Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

[springkeeper]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

Pic#2 - Rat on the spit... I took one look at the dangling feet with the pasty white claws and about gagged.

Events such as these make you have a very deep respect for what the soldiers experienced on a daily babsis, even weeks at a time. They did not get to go home Sunday afternoon, take a bath, and set the air on 74 degrees before going to bed.

Patrick L. it is apparent you and your assistants did a fine job in recreating "Llife on the Line". Mother Nature added her personal touch with man-eating bugs, raw heat, and intense humidity.

[Scott Gutzke]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

Matt,

When the Federals first starting hearing about the Johnnies eating rats, I thought "what a great first person discussion." Then some more of the boys told us at Cracker Barrel after the event and I thought they were just pulling our leg. But the photo's speak for themselves. You fellars really are crazy! You have my respect, but I doubt I'd ever eat rat myself.

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

"Events such as these make you have a very deep respect for what the soldiers experienced on a daily babsis, even weeks at a time. They did not get to go home Sunday afternoon, take a bath, and set the air on 74 degrees before going to bed."--Carrie Craddock

Carrie,

Actually I have had 7 showers since I got home Sunday....and I had the air on 68*.

:)
r/db

[Charles Heath]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

All I'm going to say about noshowitis Virginiania var. repeatus is Dave and Joe you two missed a fine time. I hope you two are chowing down at the Pork Festival come tomorrow -- and it does not rain.

I don't know what was better:

1. The road trip with two other middle aged men who understood any question beginning with "does your wife ever...." will generally result in at least one comical affirmation. The "guest towels" sequence was no doubt the funniest of all.

2. The Vicksburg NPS LH itself.

3. Enjoying two of my favorite NPS sites. Okay, so technically the USS Cairo is part of the Vicksburg site, but let's not split hairs.

Ley Watson and Harry Canoli are two of the best travel partners a feller could have. The ride from Maryland to Vicksburg and back was essentially one big gut busting laugh after another. The only problem we had was Harry forgetting to buy a six pack of a certain fermented grain beverage in Mississippi, since purchasing said amber brew is verboten in Ga. where we lodged Sunday night. That's okay, as we now claim the exit known as Trenton GA as the G.P.F.A. HQ. You'll have to figure out that coital porcine acronym on your own, Mr. Beatty.

Ahem.

Pat Landrum's skill at bringing together cookware from the Cheesehead Nation via Terry Sorchy, cooks from Illinois, Virginia, and Maryland, as well as ingredients from all over creation is pretty impressive. The fact none of the federals died from food poisoning is even more impressive, and there is more to that story than you may know.

The original meat product for the weekend was to be another round of salt pork, however, the weights slipped off the hold down disc, and the meat rose out of the brine. This caused a certain putrid situation, so Pat scrapped the idea of salt pork, since it was hard to tell what was rotten, and what was good. The substitute was the beef, and considering folks pretty much licked the kettles clean Saturday evening, this was a good choice.

The Essence of Coffee went over well. If you had coffee from the kettles, then you've had coffee made from that good old roofing tar. As cooks, we liked the fact there were no grounds to deal with. As consumers, you probably liked the fact there were no grounds to deal with. Some of the fellows really liked the coffee made this way, and a few brave souls enjoyed the Essence of Coffee straight from the tin. No, I'm not kidding, and Don Smith noted that it makes a heck of a fine ice cream topping. This I have to try sometime.

Terry's two-part period recipe portable lemonade was a big hit. The powdered portion was a tad weak, but the addition of the liquid extract (which turned white as soon as it hit the water) made for a good drink. The boys seemed to like the black tea, too. We don't often get to serve tea at events, and it was kind of neat to not have to deal with roasting coffee beans, grinding beans, or any of that ritual.

We had the chance to stay in one place long enough to soak and slow boil some beans. I like beans. Beans like me. In the absence of field music, I gotta say the beans were a big hit not only at meal time, but a little later on in the day. It's the gift that keeps on giving. For the Newinglanders in the bunch, we reheated the beans for Sunday breakfast rather than have a repeat of that soupy army hospital farina receipt again.

My personal food service highlight of the weekend was the chitlins from those two delightful gals. Nothing says "Welcome to Mississippi!" like the gift of a hot plateful of Granny's fried chitlins. Mmmmm, good.

It was nice to have some shade, too.

Dale, hit that shower a 9th time. I can still smell you from here.

[blackhattertuck]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

Wow,

All I can say is that I have grosso respecto for the guys who did this for real. For my pards: I am ashamed for my "desertion" on Saturday night, however, I was able to get 6 good hours of touring time in. The experience of standing where Grandpa Moyer stood (and in the same heat!) was sublime I would like to thank Pat very much for his work both in organizing this event, and for the time he took to put up with me. To all my pards in the 20th Ala, you are truly a special set of chums, and I wouldn't want to hang out with anybody else. And Herb; I had a dream on Saturday night that I was looking at the picture of the 8th Wis eagle bearer, and standing right next to him was the guy with the rooster. I kid you not! See you all at Chickamagua!

[theknapsack]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

Charles,
Whatever it was that you guys made on Sunday morn was one of the worst meals I've had at a good event, whereas the Saturday night meal was one of the best. What happened?

[Coatsy]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

Adam, that rooster fellow was the Belle of Ball in my opinion. Old Abe had nothing on Baka Baka the Rooster Sniper of the South.

Yeah the gal who was selling her book was an annoyance on Saturday afternoon, but I had some good laughs from it. I hope the rest of Company B had some laughs as well.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

Charles,
Whatever it was that you guys made on Sunday morn was one of the worst meals I've had at a good event, whereas the Saturday night meal was one of the best.

It means you don't like beans for breakfast. ;)

[Kiev Thomason]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

Gents,
I wanted to say thanks to all who made this one work! Pat great job Brother !:wink_smilThis was one of the best for me so far.I really would say more ,but most of the things have been said that I thought made the event for me.

The ride to and from was fun with my pards CJ and Herb.We rocked out as always!
The dang bumpy roads made it hard to get the itch cream on where ya needed it:cry_smile.Dang them was big bug bites!

The Woodburn ,Thomason meat market may be coming to another event soon .....Come get yer Rats boys!:confused_So check the event sites.

[JLHurst]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

It can't be that bad seeing as how I've been eating squirrel for years now. (see rat with furry tail). I'm sorry I missed out on that part of the event. But seeing the picture of the fight was worth it. Landrum & Runyon fight it out, Woodburn happy to see that rat is that big of a hit, and the Hicks swooping in for the steal. Priceless!

[theknapsack]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

No I like beans just fine... just not what went with the beans.

[Mark Susnis]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

Fellas,
I was assigned to 1st Section, 1st Platoon, Company F (Capt Wilhelm aka Sorchy) Here's my take on the event:

Needs Improvement:

- Too many straps. If I was "king for a day"... Company F had 35 soldiers and Company A (Butler) had 14 from what I could count in the ranks. The two companies should have been consolidated and with that would only need one captain and two lieutenants. I thought it was a little much to have an Adjutant and another Captain providing overwatch on two companies one of which was basically a section.

- Modern talk in the trenches. The Adjutants Star Wars quips were getting just a little annoying on Saturday afternoon.

- Capt Wilhelm (Sorchy) should have been designated as Officer of the Day and been in charge of the picket detail and trench line on Saturday night. He brought the most guys to the show so give him the honor.

And to finish up on a positive note...

- Uniformity. Company F had every soldier in a four button sack with either a forage cap or Army hat on their head. The same could not be said for Company A with their hodge podge of Ohio jackets, frock coats, sacks, forage caps, civilian hats, etc.

- Rations. Thanks to Charles and his fellow bean cookers. The Saturday evening supper brought me back to life and you were "Johnny on the spot" with the cold tea and ice for the wilted boys coming out of the trenches.

- Roll Call. Orderly Sergeant Burke (Joe Liechty) set the bar high with his roll call. He memorized the first person name of each soldier in Company F and called roll without the use of a notebook. Gave you the feeling that he really knew you by this time in the War.

- Tipton's reading of the rather risque story out of Harpers on Friday night.

- Research. Great work by the Mess #1 boys on locating the applicable vignettes to use for discussion. Had a blast doing the battlefield tour after the event with the Ed Bearss CD.

Landrum, thanks for busting your ass on this one! Yeah it was hot and it sucked to be miserable but those are always my favorite events...

For what it's worth...

Mark Susnis

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

"I was cold at Perryville, I was tired at Port Gibson, and I was hot at Vicksburg"

[theknapsack]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

"Uniformity. Company F had every soldier in a four button sack with either a forage cap or Army hat on their head. The same could not be said for Company A with their hodge podge of Ohio jackets, frock coats, sacks, forage caps, civilian hats, etc."

Mark,
I wouldn't be surprised it they were more accurate in their portrayal. Uniformity is great but an uncommon appearance in The Army of the Tennessee, let alone a regiment like the 56th (they were pretty rowdy and uncouth).
That being said, I didn't do the research or make the guidelines so I can't say the above for sure; just stating the general attitude of the Army of the Tennessee

RE
AKA Pvt. William H. Cool, Co. F, 56th Ohio Infantry

[JimConley]

Re: Vicksburg (Pukesburg): A Ranger's AAR

It's been almost three days since I've returned home, so I guess it's about time for me to give a lil write-up.

First, as redundant as it sounds, it's entirely necessary for me to give a cheer for Pat Landrum on this one. For months and months and months he has been bending my ear about all the logistics for this thing, and to see it all come to life was great. I know that Pat really worked his tail off on this event, fellows, and at the end of the day, we were the ones who got to play and the park collected new items for their interpretive programs. And, after all that, Pat has to settle for a few lines of compliment in an AAR :D

The guys in Co. A seemed to be more than patient with me as I had to step up at the last minute and act as orderly sergeant. So, to Capt. Butler, Lt. Connelly, and the grunts of Co. A, thank you for that. I hope that my attempts were near adequate for you all.

What else can I say that has not been covered on a general level? Yes, it was miserably hot, humid, and insect infested. In my delirium of exhaustion, numerous bug bites, and deadly heat, I told Tilley that I'll not travel that far south for an event unless it is in the spring, fall, or winter months. But, I like to think that the heat only added to more of an authentic experience as we tried to replicate the summer of 1863, the monotony of camping and holding the earthworks, and starving out the Johnnies.

For those of you that were on picket duty Saturday night, I was quite impressed with the first person between the johnnies and our posted guards as Kiev begged for hardtack crackers and coffee and the Hoosiers recalled old times with their pard Sgt. Liechty. And those photos of y'all eating rat is just too much, fellows. Maybe Landrum should have issued vinegar again to cope with digesting that

There are not too many instances when you can say something positive about Da Heef, but I thought it appropriate this time. All day long on Saturday, through the rain and the humidity, Heath was out in camp keeping chow going, issuing salt for the boys sweatin' out mass amounts of sodium, and making sure there was something to drink aside from warm canteen water. Mr. Heath, you surely surprised me and have outdone yourself on this occasion.

Good to see some of my pards and meet new ones as well. The camaraderie with Dad, Tilley, Babyface, Tim, and Preston was first rate. Hope to see you all again soon.

See everyone at Chickamauga!