Glendale AAR Thread

[bholt61stny]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Nice photo of the beef! Mmmmm. On sale, and we saved $118 with the Food Lion MVP card.

I never had the experience of eating boiled beef until this weekend and I must say it was very good; my hats off to those who boiled it...I don't remember who said it but I heard someone say "You can't burn boiled."





Brian Holt

[westcoastcampaigner]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

The event was really a great experience. The grousing that went on during the march was certainly a very accurate reflection of the common foot soldier. At one point when it was particularly distasteful I recall thinking to myself that we were all crazy to do this. That feeling quickly gave way to imagining the courage, devotion, and yes, naivete, that led these men to leave their homes for the uncertainties of war.

The most vivid memory was skirmishing in the woods and stumbling upon a 5 to 6 ft black snake. I know I moved a foot up and back in one (graceful I may say, as well as, immediate) movement. I don't think I screamed like a little b%tch but I can't guarantee that I didn't. Ask Grumpy Dave.

The camaraderie was excellent as always and we made one helluva 11 man sh'bang on Saturday night. Thanks to my comrades in battle who made the event even more enjoyable.

Thanks to Ley, Petey, Hannibal, and Heef, who did a great job putting together the event.

Bravo Zulu

yer pard,

Haha...I was right next to you and YES you screamed like a girl and from what I could see in my perifial you were not graceful. Then again who can be graceful when a 5 foot black snake asks them to dance? Be glad it wasn't a copperhead. It was good getting to know you guys and working with you. We all had a great time despite the rain on Sunday and enough ticks to keep us busy picking at ourselves as though we had lice.

To those requesting copies of the drawing of Skinny Annie you will have to press Paul Boccadoro of the Liberty Rifles. He is the person who received the letter with her in it and we all had a period moment as he read aloud the most provocative and funny letter from his cousin stationed out west. Dare he post the drawing as a candidate for next months AC cover photo? Could be risky.


Best Regards,

Josh Sawyer
Liberty Rifles

[NoahBriggs]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Who was the Skinny Anne letter vic- I mean, recipient this time?

Edited to add - thanks to the fellows on both sides - it's nice to work with reenactors who actually simulate realistic wounded with no goofiness.

[SCTiger]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

deleted, apparently discussions don't happen here anymore.

[dusty27]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Greg,

Are you serious about critiquing this event? Shouldn't you have taken part to be able to critique it?

Getting sick along the way is fine. Returning when it is convenient to you is not.

I'd worry a little less about what WE were wearing, saying, and taking and worry about how YOU can finish a full event.

Man.....................

[Jim Peterson]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Well Guys;

I'd say that the afternoon ration issue went pretty well. One bite of pie was a treat. The technique for eating taters was interesting. The Soupbone "eat it like an apple" technique seemed to be favored by a good many, I saw a few doing my slice it and smoke it a bit before dipping it in the sugar and crunching it down. In fact just about everything appears to be dipped in sugar before eating.

I'd say the majority went for the "eat it fast and flop down for a rest" method. Although a few grommet cooks went all out and fried up a tasty meal.

You just can not improve on the setting when in the late afternoon after the fight, the company worn out, out of water and standing in formation back where we ate supper and the Captain says "Boys we're going to hit them again" "But we're out of water". A slight smile with a nod of his head and off we went.

[JStiles]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

I'd like to thank all the folks who had a part in organizing the event. It's never easy and the larger the event, the more difficult, throw in a march and it increases several fold. Special thanks to Pete McCarthy, our guide on the CS side. Without him we, or I should say I would still be out there. Saturday was, in my opinion, pretty physically demanding. I applaud the officers and NCOs for their sense of duty and to the men for their sense of devotion. One person who stood out for me was John martin. I'm 37 and I was whipped at the end of the day Saturday. John is 63. He just kept going, one foot in front of the other. You gotta admire that.....Jerry Stiles

[Bill]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Well Guys;


I'd say the majority went for the "eat it fast and flop down for a rest" method. Although a few grommet cooks went all out and fried up a tasty meal.

Jim,

I was one of those "grommet" cooks. Sliced up the ham, potato, and green onion in my boiler. Added some of the sugar and set it on the fire to boil for a while. I added a more water as it boiled away. Turned out pretty darned good. Of course, I was mighty hungry!

BYW, what exactly were those hardtack made from? Obviously nothing that exists in nature. I had three of them in my coat pocket during the march back to Malvern Hill. The coat was soaking wet, but the hardtack was still hard as a rock.

I had a great time at the event. Thanks to everyone involved.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Jer,

John Martin is my hero. We needed to get an item to him late Saturday, and none of us on the Kabuki Team knew his real name, so we said "just get this to 63," and the boys will know who that is. He didn't come looking for it later, so he must have received it. I'm tickled he completed the event, and I hope he had a good time.

"Good," of course, is a variable term, but what was sucking hind tit in the hot, cold, dry, wet, sweaty, tick-races, etc., during the weekend somehow comes back in a little happier glow of light later on in the week. Ever notice an event that whips your ass during the weekend, suddenly looks a lot better by about the time a week has passed, the ticks have been pulled (or fattened up for the livestock auction), and the soreness goes away?

Part of the time honored Andrew Jerram philosophy of reenacting is "It sucked. It sucked. It really sucked. It sucked so much it was great." I try to keep that in the back of my mind when forming the mental aspect of an event, and how the participants should feel at certain points along the way. When you read the background material, and the Men of '62 complained about skirmishing through the woods east of Richmond, I believe that print will jump off the page in a more experienced light. It's a heck of a difference between performing skirmish drill in a park-like setting, and moving and grooving through the woods, over hills, ravines, wetlands (step lightly, boys), briars, etc. In some places, it is difficult to see a man not 20 feet away in those woods. Do that for several miles and a few things jump from the pages of history the next time you read about them.

The SWB and friends in the form of Co. I, 47th Virginia, really shined at Glendale-Malvern Hill 2008. The NCO cadre provided that strong structure known as a backbone, and the one time I was able to get between the main company and the advance on Saturday was right about the time you folks were locating your ammunition, and the advance party had moved to the Whitlock House area. Certain aspects needed to work like clockwork at that time, from the artillery insertion (modified a couple of rods to the west in anticipation of the rains and geting a lowboy out of the pines without causing too much damage to truck, trailer, piece, limber, trees, snail darters, etc.) , placing the fire suppression bucket at the CS resting point near the 17th Virginia Ravine, and making sure LHG Mobile Water in "Blackie" was able to shunt from the old and new Whitlock House ruins to a position to serve the fed resting spot at "The Intersection" that would become the CS Saturday night camp. Sticking with the schedule was what allowed us perform certain tasks in the background without being too dang obvious about it. Your bugler was great. As has happened at other events, the Kabuki could hear the calls, and knew where you were and whether or not you were on or off schedule.

Petey and Joe did darn well as guides. If one reads the accounts of the Peninsular Campaign, and the Seven Days in particular, guides were used, and those civilian guides gave the armies mixed results. Moving troops overland is one of the most difficult tasks in this hobby, if not the most difficult. Co. I, 47th Virginia performed superbly, and the Boys of '62 would have been proud. Having both commanders unable to attend any of the walk throughs presented a special challenge, and Petey only had two trips along the route of march. Joe had a couple more, but the look of the land changes from the depths of winter to the time when the dogwoods and redbuds are in bloom, and the leaves are emerging on the trees. In another two weeks, we would not have been able to easily find much of the NPS boundary line on the right flank, in spite of their well placed flagging to keep the hunters in check.

A few months ago, our beloved Cupcake mentioned a suggestion about "why not have an event where folks march a certain distance, and keep the gearhead stuff to a minimum." Well, here was the event for that. Nothing material was out of the reach of the average CW reenacting enthusiast. Because of that, as he predicted, some participants who normally wouldn't try this sort of madness, er, um, genre of event, came out and had a fine time. Excellent suggestion.

On a comical note, Bev put the following caption under Soupbone's image in the photo section of the listserver: "The Shocker." Ham that he is, that photo is definitely a good one. Terri took some photos from her vantage point as a Kabuki with the LHG's water truck, and if my low tech world can get them from the CD to the photo section, I'll post them fairly soon.

One of these days, we'll get another crack at that dang dump site.

[dusty27]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Charles,

"Shocker" is a 2E moniker that some may recognize. Check out "Bone's" hands.

Thanks for the event. It was a ball-buster.

[SCTiger]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

I'd worry a little less about what WE were wearing, saying, and taking and worry about how YOU can finish a full event.

Man.....................

A real mean spirited response online, but lets see you do that in person. I have finished plenty of campaigner events. See you at Pickett's Mill. Bring your A-game Dusty.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

"Shocker" is a 2E moniker that some may recognize. Check out "Bone's" hands.

Dusty,

Yessuh, I had to 'splain Soup's digital positioning to Bev last night. The title seemed most appropriate. I take it you have seen the rather large truck rear window decals of this same hand gesture? ;) Okay, enough of that.

From the very beginning, we said this was "not for the faint of heart," and it wasn't the typical waddle around the park mobile living history. Ley pointed out something important that is well worth repeating here. Not many years ago, that Malvern Hill unit was pretty tiny. The lady who still lives in the Crew House sold a portion of her land to the APCWS, and the site expanded greatly. You may or may not have seen some of the first class survey monuments in the piney woods, but they are there, and reminders of the current NPS boundary. The Murrow family and friends sold more land to the CWPT only recently, as you have read in the CWPT's Hallowed Ground magazine, and mailings.

In a gutsy move, and with The Slaugher Pen debt hanging over their heads, the CWPT picked up a heck of a chunk of the Glendale battlefield. Realistically, the steep slopes, wetlands, and other sensitive areas are not prime building lots, however, a heck of a lot of that land could be cut up into residential lots, as we speak. A slump in the housing market is actually helping the battlefield preservation situation at the moment, but to return to Glendale for a moment, the NPS and CWPT folks were very concerned that we would tear up the real estate, and leave a wake of destruction behind us. Those concerns were very real, based on some recent precedents, and working with the environmental issues was "a heck of a thing." A very good thing, I might add. I'm hoping the rain began to dissolve some of the cartridge tubes and arsenal pack wrappers, the few cleaning swatches we missed are sinking into the leaves and mud, and the heavier rains washed away the footprints.

This event had some costs for the locals. As you could see the majority of the fields were planted in wheat by Fred & Emmett, the two farmers who tend this sacred soil, and Fred held off planting corn (no-till methods, of course) until Monday after the event. As you noticed, the rainfall made the soil a bit wet, and I hope it dries out enough to run the grain drill across by the end of this week, and I hope his big tractor tires mush down the wheel ruts left by a certain little silver-gray Saturn automobile that need not have been in that field Sunday morning. Othewise, the Saint of Short Pump will be out there with a rake and shovel making good on our promises.

In other news, you fellows did really well on the pre-staged firewood, since the land had so much deadfall hanging about, so the remainder was collected and donated to the NPS for use in other living history programs. The keyed-alike industrial duty Master locks on certain gates were donated to the CWPT.

We had a good giggle Sunday morning about the fellows who kept asking about "sutlers." That has been a running joke for a while now. :p

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

I had a GREAT time as well....have never done that much skirmishing before, especially in the woods. Paul, it was great to meet you and be "comrads in arms" with you for skirmishing.

Thanks to everyone who made this event possible....I had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

The skirmishing was an experience...to be able to do it on original ground...and with individuals who conducted themselves in the most proffessional manner was something AWESOME.

Rob, it was nice meeting you as well...Your'e with a great unit, stick with them and learn.

Paul B.

[dusty27]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Greg,

I had no problem with anyone falling out of ranks for medical reasons. What I don't appreciate is them then critiquing everyone who was able to complete the event and went through the battle, slept on hard ground, hurdled more logs than track runners, ate scant rations, dealt with ticks, etc.

I was one of the first people to ask you if you were ok in the field. No shame in taking a break. But if you're going to return, do so full time or don't.

And for sure, don't tell the rest of us how we can improve.

As to our meeting at Pickett's Mill, we won't. I'm not attending.

[ley74]

Re: Glendale AAR Thread

Since early Sunday, when this weather system started through, we have had 5.5 inches of rain and are expecting a little more today. Fred was not able to plant this week and may loose part of another. Our tire tracks will not approach the damage done by God to that particular spot on Hayrake Field. Emmitt is a happy camper. The wheat looks good.

I will be walking the property on Sunday to take down markers and check things out. The performance bond will expire May 5th and we (yep) need to make sure all is well. The great thing is that you guys love this land so much you take great care to do no harm. This gave us the courage to pony up the contingent dollars to make sure the event went on.

Since I am in the vicinity, it was a real pleasure to spend so much time there over the past five months. While Kabuki is important, I was envious of the experiences you felt.

Almost is getting a rubber snake for Christmas, I swear it. Speaking of Almost (Jason Hanby):

Eternal Father, Lord of Hosts
Watch o'er the ones who guard our coasts
Protect them from the raging seas
And give them light and life and peace.
Grant them from thy great throne above
The shield and shelter of thy love.
Lord, guard and guide the ones who fly
Through the great spaces in the sky
Be with them always in the air,
In darken storms or sunlight fair,
Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer,
For those in peril in the air!
Grant to them Your eternal peace, Oh Lord,
For they have followed your commandment,
That No Greater Love has he, who would give up his life for another.

Amen

Be careful on your cruise and come home safely.

As a community, we are blessed to know many folks who contribute so much. Post eventium depression for me has taken the form of knowing we will never get to do Glendale again. The ground will be safe, however. That should probably be good enough.