150th SHILOH… SATURDAY PM… BATTLE MARCH Continued… As with any army the routine is ‘hurry up and wait’. The position of troops was accomplished and we stacked arms to wait. Many of us replenished the water we had drank from our canteens during the morning and got in the shade of trees provided by some woods close to the staging …
150th SHILOH…. SATURDAY PM…. BATTLE MARCH We had to be back in camp and ready to cooter up by 12:30pm. I had met the deadline, had a nap and was waiting for first call. Well, sure enough, we got first call right at 12:30. We all got cootered up and meandered out on the main road that was a stones …
150th Shiloh… Saturday AM… Continued…. After about 15 minutes, we were ordered to ‘Fall in’, ‘Unstack Arms’, and ‘Unfix Bayonets’. Then we were given the orders to ‘Right Face’ and ‘Forward March’. We then marched over to the Brigade area, formed up with other Battalions, and marched out to the Yankee Camp to portray the first day of the Shiloh …
150th Shiloh… Saturday AM….. As usual I slept about 3 hours before I woke up. Since I never carry any modern conveniences, I had no wrist watch to check the time. I also never wear my wedding ring because it will scar the wood on my rifle and there might be a chance of losing it. So I just started …
150th SHILOH……FRIDAY PM (continued) So I retrieved my equipment and put it in the Sibley Tent. I was then give the job of digging the Fire Pit for our camp fire., while the boys from our unit took their cars to the Reenactor Parking Lot and walked back to camp. By the time they got back, I had dug the …
150th SHILOH…..FRIDAY PM It had quit drizzling, but the sky was overcast and the humidity was high. Our long sleeve shirts under our wet frock coats were sopping wet. It took us about an hour to get back to our camp. My feet were sore, but no blisters were apparent. I checked out Toren’s headquarters area. He was there and …
150TH SHILOH….. FRIDAY AM (continued) We traversed another small hill doing our best to keep an even line, which isn’t easy with 125 men being shoulder to shoulder. Many times the battle line seems like an accordion. It stretches out and then collapses toward the middle. So you constantly hear men yelling, “Give to the right or give to the …
150TH SHILOH….. FRIDAY AM All of us had rolled our gum blankets and tied them to our packs or wore them as blanket rolls across our bodies. Since we were on the march and almost immediately getting ready to go into battle, we couldn’t go through the machinations of getting them out and wearing them to protect us from the …
Shiloh into Early Friday Morning We were to have pickets during the night, but I lucked out and didn’t have to do picket duty. I ate some more jerky and tortillas. Drank some more water and filled my canteen at the water wagon. I laid one of my gum blankets on the ground; took off my shoes; used my frock …
150TH SHILOH cont… I then traveled to see where the reenactor parking was and got it fixed in my head. Then using the map of the area I finally found the entrance for King’s 2nd Division. It was a bumpy lane, but the Division Headquarters was well defined with a big sign indicated the Headquarters location. I asked one of …