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Shortly after the cracker line was established, another important item arrived in camp : four months back pay. And then the games commenced.
PRESERVATION POKER
In commemoration of that wonderful moment, the federal color company will host an on-site evening of Preservation Poker on the Thursday night before the Mission Ridge event commences from 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM. Three games of chance will run : poker, chuck-a-luck and faro. For twenty bucks, the participants receive four months back pay. A limited amount of whiskey and tobacco will be provided to participants. Net proceeds go to the Brown's Ferry preservation effort.
But why Thursday night?
Normally, folks arrive sometime on the Friday. Companies and battalions assemble later in the afternoon or early evening. Although folks are present, their minds are still consumed by the sojourn to the event. Then there's the socializing, show-n-tell of kewl new gear, responding to some nonemergency at work/home and et cetera. I call Friday, Farb Night. Your body may be clothed in period attire, but your brain is still in modern time. You're often not in the right frame of mind until the following morning. This is why the show often does not go live until Saturday morning. With things concluding by noon on Sunday, you're really talking about a two day event.
Mission Ridge is a three day event. The show goes live sometime in the early afternoon on Friday. Arrive when you'd normally arrive, and you'll miss a great scenario. How can you be ready that early? Arrive on site Thursday. Get Farb Night out of your system and be in the right mindset when the event goes live. There will still be time to make a quick run to Chickamauga or Chattanooga on Friday morning if necessary.
Most folks are making trips of many hours to make this event. Some fools are actually flying to this event... Get to the site on Thursday night and crash there. Arrive early enough, and you can while away your time in a period appropriate manner. This is a nondenominational event. Confederates are welcome. Just don't expect southern script.
The featured game will be faro which was the game of the day. It's an easy card game which resembles craps in some ways. Here are three resources about faro. Two are from an 1859 and an 1864 Hoyle. The other is a great book about cheating. To understand how to cheat at faro, one has to know to play it. The house had very little advantage over players aka punters. To increase the odds, the house cheated. So did the punters.
Here's the 1859 Hoyle : https://books.google.com/books?id=lh...page&q&f=false
Here's the 1864 Hoyle : https://books.google.com/books?id=dS...page&q&f=false
This is "Sharps and Flats," the book about cheating : https://books.google.com/books?id=Xt...page&q&f=false
MISSIONARY RIDGE LIVEFEED
This Saturday, 16 March, at 4:00 PM Pacific Time (7:00 PM Eastern), we'll have a live feed from Silas Casey's quarters at historic Fort Steilacoom, a pre-war army fort along Puget Sound and about 45 miles south of Seattle. This is part of a weekend drill hosted by the federal color company as we prepare for Mission Ridge. We'll talk a some about Mission Ridge being a three day, not a two day event. We'll also talk some about how you can help preserve Brown's Ferry by playing some games of chance. See you then.
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