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From the
President's Desk
Hey Pards,
If you are like me, you also
can't believe that summer is almost over. It feels like I was at
Cold Harbor two weeks ago. At least our summer will end with a bang
at Brawner's Farm. Expectation for that event is building, and
rightly so. I can't wait to see us all kitted out in our new Hardee
Hats and four buttons. Latture wears his Hardee around the office
every day, demanding that he be called sergeant major. If you
want to read up on the actual battle, Todd Berkoff, a
potential new member who was at Cold Harbor, wrote a nice
article that appeared in the September issue of America' Civil
War. I know this seems like advertising, and I guess it is,
but it's a good piece to take a look at if you want background
on the fight.
Brawner's kicks off a very
active fall: Shakertown in September, Cedar Creek march in
October and the Picket Post in November, among others. I've
always thought fall was one of the best times of year to partake
of our hobby, and I know many of you feel likewise, so I expect we
will have good turnouts at these events. So, I'll catch up
with you all at Brawner's Farm. John has assured me it will be
82 degrees with no humidity that weekend.
See you around the campfire,
-Dana
From the Editor
By
Christopher Daley
Fellas, As
mentioned in the last newsletter, we'd be skipping July's addition
as there were no events, so here is your August issue. For future
issues, we need updates from event contacts, AARs from participants
and committee reports. Please submit these articles to my e-mail
address at tailor@cjdaley.com
Shaker Village Living History
By
Ryan Weddle
Fellas, though details
haven't been flowing out of the WIG for this one yet, I think it
best to try and garner a headcount for "our" company for
Shakertown in September. We are Company D, which will be under the
command of James "Svelte by September" Miller. I believe the
company make up will be much like that of the company we fielded
at Chickmauga last fall.
All participants must
register for this event, and the WIG is going to have the normal
spread for all, i.e., food, food, and perks.
Which is well worth
the $15 fee.
We need to have guys
register prior to September 9th. Which is the early cut-off.
Here are the links, we
should probably have a blurb in the next newsletter for guys so
they can start to register.
Procurement Committee Announcement
The New SGLHA Vendor list is out.
By
Ryan Weddle
The Procurement Committee has labored all Winter and
Spring to research the latest reproduction items and
contact hobby related vendors. We are confident that the
new SGLHA vendor list will be a valuable aid in putting
together your impression. To see the vendor list, please
click here: SGLHA 2004
Vendor List
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The Union Army on the way to Gettysburg
By Fred Rickard
LENGTH
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15,000 Cavalry in
column of fours......15,000 yards or 8 1/2 miles.
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77,000 Infantry in
column of fours stretches 40,000 yards or 23 miles
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23 miles of
infantry
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10 miles of
artillery
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35 miles of supply
trains
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8 1/2 miles of cavalry
Using two pontoon
bridges at Edwards Ferry it took three days for all to cross.
83 1/2 miles.........as
a minimum; certainly a lot longer as the columns were never closed
up and never maintained textbook intervals.
WATER
35,048 x 10 gallons=
350,480 gallons per day. 5 gallons in AM 5 gallons in PM
A five gallon per minute
well or spring gives 300 gallons per hour, so it would take two
hours to water only one battery of 120 horses.
In using a stream or river
the problem was further complicated, because first upstream was
reserved for human drinking, then next down was horse drinking and
finally bathing and washing of clothing by the men.
There were 30 wagons per
1000 men; for the approx. 100,000 men the 3,000 wagons if allowed
20 yards per wagon the road space comes to 60,000 yards or 35 miles.
The ration for animals was
12 pounds of grain (oats preferred) and 14 pounds of hay. A four
horse or mule wagon carried 2800 pounds. Divided by 26 (oats and
hay combined), gives you 108 rations per wagon. If hay is ommitted,
which was often done, we have 233 rations of grain; 3000 wagons x
4 horses x 12 lbs. grain = 144,000
lbs. of grain divided by one
wagon load of 2800 lbs gives you 50 wagon loads per day for the
supply trains alone! Note: I think the author may have meant 3
wagons per 1000 men, not 30.
The artillery consisted of
67 batteries which would account for 6100 horses, multiply this by
12 and divide by 2800 and you get 25 wagons per day for the
artillery grain. This artillery would occupy 10 miles of road space
in normal spacing, which was never maintained.
Col. A.B. Johnson 1963
July's AAR: It's Raining Bears
By
Christopher Daley
Since
there were no offical SGLHA events in July, I'm submitting the following
unofficial report of my mountain bike trip with Ivan Ingraham.
Seeing one bear fall from the sky is strange enough, but when I
heard the second one crashing through the trees I was convinced it was
raining bears.
I had never seen a bear outside of the Bronx Zoo before, so being
only 15 feet away it was hard to tell if they were only cubs.
Regardless, I didn't want to stick around and get a closer look.
"Keep moving Daley, don't look back Daley" came the commands from
Ivan who was only a few bike lengths behind me. We had started out
the ride in a misty fog two hours earlier.
When we
left, my riding partner was fellow SGLHA member Ivan Ingraham, however
since the bear sighting, he had transformed into Capt. Ingraham of the
USMC and I suddenly found myself enlisted as his subordinate.
"Daley, don't stop dammit", good advice that I could have fingered
out on my own, but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to keep moving.
This was our fourth consecutive day of hard riding and I was exhausted
even before we left the hotel at 6am (0600 according to Capt. Ingraham).
It didn't help that I had gained 15 lbs over the winter which I blame on
living with my pregnant wife, but I know it's just an excuse for my annual
laziness.
On top of everything else, I had sprained my wrist on day two of the trip
and it was really starting to swell. Although my first tendency in a
situation like this is normally to complain, I know it will fall on Ivan's deaf ears.
He has ridden in much worse pain and never showed signs of weakness. I think back to
our mountain bike ride the previous Fall with Stillwagon. I
couldn't imagine how much pain Ivan must have been as he was still
recovering from his parachute
crash, but he never let on to us. After a few seconds of indecision, I opted not to mention my minor
injury!
"Daley, I don't know where mamma bear is so we need to get going"
Ivan shouts which snaps me back to the chase at hand. When we saw the
bears, we were in a section of the trail that had thousands of roots which
wrapped around moss covered rocks. This made traction and staying upright
nearly impossible and although the section was difficult to navigate, it
was at least relatively flat (or as flat as you can get in the mountains
of West Virginia). But the inclines were getting steeper, maybe the
steepest we'd seen since leaving the hotel.
So now the TLC survivor documentaries come into my mind. Do I try to act
tall and confuse bear? Do you fight a bear? I think you're supposed to play
dead, but I can't imagine having the will power to do that with my heart
rate pushing 190!
As we reached the fire tower which signified the half way point of our
trek, the shouting stopped. Ivan was quite for the first time in a while.
No more encouragements, no more advice, just silence. I assumed he had
either been eaten or had turned around to ambush the family of bears as
some sort of offensive/defensive tactic.
Then I heard a strange giggle from behind me. I turned my head to see
Ivan, covered in mud, drenched in sweat and tattooed with scrapes and
bruises from our sprint through the woods. He was doubled over on his
handlebars laughing his ass off. He dismounted to walked over and slap me
on the shoulder. He reached into my backpack and took a Power
Bar out of the back pocket and said: "Dude, I thought we were done
for". Ivan was back and Capt. Ingraham was left in the woods to
cover our escape.
Needless to say, we probably scared those two cubs as much as they scared
us, but it isn't an incident I'm willing to repeat anytime soon. Over the
years I had seen tons of wildlife while mountain biking. Herds of
deer, copperheads, turkey buzzards and even rabid dogs, but I'll not
soon forget my first run in with bears.
The ride was far from over.
From the fire tower we descended into the valley and crossed the river.
Then we started the long climb
back up to the mountain bike center and the hotel. Riding up hundreds
of feet in elevation is the only way back and we'd done this every day this
week. The grade never gets above 6%, but when you have to deal with
that slope for an hour plus, it can be demoralizing. Every turn we
expect to see it level off, but the switch backs just offer more
elevation.
My ears
start to pop, my water bottles are empty and as with marching with a
full pack and a musket, I begin to think, "What can I drop to loose
weight? What don't I need anymore?" Well, in a CW knapsack, the only
thing I think about is a house wife and dropping that doesn't loose
much weight. While cycling, I've got about 10lbs of tools, extra
clothing and some scraps of food. I soon resign myself to keeping my
gear and sucking up the pain.
Ivan paces me up the climb as he
had done the three previous days. Last Fall it was me setting the pace
when Ivan was recovering from his accident, now I must deal with the
defeat of him taking the lead. I'm not sure I would have made it up
that last hill had he
not been patient enough 'pull' me to the top. We don't say much over the
last few hundred feet, we don't dare waste anymore energy so close
to the top.
As we
crested the top of the last ridge we can see the hotel and the
prospects of a warm shower. By now I've forgotten all about the
bears and it's not until Ivans kids (great mountain bikers in their
own right) start talking about it over breakfast am I reminded of my
brush with nature.
This was my second
mountain biking trip to Snowshoe, WV and I'm
already planning my third. I'll be in better shape next year (at least
that's what I tell myself now) and hopefully the Ingrahams will be with
me.
If anyone wants to do some cycling (not necessarily off roading like this,
but just around battlefields and such), please let Ivan, Stillwagon or I
know as we very rarely need an excuse to get out on the bike!
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By
James Miller
And another thing, the planned Cedar Creek march in October is still on
and there should be some good participation planned. Dan Morgan of the
10th Va. has been more than helpful in this and has aleviated the burden
of getting this planned a whole lot.
We are
still planning on marching as a company from Hupp's Hill to the site on
Saturday morning. What I would like to have any interested members do is
to please go to the Cedar Creek website at;
www.cedarcreekbattlefield.org
, fill out the registration & waiver forms, cut a check for $18, and mail
it to me at the below address NLT August 10th. This is very important in
that I will have to mail it out to the Cedar Creek folks NLT August 13th!
I will ship all registrations & monies out as one big package to the folks
running the event. Otherwise the registration fees go up to $25.
Now, if
will still wish to go but cannot, for some reason, make the August
deadline, then feel free to send in a registration straight in to the
Cedar Creek Foundation but, just let me know that you are coming! Also,
if you have any questions then shoot me an e-mail. Take care. |
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General Orders
is the official newsletter of the
Southern Guard Living
History Association.
The deadline for the September Issue is August 20th, 2004.
Submissions may be made e-mail to our Newsletter
Editor:
Christopher Daley |
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Attn Newsletter
Subscribers: You can now renew your subscription to
General Orders online. To get your newsletter for
the 2004 season, click the button below.
$15.00
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As outlined by John Stillwagon in our
March newsletter, the new SGLHA Forums
have been a great aid to our online membership. To view these
forums, please follow the directions John gave in the last
newsletter.
In addition to event reviews, event information,
research on uniforms and equipment and just poking fun at each other,
there have been some great threads like the one Stillwagon started
on
Drill or Ivan's post on our overall
Fitness.
Please check out these forums as the more members we
have join, the better the resource will be for all of
us. |
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Due to some
technical difficulties, the logins and passwords for the
SGLHA Members Only section have been deactivated, we are
working hard to fix this problem. |
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We are
trying to update our online roster and are requesting that
all newsletter subscribers and full-time members send their
address, phone number and e-mail addresses to John
Stillwagon at
jstillwagon@earthlink.net |
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This month's
quote comes from a member of the Iron Brigade just after the
battle at the Brawner Farm:
"excitement and confusion of
loading and blazing away into the dense smoke, the loud
cheers—'the battle cry'—on one's right and on his left that
were but faintly heard between the rattle and bang of
ordnance, the stern and determined work of those who were
still biting and ramming, aiming and firing
Sheldon Judson
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Fall Picket Post
Nov 13-14, 2004
By
Chris Daley
Link:
Fall Picket Post
A few
updates:
1) Registration is high and we have 38 pre-registered so far
(see below).
2) Sweeney and I are planning to look at ths site soon and
we'll let you know when that will be in case you wanted to
come along as well.
3) Sam is going to work on an outpost 'cliff notes' for
everyone for the event.
4) Susnis is working hard to get us some more first person
info.
5) If you are planning on going, please register:
http://www.southernguard.org/
picketpost/index.html
6) Miller is working on the 2000 pre packaged rounds for the
event (40 rounds for 50 guys)
7) I'll start to send out e-mailed updates to all
registrants starting in September, they'll come out about
once every two weeks.
Request: I need a volunteer(s) to help with the
rations. This is a tall order and I really need someone
responsible to purchase, package and deliver the rations to
the event. If you want to take on the whole project or if
you want to help with one small portion of the project,
please e-mail me at
tailor@cjdaley.com. Thanks in advance.
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