Those suffering hypothermia

[Hank Trent]

Re: Those suffering hypothermia

In looking at what happened further down in the bottoms in our cold camp, the main factor seemed to be water and 'build'.
...
All had good head covering and wool socks. Build (ahem, amount of body fat), and the degree of soaking seemed to have more influence on the ability to stay warm than the presence of absence of any particular clothing item.

I agree that I don't think cotton vs. wool is that major of a factor, or at least it can be compensated for. I was wearing a cotton shirt, cotton drawers, and cotton trousers. I did have wool socks, a wool shirt over the cotton one, a wool-front/cotton-back vest, and a wool frock coat. No head covering but a slouch hat and a cotton rag I tied over my head for a nightcap. The choice of that much cotton was my attempt to prepare for the difference between two hot days and two cold days.

Staying as dry as possible--meaning damp from head to toe but not dripping in more than a few places--and spooning kept me tolerably warm enough overnight, and getting moving immediately upon getting up, made the cold not really an issue for me.

One mistake the linen fellow and I made the previous dry windy night was each wrapping up in our own blankets, then trying to spoon as the night got colder. I think the blankets between us prevented us from warming each other. The last night, we laid the blankets overtop both of us and spooned from the start, and that seemed to do much more good, despite being damper and actually having one less layer over us.

I think people adapt differently to cold though. I'm generally colder than most people when not moving, but warm up quickly if I can keep moving even a little. My hands and feet are the last thing to get cold, but I shiver easily. Somebody else might be entirely different, though, and would need to prepare and plan differently, and worry about their own individual warning signs. For example, Piney Woods, where I could stay active, seemed a "warmer" event for me than Winter 64 when I was supposed to portray a less active sick man, despite the fact I had way more wool on at Winter 64 and was dry.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Gery Barker]

Re: Those suffering hypothermia

So much of a person's vulnerability to cold injuries is personal, maybe genetic, that it is hard to come up with a general rule. Still, I think wearing wool and having wool blankets are the safest, most universal approach to staying healthy in the cold. I am also a believer in jean cloth and linsey woolsey, my jean cloth coat stayed warm even though soaked and it is far more wear resistant than pure wool. Linsey woolsey seems to have the same property. I remembr an Army survival class I was in once where they stressed that staying dry was the most important factor. You cannot always do that in warfare.

This may not make any sense, but in the 1970s I got a chance to go to a Greek Army Winter Warfare School near Thessaloniki. All the clothing, even the sleeping bags were wool. We were wet for two weeks. The weather was in the thirties, slush and rain. I won't say it was comfortable, but we survived with no cold injuries. It made a tremendous impression on me.

Therefore, even if we saw eighty degree temperatures last time we visited Louisianna, in March we plan on being wet. March, after all, is March. We may never hit the extremes we saw in this campaign, but I'll bet we never come relying on cotton drawers and socks again.

Gery Barker
Ox Driver

[ButtermilkRanger]

Re: Those suffering hypothermia

So much of a person's vulnerability to cold injuries is personal, maybe genetic, that it is hard to come up with a general rule. Still, I think wearing wool and having wool blankets are the safest, most universal approach to staying healthy in the cold. I am also a believer in jean cloth and linsey woolsey, my jean cloth coat stayed warm even though soaked and it is far more wear resistant than pure wool. Linsey woolsey seems to have the same property. I remembr an Army survival class I was in once where they stressed that staying dry was the most important factor. You cannot always do that in warfare.

This may not make any sense, but in the 1970s I got a chance to go to a Greek Army Winter Warfare School near Thessaloniki. All the clothing, even the sleeping bags were wool. We were wet for two weeks. The weather was in the thirties, slush and rain. I won't say it was comfortable, but we survived with no cold injuries. It made a tremendous impression on me.

Therefore, even if we saw eighty degree temperatures last time we visited Louisianna, in March we plan on being wet. March, after all, is March. We may never hit the extremes we saw in this campaign, but I'll bet we never come relying on cotton drawers and socks again.

Gery Barker
Ox Driver

Louisiana is Louisiana. In a state where our average annual rainfall is nearly 80", weather like we experienced is more common than uncommon. My European ancestors have lived here since the close of the revolution. My Choctaw ancestors were here a few hundred years before that. We come to accept rain, but I don't know if we ever come to like it. In the soaking rain we had in Kisatchie, I'm not sure there was much else that could have been done. In hindsight (and I was against it at first), Fred and Tom did the right thing by pulling the plug. One of my men was violently ill and another was suffering from hypothermia and still I had to physically force them to fall out of the ranks when we reached Gery's wagons. No doubt this kind of hard-headedness would have led to more serious real-world casualties.

Gery, you have nothing but my heartfelt gratitude for all the support you gave us last week. The job you do with the oxen and the job you did with my two boys was amazing and I don't know if I can ever repay you. However, the "amish butter" that you loaned out, the hoof epoxy, and the corn oil literally saved more than a few of our mounts. Especially the corn oil with the horse who was trying to collic. By the way, I found your amish butter in Joe Alliston's pack that found its way in my trailer after the event. Let me know how to get it back to you.

[Cottoncarder]

Re: Those suffering hypothermia

Wore a wool dress under a heavy wool cloak during the downpours. The only thing that got cold were my feet which were soaked clean through from walking through creeks. Took off wet wool stockings and shoes and put on a fresh pair and my dry moroccos when we got the shelter up Thursday and I was fine. Shawnra had on cotton under a thin wool cloak and suffered for it.

[Gery Barker]

Re: Those suffering hypothermia

Louisiana is Louisiana. In a state where our average annual rainfall is nearly 80", weather like we experienced is more common than uncommon. My European ancestors have lived here since the close of the revolution. My Choctaw ancestors were here a few hundred years before that. We come to accept rain, but I don't know if we ever come to like it. In the soaking rain we had in Kisatchie, I'm not sure there was much else that could have been done. In hindsight (and I was against it at first), Fred and Tom did the right thing by pulling the plug. One of my men was violently ill and another was suffering from hypothermia and still I had to physically force them to fall out of the ranks when we reached Gery's wagons. No doubt this kind of hard-headedness would have led to more serious real-world casualties.

Gery, you have nothing but my heartfelt gratitude for all the support you gave us last week. The job you do with the oxen and the job you did with my two boys was amazing and I don't know if I can ever repay you. However, the "amish butter" that you loaned out, the hoof epoxy, and the corn oil literally saved more than a few of our mounts. Especially the corn oil with the horse who was trying to collic. By the way, I found your amish butter in Joe Alliston's pack that found its way in my trailer after the event. Let me know how to get it back to you.

Larry,
Thank you for the kind words. The kids were great. On the "Amish Butter", don't sweat it. It is not worth mailing. We live nest to our supplier.
GB

[JustRob]

Re: Those suffering hypothermia

The Feds had an advantage on Thursday night with a shelter half, ground cloth and heavy blanket. I was wearing a knit wool cap, a heavy blue wool contract shirt and a knit cap.

The biggest advantage for me was a pair of fingerless wool gloves. I was getting a chill on Thursday during lunch, but those gloves perked me right up.

Co. G fared well because we constructed two large shebangs of 6-8 shelter halves forming two legs of a triangle, with the third leg being a large pile of firewood. The bonfire in the middle cast heat into the shelters, which reflected the heat onto the men. There was a noticable difference in air temperature inside and outside the shelters.

Another benefit was having two men put down a ground cloth, layering one blanket beneath and one blanket above, with a ground cloth on top. I passed the night fairly well, especially while spooning with my personal Irishman/Ukranian.

Special thanks to Todd Bemis & Bobo (and others) for getting a fire started so quickly on Thursday night. A watch and a guard schedule allowed each man to feed the fire for thirty minutes before passing the duty on to the next man. That saved lives.

[Pvt_Sullivan]

Re: Those suffering hypothermia

A small addition from the perspective of the the Color Sergeant's personal Irishman/Ukrainian...

That evening was the worst of all in Kisatachie. The subect of the use and non-use of Cotton has been covered with pros and cons. I was wearing a cotton shirt that was soaking at the start of the night in the hope it would dry on my body like it did the previous night. I had a wool sleeping cap and had put dry wool socks on before laying down after my shift as firewatch.

I woke with a start shivering at one point and knew that my drying scheme was not working. I immediately changed into the dry issue domet flannel shirt and crawled back under the wool and gum blankets next to Rob. With our body heat reflecting between us and being trapped inside the gum and wool blanket cocoon I warmed quickly and fell back asleep. I expect we got between 6 and 7 hours of sleep that night and were rather cosy despite the rain because of our sleeping situation.

All in all it was a great reminder of the dangers of the cold and what our ancestors did to survive it 150 years ago...