Marmaduke's Raid AAR

[Thomas Alleman]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

Well I enjoyed myself and our small company's, small being the main word here. Where was everyone? This thread should be short because only a few the proud, the real men and women showed. This was the wildest country, equipped with real ground hornets, was that the surprise Frank? Got bit by one. Rough ground that older gentlemen and younger alike did battle with along with the enemy. The river was great, the march was hard, the fights were spirited and my feet took a beating. So maybe next year just plan on fewer events with maximum showing. One hundred and fifty on each side would have been amazing. Those who showed fought in some of the hardest ground that I have ever been on and it was worth it. Good job frank and try not to get captured.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

Speaking of fun times, the contents of the USSC box appeared to go over well. Who ended up with the two quilts provided by Major "Lil' Nappy" Sorchy's wonderfully generous bride? They were a pair of handsome quilts indeed.

Meanwhile, the circus act to get stamp, ink, and stamp pad to meet up with the goods in that box was a thing of rare beauty. Actually saw men using soap and towels.....fabulous. Simply fabulous.

[lambrew]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

The hills were steep, rocky, tangled with under growth, and briars. Nary a smooth place to be found to rest my weary bones. The foe seemed to melt into the forrest. Many is the time I heard the lament "If the johnnies want this ground they can have it!" Saturday afternoon I found I could run like a deer straight up those hills. The charge of "The half naked Georgians" gave wings to my feet! The experience of this event will not be forgotten. A busy soldier is a happy soldier, and that is exactly what I was. Thank you again for the great time. To the Georgians: Next time I won't be so easy to put to flight!:baring_te:D.

Your most obedient servant....
Sean Collicott

[Eric Fair]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

I'll add one thing to the numerous and well deserved compliments to this event. From the perspective of a member of the Federal Battalion staff, one of the things that struck me and that I found most interesting was the level of uncertainty for the event. From simply trying to ascertain where we were on a map, to trying to find out if there were CS forces in the area and where they were (and trying to figure out whether there were bushwackers, mossbacks, CS forces, or all three out there), we were guessing all weekend. Everyone's loyalties that approached us were suspect - even young Xavier was examined and questioned several times. Just a really cool dimension that you don't have at every event.

The other thing that sticks in my mind was the real anger (and I think it the above mentioned feelings fed into it) that we felt when we found out that Bushwackers had taken three prisoners Saturday evening. There was actually some talk about sending a large force to the civilian area early Sunday morning to try to sweep them out and capture as many as possible.

Like I said, something you don't experience at every event and I'm glad I got to be a part of it.

Thanks to everyone for the really good time this weekend.

[Cfarrell]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

Everyone,

I'm not one to write AAR's so I won’t. I'll just say a few words. I had a great time even though my stomach was bothering me the entire weekend for some strange reason. From reading everyone's post I wish I could have been in a dozen places this past weekend. But I was fortunate enough to serve under Uncle Tom Yearby (Tom McClure) this past weekend.

I really want to say thanks to Uncle Tom for one, who lead us the entire weekend and keep us safe! A second thanks goes to the platoon leaders Cody Mobley and Adam Johnson who also did a great job. Another thanks goes to my pards I served with this past weekend. We operated like we had been doing this for a very long time.

Thanks to Frank who put this on. It was really nice to get away from work and see some pretty country...oh, and the event was nice too. :D

Terry, it was nice to meet you and hope the wire worked out. If not maybe you can find another use for it.

Special thanks go to the three Iowa boy's we captured Saturday evening. You boys had to do one heck of a march to get around behind the Confederate lines like you did and had it not been for young Sam sounding the alarm you might have had some bushwhacker's hog tied instead.

Warm Regards to All,

[cstaples]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

Thursday: After arriving a bit late and missing the other refugees, I and sister Nancy hurried our way into the darked woods, our worldly posessessions in our cart. We decided not to go far as the terrain was unsafe in the dark. We set up our little camp. The stars were so beautiful and the woods alive with song. Fri: after a lovely pot of coffee we moved on down the hill not knowing what was over the next bump. The trail was steep and we bravely moved on until one of the fallen trees damaged our beloved cart. The camp site now decided and our hope that my husband Jeremiah (Brian) would some how trail us from the farm and save our goods we set up camp. We did venture out meeting others and finding that danger was nearer then we liked we retreated for safety. The nights were filled beautifully with stars and we were visited by a walking stick (bug) that we nicknamed Fred. Saturday we again ventured down the hill and around almost running into a group of rebs pushing a cannon! after the danger of being seen had pasted we ran back to safe spot, little did we know that we would soon be visited by some of these rebs with yaks not far behind. Coming close to being in the middle of a shoot out was frightening. Then another group of rebs came by and threatened us over a can of northern peaches. Taking some of our food and threaten to burn our belongings! One even drank our cold (only) coffee.
I have to Say Thank you for all the hard work that went into this event. I Enjoyed it all very much, only wishing our little cart had made it down the hill :cry_smile
This being a first of this type event for me it was a dilly! THANK YOU ALL

[Old Reb]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

To Mr. Alleman asking, "Where was everyone?" I quit asking that question years ago, but it is still a good one.

To Anna: The shot gun you uns took was the least of his concerns. It was the whiskey that had him upset.

To Charles: Didn't see any of my boys toting quilts, just shoving food into their mouths and washing it down with rum.

To Eric: You uns could have swept your blue hearts out and never found us Saturday night or Sunday morning.

[John of the Skulkers Mess]

weather or not

Really good timing weatherwise. Ike was what 1-2 weeks ago. And yesterday there was rain in the Missouri Bootheel!

:wink_smil

[Eric Fair]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

To Eric: You uns could have swept your blue hearts out and never found us Saturday night or Sunday morning.

Yeah, we that's what we kind of figured. We had an ongoing debate all weekend on whether it was better to be in Missouri or to rejoin the rest of our companies in Louisiana. I think we finally decided that while the swamps and bayous of Louisiana didn't sound appealing, it would be better than chasing ghosts in Mizzourah.:)

[Hank Trent]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

I won't repeat all the positive things everybody has already said about the event--the beautiful land, the high level of accuracy, the obviously well-thought-out organization--because they're all true, but here's another: I really liked the way the event was set up to allow everyone to get the experience they wanted. Since Linda was attending too, I wanted to be a civilian with her, but I asked her, did she want to pretend to hide from the army but actually plan to experience searching, harrassment, threats, my possible conscription, etc., or did she want to really do our best to avoid it?

She said she wanted to see if we could actually hide as if it was real, and that's what I wanted also, so that's what we did. It was a great challenge to try to avoid the federals, the confederates, plus bushwhackers or highwaymen, using only a period-drawn map and guess-work to find safe places to hide, while staying close enough to natural water sources. It sounds easy over several square miles, but we ran across tracks and traces of others in the most god-forsaken places, including the shotgun and gear of the now-famous "Mr. Shotgun," and a footprint trail of what we later found out was a fellow civilian.

The only time we saw any hostile men was when we were sneaking east back to the civilian gathering place Sunday morning along Goose Creek and met a group of quasi-military men sneaking the other way. After a brief talk sizing each other up, we each went our own way, and that was it.

We camped in a secluded area with most of the other civilians the first night, in an even more secluded area with Mr. Romine (Ron Mueller) the second night, and when he wanted to volunteer at the federal fort, we camped by ourselves the third night, and rejoined the other civilians Sunday morning.

It was exactly what we wanted from the event, and a great, challenging, tactical-type experience, though if we'd made a mistake and been found, we'd have been satisfied with that outcome too. If other civilians wanted the military-harrassment experience, or civilian men wanted to volunteer for either side, they knew how to best find that, and it made for a nice variety of options, in a huge complex area, so everyone could get out of the event just what they enjoyed most.

Ron--here's a funny story. After you left, I was lying where you'd had your fly set up, and glanced up, and hanging from a bush overhead was a fishhook, lead sinker and leader! After we went to all the trouble of making that hook from a needle!

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Charles Heath]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

To Charles: Didn't see any of my boys toting quilts, just shoving food into their mouths and washing it down with rum.

Uncle Tom,

Whilst Bev and I were picking up the stearite/adamantine candles in some hideously streetscaped suburb of Dee Cee, we spied what had to have been the remains of a CONEX container of nice little towels suitable for a good USSC distribution scheme. Since they were only 45 cents each, and we had already aquired the good old army brown soap for issue, that set in motion "the box." From that box, two of the federals received absolutely gorgeous quilts to take home and enjoy....gratis. Thought we saw some ginger snaps in there, too. Nice for the lads to have some little take home items in addition to the little bug bites. It's nice to operate in a land nearly untouched by mosquitoes, and the few little ankle biters were of no consequence.

The USSC stamp by way of the image posted in the AC Forum Material Culture Social Group and a trip to Kinko's or some copy place or another came from Jim "Snoozy" Moffet, the ink from the vast resources of Sam Walton's Mercantile (one located at nearly every interchange in Arkansas and Missouri), and my child bride sat down and plucked those "Made in Somesuchplace that you can't Pronounce" tags from the towels. That arrangement sure beat the bid on the repop towels from Lowell, MA, back in the day. The USSC thing came together by accident. I would really say "serenditpity," but there is a Tommy G. imposed 50-cent fine on big words.

Speaking of 50-cent words, I hope the adjutant enjoyed the safety, security, and serenity of his oral "A-s P--g." As we departed the Mistuh Clay Depot Staging Area & Electric Car Demo Zone" he said it was still working just fine. Thank God for Wisconsin cheese as a remedy for what all us old Aztec Club men instantly recognize as...well, you know.

Sorry we were not able to leave you fine home team sorts any of the fried apple pies, but they seemed to have R-U-N-N-O-F-T before they were able to cool sufficiently. War is Hell.

On a more serious note, I'd really like to thank the ONV for the use of their nesting mess kettles, Co. A, 1st Minn. for the use of their kettles, and both of those fine groups for the use of their mess pans, knives, serving utensils, and "stuff." While I feel bad about some poor feller having to lick clean the bean kettle, the coffee kettle, and the slops kettle Sunday morning after we departed, well, that was about the only way the brave men in the Rebbanese Liberation Army were going to have a breakfast courtesy of Uncle Sam. For safety reasons, we doused the fire before closing down the food service area, so the "captured" chow was not as warm as it could have been.

We needed a camp dog, but we did have Spot hanging about as an acceptable substitute.

How many events have an iron prospector? That was very nice, and it was good to see Amos again. I swear his twin brother was at Glendale-Malvern Hill earlier this year. Isn't it funny how we see the same folks so often? ;)

Jocularly yours,

[Hank Trent]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

How many events have an iron prospector?

Anybody else driving down from St. Louis notice the "charcoal burners" hard at work along the roadside, with the woods freshly cleared and huge mounds of wood smouldering away to make charcoal for the iron furnaces? Okay, so it was just the highway workers widening the road and burning the excess timber, but it was a nice touch to help get one in the mood coming through the iron region.

There's a nice deposit of limonite ore on the hillside on the south side of the second hollow off the river below Goose Creek, but I don't think it's large enough to be profitable, at least not until they extend the Iron Mountain Railroad further south.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[boozie]

Well, there is not alot I can add to what has already been said. To the men of company A, you were great! The work, patrols and picket duties kept coming without stop and you boys put your backs into it and did not complain. I am proud to have served with such a great company and I hope to see many of you at Into the Piney Woods.

The best part for me was the attack on Captain Tom McClure and his boys. I was not very happy in being left waist deep in the thickets with Preston and Troy while the other boys RAN!!!:sarcastic But, being captured by McClure's boys turned out to be one of the most memorable things that happened to me at this event. Captain McClure, i'm glad the answer to the prayer was not to kill us! Thanks for some great first person Ground Hornets, you guys are great!!

Holler and Skip, you boys ran a smooth company. Great Job Preston, Tim and Cpls. you worked your butts off making me look better than I should have!

Thanks to Frank for another great event.

Scott Busenbark

[Charles Heath]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

Hank,

Our little carpool kept seeing wheat fields being burned over, and that was something that went by the wayside around 35 years ago back east. In a modern sense, that was kinda nice to see something I remember as a young fellow, and how about the number of grain bins under construction and/or recently completed? Maybe the modern day farmers can make a few coins while the demand is high for small grains as fuel.

While we were tinkering around with the shanks mare shuttle through Clay's yard, Frank came by and I asked him about the geology of the area, since the gray-white igneous rocks, and that conversation started some additional fun. On the way out, we went by Patterson, and the road construction revealed a heck of a lot of red sandstone, which usually means iron. I see some online resources about minerals in SE Missouri worth a good perusal, and did you see any of the longpipe fungi? Uncle Beau and I were wondering if they were the edible variety of golden straw mushroom, or something to be avoided. Fungi is not my strong suit, so we didn't harvest any, but the large hickory nuts were darned good. I never did venture out to get any of the grapes, but they had rave reviews from those who did.

Did anyone stumble into the lead ore digs? I'd liked to have seen them.

[Lone Guard]

Re: Marmaduke's Raid AAR

Adding to others, I had a great time.

Thanks to everyone who helped put this event together, and to everyone in Company A.

I'm finding it hard to get back into school studies, a few days ago I was chopping down trees and building a fort; today I am spending my time in the library reading and getting ready to write a book review.

Oh well, at least I took some chigger bites back to Arizona remember the event by.