While at the staging area, they poured gasoline into pits and got roaring fires going to get warm -- but when they get out on the line and dig in, there will be no fires.

I mention all that because sometimes the history being depicted means we need to think about where we are and what is, nominally, going on around us -- not just whether or not we can get warm. We in fact did that at Struggle for Statehood on Friday night, when, in a situation that involved a small federal detachment sent out on a limited mission into an area where Confederate troops had recently been active, we had a cold camp, no fire, on the site of a hill for our overnight bivouac, a couple of hundred yards away from the spot in the valley where we cooked our rations. We had a bit of ice in some canteens in the morning, but we all survived.

Hope this is of some service.

[Alamo Guard]

Re: Staying warm

Well seems you have covered every little trick of the trade cept one. One really cold nights you can did a shallow depression about 6 inches in the ground. Then rake coals into the depression and recover with dirt. Tamp the dirt down firmly. then place ground cloth and blankets atop your covered pit. Only once have I woken up to smoldering blankets.
If you do have two blankets, lay both out flat on the ground, fold one over on the left side, the the other on the right. Hence you are wrapped up like a cacoon but it shal help to trap the body heat from escaping from the edges of the blankets. Then cover with oilcloth.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Staying warm

Hallo Kamerden!

All many good points here. With the exception of heating up a non-sedimentary (porous) rock and sleeping with it, I would add little...

In another century, I have been "out and about" with a single blanket 12 months out of the year for many years- the worst being at Minus 12 degrees and Minus 6 degrees.

I would add these three though:

1. Leave the expectation of an 8 hour uninterrupted, sound, "Good Night's Sleep" at home in the Modern World. With our 21st century concepts of climate control, and nice beds and bedding- it only gets in the way of life in the Past. (Soldiers often sleep when and where they can, and catch up on lost moments catch as catch can...)
2. Use the full range of surviving documented "tricks of the trade" to do it as "they did" as they knew what they were doing. The larger part of that is bundling and sharing gum blankets and woolen blankets AND sleeping together to contribute body heat as well as prevent heat loss due to radiation and convection through a single blanket (read as leave the 21st century Homophobia at home, or be cold and miserable....)
3. Do not bundle and load up on clothing to the point one sweats damp or wet- it furthers the heat loss. Wear as little as one can to bed, and add as needed. While woolens can keep 80% of their heat retention factor even wet, for some low temperatures 80% is not enough.

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Staying warm

I think this subject has been delt with about 1000 times, but...

S**T can the extra blankets, find a pard, lay on ground cloth on the ground, lay one blanket on the ground, lay one blanket over you, lay one ground cloth over you, change your shirt, change your socks, and sleep in your shirt sleeves, and use your jacket as a pillow.

A few months back one fellow brought three blankets with him on a campaign event. Not only did myself and another fellow have to carry him and his ponderous load on the march, he froze is a** off at night, while the rest of us were fine.

[Kykeydet12]

Re: Staying warm

try filling your canteen with hot coffee then go to sleep with it . some put it on they're chest some at they're feet. I prefer it between my legs , but sometime when I'm sleeping in a borrowed shelter half and my feet stick out the end I put them there. another comment on this make sure you have the cork in tight or you'll look like you wet the bed in the morning .
another trick is to just plain old camping . go just regular camping and just sleep out in the cold and you'll get used to it . it work's great .


Rob young

[flattop32355]

Re: Staying warm

[QUOTE=Silas]
The Heath article also mentioned a sock practice which I also perform. Don't change your socks until you go to bed. Take off you old pair and put your dry pair on. Then place your other pair over the dry ones. Make certain that the old pair are turned inside out. If they are wool - as they should be - then they should be dry by morning.

Personally, if my feet get cold, nothing else on me is warm. I do the above suggestion, plus fold some of the blanket or greatcoat under my lower legs. Even though it leaves me "short-sheeted", I stay warmer.

My other best way to stay warm is to kick my son out of the tent at night...he keeps stealing the covers. :wink_smil

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Staying warm

Not that this would apply to any of us on the AC, but drinking alcohol when it's cold can lead to one having issues. I'm not a doctor so I don't know precisely what this causes the body to do, but I do know that for most people it makes you sweat, in colder temperatures this can lead to rapid cooling of your body and lead to things like hypothermia. On a second note, alcohol also slows your breathing, and it is speculated that the whiskey draughts along with the morphine given to General "Stonewall" Jackson could have been factors for him contracting phneumonia.

Paul B. Boulden Jr.

RAH VA MIL '04

[Silas]

Re: Staying warm

Spooning?
Depending on the change in temperature at night, even with all the above, you can still be chilled if you are sleeping alone. Pooling together with several other people will allow you to share body heat as well as blankets.

I second the spooning suggestion. It's under represented in the hobby. Be a man and just do it. Drones may chuckle at spooning, but that's because they're awake a 3:00 am wondering why they're so cold.

The Heath article also mentioned a sock practice which I also perform. Don't change your socks until you go to bed. Take off you old pair and put your dry pair on. Then place your other pair over the dry ones. Make certain that the old pair are turned inside out. If they are wool - as they should be - then they should be dry by morning.

Head cover.
I'm not into those silly caps. I prefer scarves. My mother crocheted one for me. I wrap it around my head and face at night. When I wake, I rewrap it into something resembling a turban. When we break camp and if it's still cool, I wrap it around my neck.

Weight and mass are at a premium when on campaign. Some may consider caps to be more stylish, but I get more uses from the scarf than I would a sleeping cap.

[PogueMahone]

Re: Staying warm

Well, I don't see the obvious, so I will offer this clue:

Sleep next to a fire.

Everything Karin said. A fresh pair of dry wool socks, wool sock hat, mittens, dry clothing, spooning.

At the Hodge March, I found myself on the outside of the puppy pile and furthest from the fire. The wind was blowing up my arse and out my nose. I was miserably cold. Without getting up, I rolled the edge of groundcloth (lengthwise) up to block the wind with my hand. When I decided that this little bit was sufficient, I stuffed my cartridge box, haversack, belt and knapsack under/behind this lifted edge of groundcloth. (I should add that the groundcloth had stiffened in the cold air, making it much easier to form this little wall.) I was able to fall asleep without the wind blowing up me, even though I was still cold.

Getting out of a wind will make all the difference in the world.

I noticed that you carry a quilt. Are you putting it on first or last? I would not encourage anyone to carry a quilt (or even as much stuff as you listed), but if you have it, lay it on top to seal in body heat.

But, the best way to keep warm is spooning next to a fire. The best way to freeze is to sleep by yourself under a pile of blankets.

[Johan Steele]

Re: Staying warm

Make certain you have plenty of blanket underneath you, ideally 2/3. THe ground is quite adept at thiefing your body heat. Dry socks, sleeping cap and mittens or gloves will also go a long way to keeping you warm.

Re: Staying warm

I just had a thought. depending on the impression, maybe you should be cold.

[Andrew Jarvi]

Re: Staying warm

Dear GA Reb,
All the above suggestions work great, I carry my blanket, greatcoat, gum blanket and shelter half in my pack. As the others said leaves, straw. or pine needles make good insulators from the ground. then I lay my gum blanket down, put on my great coat, cover with a blanket then my shelter half to keep dampness out. Also I wear a heavy night cap.

Andrew Jarvi
5th USCT