Bentonville 150th March AAR's

[PMFerringer]

Thanks to Ivan and everyone else who worked to bring this together. Marching into the event was a true moment. From stepping off in the dark to marching in by column of platoons with the field music, the battalion was a sight to see. FORTY ROUNDS!

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Word's cannot express how awesome this event was! Saturday morning just after sunrise a light breeze kicked up and when I turned around and seen the colors of the 10th Iowa and almost 300 men marching to the fife a drum, my heart couldn't help but swell with pride. A big thanks to everyone for making my lasting memories! ROOT HOG OR DIE!!!

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Gents of Company B, 10th Iowa, I hope all of you made it back safely, felt this event was a success for you, and plan to come back to a SCAR-sponsored unit. As I have previously mentioned, we in Company B had NO march fallouts. 53 of 59 registered were in-ground, effective to fight. This ratio is amazing for a progressive adjunct in this day and age!
For a unit that never served with each other in the field, our drill was top notch as well. From an outsider's view, we looked sharp! I have heard compliments from many other authentic hobbyists at how we conducted ourselves on and off the field.

Every one of you did their duty and did it well. I enjoyed having the privilege to command your unit and thank each of you for your service. I think our forebears would be proud!

I am at all of your service if you ever need me. Please don't hesitate to ask!

40 ROUNDS!!!!!!! ALL FOR THE FLAG!!!!!

Sincerely,

Capt. Jno. Lloyd
Company B, Commanding
10th Iowa Infantry Regiment (recreated)

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Brief notes from Bentonville 150:

-Company B, 10th Iowa was TOPS! Thanks to Zach Forsythe, Tyler Underwood, Matt Lakin, Daniel Duke, Jeremy Brandt, Patrick Ferringer, Brian Graves, Rick Swafford and all the men of the company that made it run like a well-oiled machine. Huzzah!
-As far as mainstream events go, this event was probably the best one I have ever attended in 18 years in the hobby in terms of logistics, layout, organization, etc. (Battle scenarios are of another matter altogether and not to be included with this remark. ;))
-LtCol Ivan Ingraham (USMC) is a top-notch commander of even Civil War-era troops as commander of the 10th Iowa! Ivan displayed the same confidence and competence in leading men I have seen in real combat from Marines in Iraq. Welcome to what a REAL Marine field-grade commander can do on the field. Also, Brian Hicks displayed what a REAL Marine senior NCO can do for being SgtMaj for our men! Masterful job, gents!
-For NEVER functioning together before this event, our men at all unit levels worked together to get the job done ultimately. Kudos to the leadership for making it all possible.
-PRAISE JESUS for no low-flying camera drones! Those at Chickamauga 150th know what I mean. wink emoticon
-59 registered for Company B and 53+ showed up! We retained 41 for Sunday as well. This was after an 8 mile road march and exhaustion and blisters from period-correct shoes.
-“We ain’t got a boat, but we have a barrel!” ;)
-Field music totally makes a road march more endurable.
-Nathan Helwig, you and the real Iowans have a name to defend now, for whenever we have an event and Iowa is the unit impression, it had better be outstanding, as I am sure it will be. :)

My feet are blistered badly and my legs are sore, but my heart is filled with pride!

“ON IOWA! 40 ROUNDS!”

-Johnny

[MPDoughBoy153]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

This was one of the best planned events that I've attended in awhile. Great job to everyone involved. Glad we were able to raise money to help preserve the battlefield!

[Ambrose Bierce]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

This was one of the best planned events that I've attended in awhile. Great job to everyone involved. Glad we were able to raise money to help preserve the battlefield!

Thanks, Breandan.

More to follow on what will be done with the money we raised since the park asked if we had any requests. We are formulating the plan now and it will definately reflect on the original 10th Iowa and the recreated Regiment for the money contributed to do so.

[scanlonm]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Great job by Ivan Ingraham and his supporting staff. This was a well organized and orchestrated event. I would also like to thank Peter Berezuk and all the members of company "C". Great group of guys and I had a lot of fun. I enjoyed the march and came away with only one blister. I look forward to the next opportunity to fall in with this group.

[Ambrose Bierce]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Once the party ends, the host has to clean up the aftermath. This either happens with a smile on their face or they are not happy about how things went; either way, it is over and the assessment begins.

I am pleased to say we cleaned up with huge grins! Gents, this was a great weekend. I haven’t had this much fun and done as much as we did at a Civil War reenactment in a long time and the last time I felt this good was after an event more than ten years ago. Having been reenacting for 27 years, that is saying something.

I will summarize the larger portion of my thanks with a link to this post. I encourage people to read it.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?43058-Gratitude

In some semblance of order, here we go:

*Setting up the sites and getting things prepared for arrival.
*Meeting people as I could when they checked in for the event. My apologies that I couldn’t greet everyone in person and I tried to make the rounds over the weekend to do so in some capacity.
*Watching the shuttle run all day and night with full loads of Federal Infantrymen going out to the start point.
*Riding with Mike Jones and Guy Musgrove. What a great experience over the weekend, gentlemen. Thank you so much!
*Arriving at the Friday camp in darkness to hear singing, see campfires and candles burning, and just feeling a mellow intensity building due to all of the high energy being generated.
*Officer’s call around the map, distributing paperwork, and the looks on people’s faces that we were taking this seriously from the beginning.
*The Phantom Hurler!
*Reveille and the sound of 300 people awakening, Companies being formed, rolls being called, and the general noise of a camp coming alive.
*Our bugler. Amazing job, Greg!
*Riding up to see the entire Regiment formed. Or, more to the point, the dark mass of men in the darkness only slightly lit by that single back light.
*The near-silence as the unit was brought to attention and while at shoulder arms the only noise were the National and Regimental colors snapping in the breeze.
*Stepping off on the march.
*The loss of my rods and cones and an induced fit of optic failure due to the lights of our police escort!
*The sun coming up and seeing the entire column moving down the bend in the road and the colors at full sail.
*The chicken flopping out onto the road right in front of me as I called the Battalion Front. Whether by design or accident, it was pretty funny.
*Riders all along the route.
*The anticipation building as we got closer to the site.
*Cookies!
*Column of Platoons. Fixed bayonets. The Big Blue Engine That Did marching down the road. Still haven’t seen pictures of our entrance, though I am sure they are out there; man, there were A LOT of people on the sides of the road welcoming us in as we came out of the mist!
*Approaching the site and shutting the place DOWN!!
*Musicians and our appreciation for them in this thread:

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?41927-Carrying-Everything-but-a-Tune-By-Tyler-Underwood&p=251802#post251802

*Finishing up in camp and although exhausted, the morale of everyone and that energy of which I spoke was even more pronounced. People felt good about a job well done. Justifiably proud.
*Nolan Wickett!
*Our Adjutant and Sgt Major turning immediately to priorities of work and the Coy’s responding in kind. Great work, everyone, drawing rations and getting people taken care of after the morning.
*Contraband and Refugee vignettes.
*Coming onto the field for Saturday’s scenario—like Mr. Lloyd said, that is about it. There were some interesting moments on the trenchline, however, but these didn’t make up for some of the buffoonery of other part of the field. Sigh.
*Leaving to go back to camp after the scenario.
*Saturday evening. I could say enough said, but it was just so neat to see all the fires and candles, hear the music and singing, and we had people visit from all over to see what we were doing. Making new friends and catching up with old ones. Just too much fun. Peep show!!
*Tattoo!
*Final formation Sunday.
*Deploying the Battalion in column of Divisions from Platoons. Really amazing, gents!
*Sunday’s scenario had its moments….
*Dismissing the Regiment. Best one yet, boys! Until the next one, of course!
*Coming back to an empty camp and just marveling at the silence after everyone had gone as I packed up the rest of my stuff and Tyler Underwood, Pat Ferringer, and Taylor McCullen and his father finished cleaning up (there wasn’t much to do, so thanks guys) and moving items into trucks. The barrel was easier to lift than get into the site! Thanks for that, too!
*Driving out of the event with a huge feeling that can’t really be described.

The March: Okay, here is the secret. It was actually 9.5 miles. It was 8.2 from the back of Friday’s start point to the Bentonville Battlefield Visitor’s Center. From there it was another 1.3 to the Saturday camp. I figured no one would care about arriving and marching a little further because of the intense pride of what they had accomplished, knowing all eyes were on them. I was right, apparently. We averaged 3 MPH at about a 17 Min per mile pace. We met our timelines to the minute. You did an amazing job, boys!

For those of you with thrashed feet, well, that is authentic (and why I put so much emphasis on preparation on the Bentonville March website)! The following quotes from Memoirs Of A Dutch Mudsill, Gould and Kennedy, eds; Kent State University Press, 2004, should put things in perspective.

“That was a good stretch. 30 miles, measured by the fox, the tail not counted in. For me, it was the hardest day I experienced yet. I had made a mistake when we received shoes in camp at Oshkosh. I could not find a pair which suited me exactly and as I had a good pair of new boots I did not take shoes. The boots were well enough for every day wear at home, but for a 30 mile tramp on a hard gravel pike in a steady hot sun, the too small and too hot. The feet would swell and burn like a red hot block of iron.” pp 38.

“Chas Lymer and Van Stratum were sent to an ambulance. Both were so badly chafed as to be raw over the entire body. They had somewhat tender skin and sweat, dust, and the friction produced by knapsack and accoutrements had produced the result. “ pp 39.

“Next I met [some men] of our company and good boys, too. They sat a side the road with shoes and stocking off. [One’s] feet were right enough but he was generally played out; [the other’s] feet were nearly raw.” pp 44.

“Another long stretch until dark. My feet were very sore on account of the new shoes. I had just fallen asleep when Captain Steffens [servant] pulled my blanket [summoning me]. I hated to get up but as I had an idea what I was wanted for I went along [him]. I was disappointed but still became satisfied. Some of his men had confiscated a lot of firey ‘Apple Jack’, tremendous fiery stuff, strong enough to upset a mule at forty rods distance. Mixed liberally with water and sugar it made a splendid beverage, always provided there is no better at hand. As he had plenty of the stuff I bathed my feet with it several times and it did cure them for good….” Ibid, pp.56.

Epsom salts in the hottest water you can stand might be a better alternative, but you have come this far.....

No complaints otherwise.

I appreciate all of the comments and good words. Thanks to everyone.

The pleasure to serve was all mine, I assure you.

FORTY ROUNDS!!

[Mutt]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Thank you for a wonderful adjunct, Ivan! Too all the other organizers, officers, NCOs and my fellow lowly privates, thank you! I wasn't planning on, or truly able to attend, until the stars aligned. Very glad for that!

Best Regards,

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Brief Co B commander's AAR:

Sustain:
-As a commander, engage your NCOs at an early stage in the formation/recruiting of the company via FB messenger or chat room. This helped my staff know what to expect up-to-the-minute it was told to me, answer questions quickly, and we could all react accordingly.
-For those that don't know, make sure let the NCOs run the company. As an officer, guide them only when absolutely necessary. It is how we do things in the real military and it works in the reenactment military as well since it is simple group communication dynamics in ANY human group. (Masterful job by Zach Forsythe, Tyler Underwood, Rick Swafford, Daniel Duke, Patrick Ferringer, Matt Lakin and Brian Graves. Y'all totally nailed the NCO jobs!)
-Let your LT (Mine was the ever-able Jeremy Brandt, good job!) do the paperwork for the company and help the 1stSgt collate the morning muster rolls.

Improve:
-Park service blew our forage scenario with the SCAR Civilians. Can't help that since we didn't know they would be so picky and reroute the ladies and gents at the last minute when they should have rendezvoused with the military earlier. This was explained to the men quickly so they would know what just happened and we didn't lead them on a wild goose chase.
-The battle scenarios were like cramming 10 pounds of rocks into a 5 pound bag. Too many units on the field. The 10th IA couldn't control this, so it is what it is. I think the organizers didn't expect this many units to show up to the event and went with what they knew. But we all made it work!
-Tape feet up prior to going on a road march. My feet are still bleeding as of this morning from popped blisters... Yuk.

I have to say about the event as a whole, this was the BEST ORGANIZED mainstream event I have been to in 18 years in the hobby. Logistics at the event were done very well. 10th IA logistics and command were excellent. I'm having a hard time finding much fault with what we did this past weekend... ;)

All of you did well and look forward to serving with you again! WELL DONE!

"40 ROUNDS!"

[Hairy Nation Boys]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

I don't have much to write but it was an honor to be a member of the color guard. We took pride in carrying and protecting the flags. Thank you to Arch Campbell (National) Jake Wickham (Regimental) Dave "Coffee" Palmer and Eric Isaacs. Great job by all! Our 6th member Sam Cruikshank got food poisoning and I had to take him to a hotel. I felt bad to have missed the march but my comrade was more important to me.
Thank you Ivan for also getting me excited about the hobby again!
Big Pig Little Pig!

Holler

[Ken Cornett]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Well done Ivan! It was the shot in the arm we needed for the authentics. Mess No.1 likes to bounce around and play with different groups, and this time we chose Mike Comer's company A. He needed bodies and he's been our friend for a long number of years, so it was a perfect fit. It's a lot more fun when you have nearly all veteran's in your company. Ivan, we know the burdens and pleasures of putting on large scale events and you surely nailed it. We are looking forward to western KY as well. Next up...Minnesota!

[Strawfoot]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

First of all my thanks to Ivan Ingraham for his hard work at organizing this, and for the efforts of his staff as well. I know for a fact AJ was up against it at the registration tent and I was glad to get up there and hang out with him. Tyler Underwood worked his arse off, and I think Ivan actually had to order him once to take a break. Guy Musgrove I thought would eventually fall off his horse he logged so many miles as a courier with the Jones boys. The musician corps was rag tag and bully, and I've seen nothing of its equal since the Tiger band at the Shiloh LH in 2005. Being in Company A we marched behind them the entire weekend and I can still feel the drums resonating.

This event was all about seeing old and new pards, and hitting the field with the best of my peers in the hobby. There is absolutely NO substitute for serving in a 300 man battalion filled with living historians of this caliber, regardless of environment. None.

It was nice to have bully send off for Matt Woodburn, for all he's done for us. The Quartermaster and Commissary Dept was superb. Our beef ration slab for the company on Saturday was about half fat, and wouldn't stretch for the men. Steve Ewing graciously took care of us with an additional issue. Seeing Nathan Hellwig, bad back and all, inspired me immensely and I could have marched 50 miles. I thank Mess #1, for teaming with us in the 24th Missouri to help form Mike Comer's Company A. Once they signed on that was all she wrote, and when said and done Company A went from one registered individual to 39 in less than 60 days. Though the smallest company in the battalion we were also the fastest growing. We had old pards from the Mudsills, elements of the Furious Five, and some gents from the 7th KY who went out on their shield for the march. What a great team, and my proudest endeavor in the hobby.

There were many personal highlights:

-Blundering up to a civilian fire Friday night and begging for a couple coals to cook my coffee, only to be embraced and kissed by Terre Lawson.

-Sgt Major Brian Hicks, the best in the business, impaling a chicken on his bayonet as we marched into the event in a Column of Platoons

- The battalion band. What an absolute wheels off bunch I don't know if they were in beat the entire weekend but what a bad-ass bunch of kids

-John Wicketts son, who had a cult following by the way, trailing the column on the march.

-"Prepare to Repel Boarders" (actually a low light in a Benny Hill sort of way). Nothing like an episode of extreme stupidity to keep things in perspective. Some reb is lucky he didn't get a faceful of double X GOEX from Michael Schaffner's rifle, and one enterprising lad did get a fist in his face. I'll bet that unit doesn't try that stunt anytime soon.

- Period entertainment, beer ration, and an endless pie buffet Saturday night. It could have all ended there and I'd be satisfied with my re-enacting career. Working the beer tap on the barrel were the battalion commander and the brewer himself, whose pale ale concoction he dubbed "Forty Rounds." Sweet.

- Seeing old friends and pards, which is the reason I do this. Matt Lakin, Dylan Neveau and the Rat Tails, Pete Berezuk, Guy Musgrove, Johnny Lloyd, Arch, Lem, Holler and the Hairy Nation guys, Mess #1, Jason Hamby, Bob Minton, RJ Samp, John Wickett... Meeting Zach Forsythe, Taylor McCullen, and the Mudsill boys Ken Smith, Chris Graham and Bill Brewster. Hanging with my 24th MO stalwarts. Damn the list is endless. Again, it's why we do it.

For some reason, maybe it's the interaction with the larger groups of my peers IDK, these battalion-sized adjuncts like Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Bentonville are fine with me. I know we get down and dirty at smaller living histories, and probably Marmadukes Raid was a perfect combination of the two, but I always have a great time at these things.

So, on to Perryville in 2016.

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Well said Mike!

I also wanted to thank everyone who participated in Saturday nights revealing entertainment by Mr. J. B. Johnstone. Although its not much, we managed to raise an extra $140 dollars to donate to Bentonville in about an hours time. Not too shabby for something that Joni Lloyd and my wife threw together two days before the event started.

[pipthelimey]

Re: Bentonville 150th March AAR's

Thanks to everyone who was patient with me at registration. There was a hell of a lot of spreadsheet massage that went into it in the weeks before. We tried to provide all of the company commanders with the most accurate rosters possible with email addresses so they could disseminate communication to their companies.

What Went Right: Patient Reenactors, help from Mike Phineas, Pat Ferringer and others. Ammo boxes full to capacity. If I'd taken up every mainstreamer on their offers to buy them I could have paid off my student loans.

What Could Have Gone Better: I messed up big time by not communicating the change in registration venue which occurred when we actually got onsite due to logistics of where mainstream registration and parking were. 95% of guys figured it out, the other 5% were generally understanding. A BIG thanks to Pete Berezuk for bringing additional ammo boxes. We had two companies that were so large that their additional ammo wouldn't fit in one ammo box. Some of our boys still need practice at arsenal packs and that took up space.

What Miraculously Went Well: coordinating overseas reenactors with their loaner gear, rifles, and ammo. I can't believe that went as well as it did. I'm still in awe over the teamwork.


Special thanks to Ivan for giving me a chance to assist in this. There wasn't the smallest degree of micro-management from him or Taylor. The mission was set, the areas of responsibility were defined, and progress was reported. It's not solely a military attribute, I've worked with several modern military men on events and it doesn't always run smoothly. It's a credit to the advanced legwork that was done and to the men behind it.

Thanks again for the experience.