THE SALT RIVER
RIFLES
PROGRESSING ON A BUDGET
by
Jim Butler
As Civil War reenactors, most of us have walked similar paths in our progression to being more authentic. Some choose to stop progressing at a certain point and find a comfort zone. I challenge every reenactor to step out of that comfort zone and continue to progress and improve your impression. The first step for many folks in becoming a campaigner, progressive or hardcore can be purchasing a new kit. This can be costly and time consuming as quality reproductions can cost a bit of money and take time to receive when ordered in many cases (this is why it is important to research first and buy right the first time). But, there are many things you can do to improve your impression while waiting for that Sekela sack coat to arrive. These tips cost nothing or very little and can be done immediately or in little time.
- Blanket: I always carry a period blanket. Also, carry your blanket IN your
Knapsack if you are using one. Avoid carrying stuff on top of the knapsack if you can as it just is more difficult to carry.
- Gum blanket/Oil Cloth or Shelter Half: You will usually need to make a choice weather to carry a gum blanket/oil cloth or a shelter half. You likely won’t make it on a long march if you have a blanket, gum blanket AND a shelter half as it is just too heavy. It is a sacrifice I hate to make, but it usually needs to be done.
- Gun cleaning kit: It is tempting to carry every cleaning gadget with you.
But, you can do a thorough cleaning when you get home. Bring a jag,
nipple pick, a few patches and a small tin of gun oil. A small poke
sack comes in handy for this.
- Candles: Ditch the lantern. I usually just carry a couple of paraffin or
Bees wax candles. You can also pick up a small brass insert that fits into
your bayonet socket that holds a candle (this will keep you from having to
clean a big mess off of your bayonet). When not doing a long march I will indulge myself with a small folding lantern (there are various styles and Village Tinsmith is a good source).
- Socks: This is a must. An extra pair of socks can be your saving grace.
If you have to cross a creek and your socks get wet, you will want an
extra pair as nothing is worse than marching or sleeping in wet socks.
Also, in colder weather, change your socks before you go to bed as the
sweat in your old socks will make your feet colder at night.
- Nightcap: I carry a thick, flannel nightcap. It is light, so it is not a hard-
ship to carry and it is an asset on a cold night. Keeping your head warm is important on cold nights. There are various acceptable styles.
- Huck Towel: I carry a small huck or rough cotton towel in my
knapsack/bedroll. I use it to wash my face/hands if and when the
opportunity presents itself. Please avoid modern materials like terry cloth.
- Personal Items: I carry modern medicines in a tiny tin (available from
Village Tinsmith). I also travel with a boar’s bristle toothbrush and
toothpowder (which you can carry in various small period containers).
Use a small poke sack for these items.
- Skillet/Plate: My small skillet also acts as my plate. Carrying a plate AND a skillet is just too much. A canteen half also serves as a good light plate and skillet. Jarnigan actually carries a small skillet (based on an original) where a stick can be used as a handle. Thus, your handle is found
when your in the field and thus less for you to carry.
- Folding pocketknife: This is critical for all sorts of jobs in the field.
I suggest a small, gentleman’s pocket knife (or penny knife). Avoid
stainless steel and look for a good period reproduction from Gedney Godwin (brass rivets, steel blade). Just clean it and oil it after each event.
- Eating Utensils: I carry a fork and spoon that slide together. There are
also folding, combination utensils as well.
- Small amount of hemp twine: You’d be surprised how often in a pinch
you need some twine. I carry a small amount in my pocket at all
times.
- Pencil and notebook: This is optional for privates, but is a requirement for NCO’s and officers. Be sure these items are period (no yellow painted ones). Carry this at the ready in your pocket.
- Dipper/Tin Cup/Boiler: There are various period types. I usually attach
mine to one of the knapsack or blanket roll straps.
- Pipe & Tobacco (optional): I have several different pipes (all period).
I usually carry my small clay pipe with reed stem or wood pipe with
vulcanite stem. I carry my pipe tobacco in a small poke sack.
- Housewife (optional): Be sure your housewife is not enormous (I have
noticed this trend). A small, modest housewife with a small amount of thread, a few needles, some buttons and even a patch and small scissors
will do nicely.
- Extra shirt (optional): An extra shirt can be very useful, especially on a
cold night after you have soaked the one you have on. I will carry an issue flannel shirt (when doing Federal) and a cotton shirt. On cold nights, I then have the option to actually wear two shirts for warmth.
- Personal Items (optional): Some period items I enjoy carrying (but are
the first to go when leaving stuff behind) are as follows: period playing
cards, period razor, tracts, small testament, period CDVs, period wallet, period writing kit (although I always carry a pencil and tiny notebook). A small piece of lye soap is always a nice item to carry as well (I have a small brass box for soap). You may have other small items as well (again be careful not to carry too much).
- Great coat (optional): Unless it is cold enough to wear that thing on the march, avoid the temptation to carry it on top of the knapsack as it is just too heavy. You also could carry it in place of a blanket.
- Extra Ammo & Extra Food (optional): I always err on carrying fewer
rounds as most scenarios rarely use up the 40+ rounds in my cartridge
box. Sometimes I will carry extra food in my knapsack/blanket roll
(but this is usually the exception).
your other gear should go in your knapsack or blanket roll. I use poke sacks for
my food. A muslin poke sack works great for salt pork or slab bacon as it absorbs
to grease a keeps the rest of your food and haversack from becoming a mess. My
favorite period foods to carry is hardtack, coffee, dried fruit, rice and slab bacon
or salt pork. If possible I cook any meat ahead of time as it weighs less after
cooking and less messy. A small amount of rice can amount to a great deal of
food after cooking.
Optionally, officers can obtain a leather, officer’s haversack. These usually have
two compartments inside (one for your food and the other for your paperwork and
notebook.
4. Blanket Roll: If you can’t afford a quality knapsack, a bedroll is correct item and in
many cases easier to carry. There are various methods for carrying and rolling your
blanket roll, but a piece of leather, twine or cord is needed to tie the end. The
only disadvantage is that when you unroll it, all your gear goes everywhere.
5. Go For A More
Generic Impression: Unless
the impression calls for certain
accoutrements like hat brass or gaiters I
would leave these items at home. Gaiters were
of limited issue (especially in the Western
theater) and should be left for only certain
impressions. Hat brass, if used at all,
would have been limited to a company letter
only, or in most cases none at all. The
end result is buying less, saves you more!
Read the events guiding impression and
uniform guidelines to know what specialty
items would be allowed (corps badges,
etc).
6 . Modify your
Shelter Half: Many reenactors drive
their stakes thru the grommets
of their shelter tent. This is
incorrect. A small length of hemp twine
or cord should
be tied into a loop thru the grommet
holes. This loop then acts as the guide rope
attached to the stake. Brass grommets are
also incorrect on a shelter tent. Many
suppliers now offer to sell their halves
with hand sewn grommets or with no grommets
so you can sew them in yourself (knowing
the simple buttonhole stitch can be useful
here).
7. Create A More
Military Camp: Police your
area for trash and non-period
anachronisms (stash em away or better
yet, leave them at home). Participate in and
encourage roll calls, wood/water detail,
guard mount, first person impressions,
saluting officers, etc, etc. Learn the
bugle calls and play them in camp. Have your
NCOs know what their camp duties are and
have them perform these duties. Your
NCOs and officers should be functional
(not just in drill, but in camp as well).
8. Participate In
Period Activities: Encourage and take part in things like ration issues,
ammo issues, mail calls, chuck-a-luck or
poker games, mock punishments/disciplines,
letter writing, reading period letters or
newspapers, pay call, sick call, etc.
9. Create A First
Person Persona: So you have one ready if called upon to use it.
Doing some research on civilians will help
in this area (talking to some of the ladies
can be helpful, since they are usually
studied on civilian courtesies, etc.). Know where
you are from, what you did, a bit about
your family, what it was like where you lived,
the politics of the area, when you
mustered in, a bit about the unit’s history, etc.
Read the events guiding impression and
this will give you a starting point to do
research to create a first person persona
before the event (an Irishman from NY would
likely be in a different profession than a
German from Illinois).
10. Defarb your
Weapon: Sanding off the shiny polyurethane coating is the first
step in defarbing your weapon. It is a scary thought at first, but there
are several
methods to this. Take your piece apart
and sand down the stock or get a commercial
stripper to take off the coating. You
can then stain it (not one with polyurethane in it)
or not. Most important is to wipe boiled
linseed oil or a 50/50 mix of linseed and
turpentine over the stock. Do this again
a couple times a year. Be sure to dispose of
rags with linseed oil properly since
they can spontaneously combust. You can have a
reenactors gunsmith (such as Lodgewood
or Zimmerman) to correctly mark your
piece. For a Springfield, this includes
a correct cartouche, inspectors stamp, removing
the modern mnftrs name and moving the
serial number to its proper place (beneath
the breach). Removing blueing is an
arguable point. When you look at actual
weapons in museums (Chickamauga NP) it
looks as if many Enfields were blued in
some way. You may wish to further research this and decide
what is best for you. As
a Springfield owner, those green
scotch-brite pads are invaluable in removing rust
(which can appear very quickly).
11. Upgrade your
canteen: For a Federal canteen,
this is a cheap and easy upgrade to
your kit. Most canteens were covered with surplus, scrap wool (brown jean
was
the most common). Most sutler row canteens are sold with dark
blue wool and this
was the least common material (as it was
used for coats) and is overrepresented
in our hobby. There is no right or wrong
color, just proper material and seeking
what was more common. Canteen cover kits can be purchased thru
County Cloth
Also, stopper chains were only issued
from one NY contractor during the war.
So,
although a chain is correct, a cord was
probably more common than a chain. Tie a 12”
length of hemp or cotton twine into a loop. Then make a hitch
around the stopper ring
and then make a hitch thru the canteen
lug.
12. Hand Sew
buttonholes: Learning a simple
button-hole stitch can be an invaluable
skill to the CW reenactor. Even if you need to replace your coat and
shirt, you can
improve them while you are waiting to
get a better one. Remove all the
machine,
Buttonhole stitching from that sutler
row coat and shirt. Then resew them yourself
by hand. Be sure to use cotton thread
and no modern, shiny poly threads. Wooded
Hamlet is a good source for thread. Also, get rid of those giant buttons. Period
buttons should be made of mother of
pearl, white china or bone (wood, tin and
vulcanite are other options). They should also not be larger than a ½”
diameter.
I could not find any period references
to shirt buttons larger than 5/8”. You can also
get buttons from Wooded Hamlet or John
Zaharias.
There are countless
other things you may think of to improve your impression. This was just a
brainstorm to show you that you can do many things without breaking the
bank. The main thing is to try and
think like a period soldier and adjust and improvise to your liking. I
mentioned several vendors in the article. You can fins their contact info at
our web page at www.oocities.org/saltriverrifles
I hope these ideas help and if you want to discuss it email me at unionguy1@comcast.net
Good luck.
Jim Butler
The Salt River
Rifles
.