1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

[Washingtonguard1]

Fellow Reenactors i Have Almost Completed my 1862 MMM Kit these are the iteams i have in my Inventory,and i would like to see what you guys think

-Civilian Slouch Hat from Dirty Billy
-Jean Wool Trousers from S&G Marinos
-Commutation Jacket Charlie Child Pattern Made from Ben Tart Jean Cloth
-Handsewn Shirt from Wambaugh and White
-Brogans from Missouri Boot & Shoe(I may go Barefoot for "Maryland My Maryland")
-Leathers from Duvall leather works
-Blanket from Family Heirloom Weivers

Optional:
-Double Bag Knapsack from Missouri Boot and Shoe

Shealter:
Gum Blanket that im going to use as a "Lean Two"



I would Like Feedback of how you like my 1862 Texan Brigade Kit for "Maryland My Maryland"

Thank you,
Jared Hoffman,Washington Guards

[Philip cav]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

If you do go barefoot, you might want to start going barefoot at home. So that your feet get used to it . :D

[NY Pvt]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

Jared,
You didn’t give a full listing of all your gear; but what you listed will work well for our impression. However, please bring your brogans. Most of the time, barefooted men were sent to the rear prior to an engagement. While I have not researched the foot ware in the Texas Brigade in the Sharpsburg campaign (I’ll leave that up to those who have, Bob Bowser, Jason Hamby, and other Texas Brigade scholars) I am going to assume that if there were men of the 4th Texas without shoes, they too would have been.
While I enjoy going barefoot around camp after a long day or hard march, have you ever stepped in a fire ant nest? Lets just say it is not fun…

Your comrade in Co. K,

[TKAR]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

Jared, it is not a family heirloom blanket. I told you that.

Please Note: Please sign your posts with your full name as required by forum rules. Message with link to the rules sent by PM. - Silas Tackitt, one of the moderators.

[Lucky]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

walk barefooted a few miles a day/night on concrete or asphalt for a few weeks.

[HOG.EYE.MAN]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

Don't go barefoot! Something bad will happen, no doubt!

You guys need to keep a few things in mind before you go barefoot. For the most part, you'll be falling in ranks with a large number of people wearing heavy duty footwear. While marching, you take a chance of the soldier behind you stepping on your heels causing major damage. You also have the risk of someone stepping on your feet with their heavy ass shoes including heelplates digging into your skin tissue and bone. If you do "order arms" incorrectly, the butt of your weapon could mash down on your right foot.

Even if the bottom of your feet are rough enough, you still have other issues you need to be aware of.

[Philip cav]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

Just wondering, what color is your Ben Tart jacket? Also, I don't think you said what type of canteen you will be carrying.

[Silas]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

Wasn't there a positive order which allowed barefoot Confederates to remain south of the Potomac? My recollection is that many Confederates used the excuse to shed their brogans prematurely and remain behind as long as possible. Doesn't mean they were cowards. Sometimes you're worn out and can go no farther without a period of rest.

[Bmanz1085]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

I was always of the same opinion, I do think he left some 900 barefoot troops in Winchester, however he was able to procure 4-5000 pairs of shoes in Maryland. I have seen estimates that out of 55,000 troops at the start of the campaign, fully 15,000 never crossed the river or subsequently straggled. There were also a number that did not believe it was right to invade the north and objected, while others saw it as a chance to bring retribution. Some references:

From the book, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam, by Stephen W. Sears, Chapter 2, Confederate Tide, pp.70-71:

"On September 4 General Lee took stock of the alarming manpower drain and issued stern orders to his brigade commanders to sweep up anyone "leaving the ranks, right, left, front, or rear" and return them summarily to their units. (The iron-handed Jackson issued orders of his own that any man in his command leaving the column without excuse was to be shot.) Straggling was nothing new in the Army of Northern Virginia, or for that matter in any of the Union or Confederate armies. Every regiment had its "skulks" and "coffee-coolers," as the troops called them, those who could be relied on to be present only on paydays or when rations were issued. But this was different. The faint-hearted in uncounted numbers were taking refuge among the truly ill and footsore, defying the efforts of the provost marshals to root them out.

As word of the impending march into Maryland spread through the army, another and quite unexpected defection took place. "There were two opinions in the army as to the propriety of the move," wrote the Reverend Joseph Stiles, who was traveling with Lee as a kind of unofficial headquarters chaplin. "A minority believed that as a matter of prudence at least we should not leave our own soil: that it looked a little like invasion. The consequence was a large number hung back & would not cross the river...." This principled opposition seems to have centered mostly among men enlisted from the westernmost counties of North and South Carolina, where Unionist feeling was strong at the time of the secession referendums. They had volunteered willingly enough to defend their homes, a regimental historian explained, but "some did not believe it right to invade Northern territory." With their numbers added to those already fallen out of the ranks, it became painfully clear to Lee that when he took his army north he would be leaving behind a second army of stragglers.

Orders went out to the provost guard to collect this ragtag band and escort it to the Shenandoah, from where he hoped at least some portion of it might be sent to him later when the expedition secured its communications through the Valley. Losing these men was bad enough; he did not want to compound his problems by leaving them to wander around lose, scavenging for food in the larders and springhouses of loyal Virginians and supposedly loyal Marylanders."

From the book, General Lee's Army: From Victory To Collapse, by Joseph T. Glatthaar, Chapter 13, Taking The War To The Enemy, pp.166-167:

Lee, for all his deep thought and careful consideration, failed to anticipate several factors that ultimately would undermine his plan. The Confederate army had always suffered from straggling; during the raid into Maryland, however, it reached epidemic proportions. "One great embarrassment," Lee grumbled to Davis, "is the reduction of our ranks from straggling," a crisis that the general blamed on regimental officers. "Our ranks are very much diminished--I fear from a third to one-half of the original numbers." An officer in the 1st South Carolina Infantry concurred. "If straggling in our army could only be stopped, it would be worth more than a great victory." Less than a week after the campaign ended, Brig. Gen. Cadmus Wilcox, a thoughtful soldier acting as division head, reported 5,000 soldiers present in a command of over 19,000--almost three soldiers gone for each one who was there.

While the vast majority of troops who wandered away from the army did so to dodge danger and duty, head home, or seek fun and food, many had legitimate reasons for remaining behind. Before crossing into Maryland, Lee left about 900 barefoot soldiers in Winchester. During the campaign, he acquired 4,000-5,000 pairs of shoes for his men in Maryland; still, thousands lacked them. According to one Georgian, "Many of our men did not cross the river for want of shoes, while other preferred to bruise their bare feet on the stony turnpikes of Maryland," which he described as "graded almost like a railroad, thoroughly imbedded with pounded stones." Officers and men who had only recently lost their shoes on the march from Richmond accumulated blisters on the tops and bottoms of their feet--those on the bottom from the rough terrain until their feet calloused, and severe burns and blisters on the top from the sun or the rubbing of tattered shoes.

Although some soldiers skulked in protest over an invasion of Northern states, the great majority of the reliable soldiers rejoiced at the prospect of taking revenge on the Union for its treatment of their beloved South. As a Louisianan expressed, "I suppose our next step, now that we have got the enemy clear out of Virginia, will be an advance on that nice State of Pensylvania and give the barbarous Dutchmen of hers a tasted of the horrors they have inflicted upon the citizens of the Valley." While some soldiers certainly had qualms about invading the North in a war for Southern independence, it did not trigger a mass exodus from the army. Moral concerns over invasion proved to be more an after-the-fact justification than a cause for being absent without leave."

I also recall hearing that Hood was dispatched around noon to round up stragglers and by 2 pm had returned with a "Stragglers Brigade" of close to 2,000.

[The Chesterfield Rifleman]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

Don't go barefoot. Have you ever stepped on a sharp rock or stick or jammed your foot into a brier patch? Other than that, good impression.

[dirtyshirt]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

I did the Preservation March in 2000 barefoot and "trained" if you will for several months prior. I completed the march but even with all the preparation had some pretty tore up feet. I don't recommend it especially on that kind of terrain.

[4vaadjutant]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

Regarding the issue of barefooted soldiers of the ANV, it is a well documented fact that large numbers of Lee's troops were indeed destitute of shoes straggling along the march routes of the various divisions and present for duty at the battlefield at the commencement of Hooker's opening assault. It is recorded, for instance, that Heros Von Borcke and William Blackford of Jeb Stuart's staff spent the previous night sleeping in a hay stack near the Dunker Church and were surprised at the number of men of Hood's Division in the area without shoes. It would be prudent, however, to portray one of the shod soldiers. Regarding your uniform, the record provides much latitude about apparel worn by the men of the ANV. It must be kept in mind that the men at Sharpsburg of Jackson's and Longstreet's commands were concluding much heavy campaigning. Prior to joining Lee at Richmond, Jackson's "foot cavalry" were in a winter campaign to Western Virginia and the Valley Campaign. From that point they and the divisions of Longstreet were on the road and battlefields that included Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry and the gaps of South Mountain. When the army left the Gordonsville area their orders were to move in "light marching order" as knapsacks and other belongings were left in storage as the men marched off. The only wagons allowed to follow the army were those of ordnance and commissary as any extra uniforms with the army were left behind. Observers described the soldiers as ragged and filthy, emitting a foul order wherever they went. Their rifles were clean with shiny barrels in contrast. The uniforms were of a motley assortment of military shell jackets, sack coats, and civilian attire. Ned Moore of the Rockbridge Artillery relates how he tried to sleep the night of September 16-17 on the top of a caisson in an effort to keep his new federal uniform, recently acquired at Harpers Ferry, clean. This was in spite of orders that prohibited federal uniforms from being worn. To project an apporpriate appearance we should wear as much old worn clothing as we can assemble, and it should be dirty! I have a shirt that I have worn since the 1970s that projects the well-worn look that was universal among Jackson's and Longstreet's troops. The record shows those units fought in at least two and most of them three major battles up to that time. Even the column of reinforcements to Lee's Army after Second Manassas comprised regiments that each had fought in at least one major battle. The soldiers were hardened veterans, especially those who were present for duty on September 17 as the cream of the ANV toughed it out. Lee's 35,500 men of all descriptions were about half the number he had when he left Frederick, MD a week earlier. To illustrate how many ment were likely slowed because of barefootedness, Lee's ranks were filled by an estimated 6000 men during the night following the battle! It was still insuffient for the Confederates to assume the offensive on the 18th, although Lee wanted to. Even the pugnatious Stonewall Jackson counseled against it because of the numbers against the Confederates. Regarding equipment, it is recorded that many men were without bayonets. I hope this information helps provide some guidance as you develop your impression for the event.

Tom Williams
Adjutant
4th Virginia Infantry
Indianapolis

[Silas]

Re: 1862 4th Texas Co.K Impression For "Maryland My Maryland"

A national reenactor forum isn't necessarily the best place to ask questions about what works for your impression. Much time and effort goes into published event standards. When an event has enforceable standards, please consider asking your nco's and/or officers about what works and doesn't work. That's why they exist. If they cannot answer your questions, you might be in the wrong company or going to the wrong event.

Please note, that I am not throwing dirt on any particular company, battalion or event by my remarks. This is a practical rule applicable to any event with published and enforceable standards.

As for this particular event, I suggested previously that discussions about this particular impression ought to be addressed on the battalion's facebook page. Link : http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/...623#post221623 Someone created that group for questions just like this. Please ask there.

"Say, goodnight to this thread, Gracie."
Goodnight to this thread Gracie.