Which Confederates spent July 1 lounging on couches and shooting yanks?

[FloridaConscript]

why the bully boys of the 5th Alabama (sharpshooters) of course

From the windows of the back rooms, against which were piled beds and mattresses, and through holes punched in the outside back wall, there was kept up a continuous rattle of musketry by men stripped to the waist and blackened with powder. It was a strange sight to see these men fighting in these neatly … furnished rooms, while those not on duty reclined on elegant sofas, or … upon handsome carpets.'

http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-...ers.htm/print/


Also goes on to talk about CS officers drinking wine and fine offerings from the local cupboards on July 1.

[GenuineInformation]

Re: Which Confederates spent July 1 lounging on couches and shooting yanks?

After reading that, the wheels are turning....
Who's got two thumbs and is up for a 5th Alabama Sharpshooters impression at the 150th Gburg??


This guy, that's who. Now, where to find a 150+ year old bottle of cab....

Thanks for posting.

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

Re: Which Confederates spent July 1 lounging on couches and shooting yanks?

Or the reb who swiped some civilian's good suit of clothes from a dresser, leaving his uniform as an exchange.

[FloridaConscript]

Re: Which Confederates spent July 1 lounging on couches and shooting yanks?

Joe,
I'm with ya on that.

[GreencoatCross]

Re: Which Confederates spent July 1 lounging on couches and shooting yanks?

I just learned that I'll be portraying one of Maj. Blackford's men at the CS Sharpshooter LH at Gettysburg this October. Should be a lot of fun bringing the various types of food mentioned in the Blackford account (artichoke/chicken/onion/potato soup, fresh biscuits baked by Blackford's buglers, ham, cheese, fish, pepper sauce, coffee, sugar, rice, wine, whiskey & etc..."Who needs O'Rourke's?"), not to mention other plunder from the homes of Gettysburg. With the number of accounts stating Confederates in town were donning "exchanged" civilian clothing I am seriously thinking about making myself a nice civilian vest or maybe a pair of fine black broadcloth trousers!

[mdougher]

Re: Which Confederates spent July 1 lounging on couches and shooting yanks?

And here i was going to go with the opposite approach of stripping to the waist and blackening by body with Powder!

"From the windows of the back rooms, against which were piled beds and mattresses, and through holes punched in the outside back wall, there was kept up a continuous rattle of musketry by men stripped to the waist and blackened with powder." -Captain William W. Blackford


Should make for an interesting weekend. Especially with Blackfords account of how the men behaved on the 1st,

"Sounding the rally my men were soon around me, and allowing them a little time to [rest], I too went to the front close after Early. We overtook them as they were entering the town, and my men took their own share in the plundering that went on. I employed myself with the aid of such men as I had with me in destroying whiskey, of which there was an enormous quantity in the town. [In] half an hour many men were dead drunk, and others were wild with excitement. It was truly a wild scene, rushing through the town capturing prisoners by hundreds; a squad of us would run down a street and come to a corner just as a whole mass of frightened Yanks were rushing up another. A few shots made the whole surrender, and so on until we caught them all."
(excerpt of Eugene Blackford's memoir located in the Civil War Miscellaneous Collection of the United States Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pa.)



I cant wait!!!!