Confessions of a Farbtilleryman: or, how the AC forum changed my life.

[Vicksburg Dave]

Good morning fellow Redlegs,
We all did not start out with an authetic philosophy, so let's fess up and share pictures of what we used to look like before we "saw the light," wearing our over-red uniforms standing next to our 1/4 scale guns with a brace of Josey Wales pistols on each hip. Maybe we should give an award to most improved to the concensus favorite? The key to winning, however, is to look markedly different now than you did when you started in the hobby! In order to save bandwidth, we should probably do it through private messages and once we agree on the final three, post them for a vote? Whaddaya think?

[Spewy]

Re: Confessions of a Farbtilleryman: or, how the AC forum changed my life.

As an old "Farbtilleryman" myself I think this is a great idea. Perhaps we could include some of the horrifyingly unsafe things we called "Drill".
John Sutton saved my life!

[artillerybuff]

Re: Confessions of a Farbtilleryman: or, how the AC forum changed my life.

I do not have much to tell personally as when I joined up in 1999 with a local Confederate Arty unit they had all full scale correct pieces, though they did have some farby commands mixed into the drill. Such as No. 1 & No. 2 yelling back to No. 3 "VENT", and No. 3 responding with "VENTED" every time they introduced something into the bore (which was 5 times per loading cycle with worm, damp sponge, dry sponge, load round, ram round). It was quite monotonous to say the least. Once No. 3 stops the vent it stays stopped, and unless it is not being sealed properly (i.e. you see smoke or hear air escaping), no verbal communication is necessary.

The other thing they did that drove me nuts was yelling out "CLEAR", and then "CLEAR FRONT" before firing. As a newbie it took me over two years to get the old timers to drop those bad habits (how DARE I suggest to them to change their drill!)

There was also the trip up North once each year to the big Fresno event (well, biggest event in California anyway). Half and three quarter scale lawn ornaments everywhere. It seems they are "Grandfathered" in and can continue to be used to this very day. Many years ago that was all there was up there. However, nowadays there are plenty of correct full scale pieces available (thanks in large part to companies like PBO, LTD, Steen, Miller, and others). Those scale pieces should be permanently retired. However, that is not the case, thus I stopped attending those events some years ago.

One other big (and scary) story I heard the old timers talk about was how they used to load wadding, lots of wadding. Numerous layers of wet & dry newspaper rammed in over the powder charges, and all this in questionable home made cannon barrels. Makes my skin crawl...

And then there was a group I fell in with in Arizona many years ago who insisted on loading bags of napthalene (i.e. moth ball flakes) over his powder charges. It did give a great muzzle flash that could be seen even in day light, but it made the entire battle field smell like your grandmother's closet.

I am thankful for this site, and appreciate you all for helping us to correct and perfect our impressions.

Be well~
Anthony Variz