BACKWATERS AARs

[Hank Trent]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

Hank,

One quick question... when I schmoosed the guards on Saturday Morning and kneeled down to offer you some hot coffee that you refused, was that because you were being a hard case or that you just don't like coffee?

In real life, I try to avoid caffeine, but for most events I kinda sorta fudge and drink some and act like I miss it if I don't have it, to seem like a normal 19th century person. For this event, I decided it would be simple to just be a hard case and act like I was pissed off at my captors and refuse some favors, and that would be an easy solution to the caffeine issue. So the answer is, um, yes. :)

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Jeremy Bevard]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

Hank,

Sorry about your 21st century concern not being well addressed. The guard never passed on the "out of character" portion of the conversation. At the HQ fire we all thought you were just being a pain in our a@#'s. If it is the guard I am thinking of he was in my company and this was his first cph event so he might have been confused or not understanding. I actually thought you were trying to sweet talk, what you though would be a weaker guard into things that should not be allowed. So, I told the Sgt to replace the guard. I did hear Skip ask Art if everything was really ok in a whisper once it got that far. I am impressed you never built a fire that night. I was freezing with a small fire!! I am glad it worked out.

[Eric Fair]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

When I first accepted Skip’s invitation to serve as the battalion Adjutant, I was excited by the opportunity to manage a battalion while on campaign. As our expectation for numbers declined, we debated changing my role to something somewhat more diminished (a demotion, I should say, that I would have gladly accepted). In the end, we decided to stick with ADJ for me, and I’m very happy we did. I really enjoyed the opportunity to oversee and log the orders received, recording the numbers for men, ammunition, and sustenance, establishing the Order of March, recording guard rotations, etc. (and having all that information readily available for the CO). This event also provided an unexpected dimension – interviewing all of the incoming prisoners/deserters, civilians, and even a runaway slave that entered our lines (I ran out of loyalty oaths!). I had a great time, and I only hope that my efforts added to the event for everyone.

Overall on the Federal side of things, I was really impressed with many of the impressions, the demeanor of the men, and efficiency with which the battalion worked.

Skip, a pleasure to work with you as always.

Will Eichler and Jason Reinholz, were excellent Company Commanders and made my job easy. Their platoon LT’s (Jeremy Bevard and Chris Irelan) were equally as good.

All of the NCO’s were outstanding. Sunday morning Sgt. Liechty reached down to wake me with one hand and gave me his morning and guard reports with the other! Saturday night we had a deserter come into the ranks, and Sgt. Blunt immediately informed me of the situation and of the prisoner’s status. These are just a couple of memories that jump out at me.

I thought the concept of providing maps and orders worked really well. In fact, it forced us to stay on our toes most of the weekend, as we were constantly on the lookout for new and revised orders, especially Saturday afternoon as we were afraid to get too comfortable in our position only to be told to move. The Sunday march, while taxing, provided the experience that many of the men of ’61-’65 knew well – marching – in bad weather, over difficult terrain, and with lousy footing. To Brian Hicks, Josh Fieldhouse, and our guide, Art Milbert (who did a great job quietly keeping me informed as to our location on the Sunday march), many thanks for a well-run event.

Thanks one and all – I look forward to the next one (and I echo Mark Susnis’ request – let’s do a Henry/Donelson scenario!)

[Pvt_Sullivan]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

In real life, I try to avoid caffeine, but for most events I kinda sorta fudge and drink some and act like I miss it if I don't have it, to seem like a normal 19th century person. For this event, I decided it would be simple to just be a hard case and act like I was pissed off at my captors and refuse some favors, and that would be an easy solution to the caffeine issue. So the answer is, um, yes. :)

Thanks Hank... as always it was a pleasure interacting with you in the 19th Century and having new and different experiences.

[PogueMahone]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

First and foremost, I want to thank Jason Rienholz publicly for helping me get out of the woods Sunday morning. He didn't have to, I kept telling him I was fine, but he came back to check on me again and took my bedroll away from me and carried it for me. I was struggling with those slick hillsides and a sore hip.

Other random thoughts in no particular order:

* I could have used more Back and less Water.

* When you are on guard duty, and it is after Lights Out, and clearly everyone around you is trying to sleep, don't talk loudly. In fact, don't talk. Be considerate of others. Otherwise, others may be driven to desperate acts to silence you. I had to tell the same guys to be quiet twice Friday night and I was certain that my first death threat was sufficient. By the way, when you whispered "Mr. Smotherman is grouchy!", Mr. Smotherman was still wide awake and heard your whispered conversation and only got madder. Seriously, what part of "Be Quiet!" did you not understand?

* Overall well executed event plan. Plenty of water and land, the two most important things any event can have.

* I knew the back story to Hank's character and it was funny listening to the rumors in camp about him. Some real grapevine action.

* As always, it was good seeing old friends and making new ones. I was glad to help Pete B. celebrate his birthday for the second year in a row in the cold, wet woods with a warm bottle.

* The raincoat worked out just fine, thank you Don Smith! It was lighter than a gum or groundcloth and just as effective and much more convenient to wear.

* Second platoon, Company B was a great bunch of guys that worked well together.

thanks,

[Hank Trent]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

Sorry about your 21st century concern not being well addressed.

Not a problem at all. That's why the organizers had Art as a go-between, to sort out exactly those kind of crossed-wires, and it worked perfectly, so no complaints here.

I am impressed you never built a fire that night. I was freezing with a small fire!! I am glad it worked out.

With all the winter gear I was packing, I figured it would be warmer to snuggle down in my nest and not come out, rather than hoping I'd wake up often enough to keep a fire going and alternately being warm enough and cold again as it died down. As luck had it, I was right, but it could have gone the other way, too.

I totally admired the CS prisoners who came in with almost no gear and worn-out clothes. There's no way I could have handled the cold like that, but it was very, very cool to see it done, and it really gave a sense of how the Confederacy was worn down to nothing.

Just a great all-around event.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Spinster]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

As far as the rest of the story, Pvt. Preble was given a court martial in Goldsboro in late March and executed for the attempted rape of Mrs. Rebecca Drake, 23, and Miss Louise Jane Bedard, her cousin, 17, and rape of Miss Letitia Craft, her aunt, 58, near Kinston NC back on the afternoon of 16 March 1865. His execution shows up in several diaries, letters and a civilian memoir, and the crime itself was passed down in the civilian family, so the whole thing is fairly well documented. Most everything I said to anybody during the event was based on real historical information (or the closest I could remember at the time :o ), other than the fact that Preble was 24 years old and I'm, well, not.


(edited to add: is it just my computer, or do the hyperlinks look blank unless you hover over them? Weird.)

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

Hank, indeed that hyperlink does not appear unless the cursor is over it--your comment gave me a clue to look for it and follow it out. That linkage provides various military accounts. I'd be most interested in the civilian accounts, especially civilian testimony of the order of events. I've got a related piece of oral history from Western North Carolina and a theory I'd like to explore, based on the ages of the women.

[lambrew]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

Thank you all for the great event! Mr. Trent's unique impression was a highlight. As well as the Confederate impressions. Watching them fight over the cooking fire was as fine a piece of first person I have ever witnessed. The thread bare appearance of our captives was a pitiful sight, and I was getting cold just looking at you fellows. My hats off for the first rate impression. We were well led, and well fed, And I thank you for the experience this weekend. I now have a better understanding of muddy roads and how quickly they can turn into an impassable morass. We chopped them up with only a few feet passing through. What thousands of feet plus wagons and animals would have done I can only imagine.

My respect for the people we portray has grown a thousand fold with just a taste of what they went through. All my bad days pale in compairson.
Thank you again, and it was fun toughing it out with all of you.

[fortdonelsonrelics]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

Just a quick thanks for all those that came by the shop over the weekend - I'm glad the weather eased up a bit for everyone.

John Walsh

[trippcor]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

Well it sounds like this was an event to remember. I want to say how sorry I am that I was not able to make it. The travel experience from h - e - double hockey sticks caused me to miss the event. Saturday morning found me still in Dallas Texas trying to get any flight out to the southeast. Finally ended up in Birmingham AL and rented a car to get home. The whole time I was wishing I was with you all in the field.

Thanks to Patrick Landrum for taking command of the Confederate forces. He was thrust into a tough job on no notice.

[Mtn.Guerilla]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

Many thanks to Brian and company for all the effort they put forth. This event gave us exactly as what they advertised, and in turn this event provided a reality check for those not expecting or prepared for the long marches we endured, physically and mentally. Personally this the type of "long march" event that I had yet had a chance to participate in. Being a buisness owner I'm not alloted (at the moment) time off for events like ITPW. This was my first trip to LBL and the incredible terrain really helped to "get my mind right".

Like many have already stated, this event provided me the opprotunity to come closer to a true CW expierence than I ever have. During Saturdays march, I tried to go about daily soldier life, as if I wasn't on the march, much like many accounts I've read. I had my breakfast on the march, brushed my teeth on the march, penned a few details in my journal on the march, and I even manged to sew back the crotch in my trousers while on the march. Even at one point I found myself marching and not really knowing it, but sort of off in dreamland, sort of out of body. When I snapped back for a split second I thought I had traveled back in time. It was a very strange expeirence.

The impressions for the most part on the Confederate side were very good, but as stated I have to take my hat off to the gentlmen in company H for their impressions. They really allowed me to have a few "period moments" that will always be in my mind, and have set the bar very high on Confederate impressions and attitude. Bully of a job ! There were a few guys that I wanted to point them out to and say, quit yer' whining and learn something from those boys. They made a big impact on my own way of thinking. Thanks!

I wanted thank Mr. Comer and company A, as well as my borthers in the AG. For the most part first person was honored and we all worked together in taking care of each other.On Sundays march I even carried the gear of wounded comrade for several miles, as did others in our group, doubling our load !

One highlight for me was the fella' that deserted to the Feds on Saturday night. I heard yelling for someone to halt and then a gunshot. All you heard was someone hauling a** down the road, then with a flash, you saw someone appear out of the dark. When he ran past me I yelled at him then fired, I saw his gray uniform and discerned he was a deserter. That was a very cool image that will stay me.

There were almost too many moments to mention. But I was wet, cold, muddy, gettin' stove up from basically living on parched corn, and brought four ticks back to Chattanooga. Oh and my calves are as tight as 10,000 rubberbands.

In short, it was a superb event !

[Kace]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

I would like add my heart felt thanks to the organizers and participant for the event. It was one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. I learn a lot about myself and about the time period and the men we portray. While I could fill pages with praise for the planners an participants, I won't as much of it has been covered. I will share my two biggest take aways from the event. 1) I can do with less than I thought I could: less gear, less food, less sleep.... 2)I do not like blanket rolls. Sorry I tried it but just cant seem to get the hang of one.

One thing for the event planners to think about for their next event - signage. When we hit the event site at 1:30 am on Friday morning I would have been great to see a couple of signs indicating that we were in the right place.

Kace

[Hank Trent]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

I'd be most interested in the civilian accounts, especially civilian testimony of the order of events. I've got a related piece of oral history from Western North Carolina and a theory I'd like to explore, based on the ages of the women.

My apologies. I went to look at the civilian source again on Ancestry.com and it looks like the genealogist just picked up the same information from the military sources and didn't actually get it from an independent family account.

Sergeant McCarty's witness testimony transcript is available though and might have some useful information (I forced an underline of that hyperlink, so let's see if it looks visible) and I expect that Preble's may have survived in some archives too, but I haven't seen it. Still, McCarty's transcript does give a bit more graphic information on his activities.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[robert-m]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

I wanted thank Mr. Comer and company A, as well as my borthers in the AG. For the most part first person was honored and we all worked together in taking care of each other.On Sundays march I even carried the gear of wounded comrade for several miles, as did others in our group, doubling our load !


I am sorry about the more than doubling the load of my fellow men. I tried as much as possible. I know now that I need to dry stuff out as much as possible. Thank you to all that helped me get my gear back. I ended up going to the doctor Monday morning. The meds that I took allowed me to make it out, but barley. Again thank you to all.

[jwoodli]

Re: BACKWATERS AARs

Did anybody catch the serial number of the rifle that busted my mouth as we (well some of us) hit the Federal works on Saturday? Awesome event.