Oh the Wonders I have Witnessed

[vbetts]

Re: Oh the Wonders I have Witnessed

Kay Wetteman of the Texas Rifles pointed out that account to me many moons ago, to use at a presentation we did at one of the usual Pleasant Hill reenactments. I, in turn, pointed it out to Dr. Richard Lowe to use in his book on Walker's Texas Division. I've used it in my article in the journal Military History of the West on the impact of the Red River campaign on the civilians of the area. It still brings tears to my eyes every single time I read it. I tried to have hominy ready for when the troops came through on RR2, but the timing and some other circumstances just didn't work out for me. I'm really glad you incorporated it so well.

Vicki Betts

[Spinster]

Re: Oh the Wonders I have Witnessed

I have seen women cook enough to feed an army in an handfull of pots over broken deadfall, and haul it a half mile over broken terrain at dusky dark to feed that army.

One of the things we had only partially anticipated was the effect of continuous physical exertion coupled with a diet of hard tack and saltpork on even well trained men.

The great majority of men had prepared well for the marching required. Only a few knew the extra toll the odd terrain , with its combination of sand, red dirt, and hills, would extract from the participants.

What men had not trained for was the vast difference a change in diet would make in energy levels and physical performance.

And Terry Sorchy, realizing that his troops were only a short time ahead of the Confederates, asked if there was any way we could get hot food of some substance to them at days end.

By then, we had collected a small number of 'invalids'--a few men with injured knees or ankles, as well as some heat exhaustion, and, as they were able, they had busied themselves with hauling up deadfall,and splitting it. We burned up an awful lot of pine, and glad to have it.

Folks cleaned out the various larders, making a pickup supper of all sorts, and as the day ended, headed down one of the many dirt roads in the forest, and finally down a path until a pickett was spotted.

Lifting the lid on the pot, he called out "Sir, I believe these folks are friendly!"

Kettles went in and out almost as expeditiously as the Confederate army had been fed on hard pursuit a little earlier.

The dicotomy of providing a certain amount of event support, especially in the form of medical aid, while still maintaining the sort of separation from the army that the majority of the civilian population would have hoped for made for some odd decision making during the course of the event. I don't rightly hold with women going parading into a military camp---it was not considered appropriate during the period.

Could it have been done better? Well of course. Could it have been done better on the fly, given our event parameters , staffing limitations, communications challenges?mmmmmmm--likely not. Are there things we will change next time? You bet.

But in this case, in the very best biblical sense, the ox was in the ditch. And that supper was necessary. We got right down into and through the 'fall back emergency foodstuffs' with that one too.

The only thing left in the place Sunday morning was cold hominey, ersatz coffee, and some french fries I'd left on the dashboard the previous Sunday........

That, and those four happy chickens that rode back to Kentucky.

[Spinster]

Re: Oh the Wonders I have Witnessed

I have heard voices, strong high, and sweet, singing over the washpots as they did the laundry for 19 people, with scrub boards and washpots, with water hauled with buckets and yoke, over fires they built themselves.

Roger and Happy left out each day, building cabins in the woods, and providing wood. This left Raquelle and Sarah to their main task in the community, that of laundry.

Period laundry done in period style, with washpots, shaved soap, boiling water, scrub boards, rinse tubs, battleing sticks, and lines and lines of fresh clean laundry. Water had to be hauled from our barrels (which were being refilled from a source about 8 miles away).

To send out laundry, one had to have marked the item as it was done in the period, and various trades and payments were arranged.

Sounds like a lot of work? I'm sure it was. But they didn't make it sound like hard work. I lived some distance from their home, and would occassionally hear their voices, singing in a lovely clear harmony, carrying through the trees.

And somewhere in all this work, Sarah found time to do her other task, that of baker for the community, turning out great loaves of bread in a steam oven, while Raquelle did the family cooking.

Sunday to Sunday in period clothes--and I came home with one set of underpinnings that needed washing. All else was clean, and ready to go again. Its hard for us to imagine such being possible.

But it was then--and is now. Quite a remarkable thing.

[Hairy Nation Boys]

Re: Oh the Wonders I have Witnessed

Still the best event I have ever been to. Nothing will ever replace what we did that week in March of 2007.

[Michael Comer]

Re: Oh the Wonders I have Witnessed

Sure doesn't seem like it was that long ago.