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Our comrade-in-arms and my mess-mate of the past five years, Joe "Moe" Lassus passed away on Sunday at age 54. He was a member of the Authentic Campaigner Forum since 2004, but was not one to post much. His screen name was simple "lassus." While he did not post much Joe read a lot of the posts on here and would comment to me about them from time to time around the campfire. Usually chiding me for "kicking over the anthill," as he put it..but not always, we often saw eye-to-eye. It is important to remember that many of the hale fellows who do a variety of events, participate in living history and form the backbone of Civil War (re)enacting are not the sort who post their knowledge on the internet forums. Joe Lassus and Mr Coastal Trash's (Patrick Landrum) Dad were comrades down in the Bayou for years in some redneck Confederate outfit until Joe moved to Tennessee about ten years ago, saw the light and began wearing the blue. He told me that as a little boy, Landrum used to hide under his teenaged daughters cot because he liked looking up their hoop skirts. I am pretty sure that Landrum still does that when he can or at least it is still a possibilty as he remains compact enough to fit under cots. For his part Landrum admits hiding under the bed, but claims it was to get at the corn liquor stash. Either story is equally believeable. Also, Joe Lassus loved a good cigar, and I believe he exposed Landrum the youngster to that bad habit, too, although it could have been the other way around. Joe thought a lot of the Landrums, both peres and fils.
Joe Lassus was a quiet, thoughtful fellow. We did many events together, even did the trip up to Cedar Creek one year to slum it with the FFR. He loved his 1842 Springfield pumpkin slinger that was one of mine once, a really nice early serial number musket that I did for myself until he fell in love with it at first sight a few campaigns ago. Joe really took care of that musket, that man could flat out field clean a musket better than most fellows can do tearing it down at home with all the time in the world. Joe was a great cook, too...like Landrum, but then I never knew a Cajun that wasn't a pretty good mess-mate. I made beans (and rice) with ham hocks for the crew at Missionary Ridge in homage to Joe, I suspected for a while he might not join us in the field again. I let Joe know that we held a dinner of his favorite concoction in his honor, or rather relayed the message through his wife (Naomi) as I found out yesterday that Joe was in Hospice at that time and then a week later he was gone. However, probably to make me feel better, Naomi told me he was pleased I finally figured out how to cook something on an open fire without burning it...which I would like to point out in my defense is very historically accurate.
Joe and I became full fledged, certified, NPS volunteers out at Stones River Battlefield at around the same time last year. It was my idea, because we were both getting a little long in the tooth to be jumping fences with the young bucks and we learned to shoot the big six pounder guns. Gone too soon, I am going to really miss that guy. 2009 has been a tough year in terms of losing people that will prove hard to replace.
Joe Lassus was a quiet, thoughtful fellow. We did many events together, even did the trip up to Cedar Creek one year to slum it with the FFR. He loved his 1842 Springfield pumpkin slinger that was one of mine once, a really nice early serial number musket that I did for myself until he fell in love with it at first sight a few campaigns ago. Joe really took care of that musket, that man could flat out field clean a musket better than most fellows can do tearing it down at home with all the time in the world. Joe was a great cook, too...like Landrum, but then I never knew a Cajun that wasn't a pretty good mess-mate. I made beans (and rice) with ham hocks for the crew at Missionary Ridge in homage to Joe, I suspected for a while he might not join us in the field again. I let Joe know that we held a dinner of his favorite concoction in his honor, or rather relayed the message through his wife (Naomi) as I found out yesterday that Joe was in Hospice at that time and then a week later he was gone. However, probably to make me feel better, Naomi told me he was pleased I finally figured out how to cook something on an open fire without burning it...which I would like to point out in my defense is very historically accurate.
Joe and I became full fledged, certified, NPS volunteers out at Stones River Battlefield at around the same time last year. It was my idea, because we were both getting a little long in the tooth to be jumping fences with the young bucks and we learned to shoot the big six pounder guns. Gone too soon, I am going to really miss that guy. 2009 has been a tough year in terms of losing people that will prove hard to replace.
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