Rich Mountain - July 14-16, 2006 (Proposed)

[Eric Tipton]

Comrades:

I'm adding this to the potential calendar for 2006 in the spirit of deconfliction. I haven't seen anything else scheduled for July 2006, so here goes:

Discussion is very preliminary, but I should know more in the next week or so from the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation. The initial proposal is currently in their hands for discussion and we plan to meet in August to discuss potential logistics. They have a mainstream reenactment in odd-years, so the site is open as far as that goes.

Event Name: Rich Mountain 145th Anniversary
Location: Beverly, West Virginia
Date: July 14-16, 2006 (Proposed)
Host: Sixth Ohio - Mess #1. Seeking a co-host on the Confederate side if concept is approved.
Sponsor: Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation and potentially the CWPT (Proposed)
Discussion Format: To Be Determined.
Contact: Federal: Eric Tipton, etinohio@msn.com
Contact: Confederate: To Be Determined.
Citizen: To Be Determined.
Website: Would most likely be an off-shoot of the <!--EZCODE LINK START-->Rich Mountain Web Site<!--EZCODE LINK END-->.
Comments: General plan is for movement in the vicinity of Laurel Hill, the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike in and around the Rich Mountain Battlefield to follow in the steps of the original battle in July of 1861. If concept is approved, the scenario to be worked through with the Battlefield Foundation historians. A tour of the site is tentatively scheduled for August.
Event Point of Contact: Same as Federal POC, above
Event Type: Campaign, semi-immersion event
Impression(s): Federal - Sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Confederate - To Be Determined. Early war impressions, obviously. Uniform standards would be in line with other EBUFU events.
Preservation: To Be Determined. Preliminary discussions have begun with the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation and the plan would be to donate all net proceeds to the preservation of the battlefield.
Registration: To Be Determined.

That's all for now. We have a very long way to go, but it's a start. If we can get past the concept stage, I'm going to need some help. John Cleaveland has agreed to "consult" a bit and I'll be calling him if we can get this meeting set up.

Does anyone have an idea about a good Confederate unit that could be portrayed? I'm just starting my homework on that part.

[markj]

How about the 25th Virginia for a Confederate impression? Good sources regarding the Rich Mountain fight are:

Haselberg, Fritz. "Yanks from the South!"

or

Lesser, W. Hunter. "Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided." Sourcebooks, 2004, ISBN: 1570717478. (Hunter used some of my contributions in his book)

I'm not sure why the 6th Ohio was picked for an impression. Although I'm admittedly a Hoosier, better impressions would be the 8th, 10th, or 13th Indiana Volunteer Infantry regiments or, conversely, the 19th Ohio. The 10th IVI, raised in my part of Indiana, took the lion's share of the casualties and I've done tons of research on its uniforms, arms, and equipage. David Hart, the "Rich Mountain Guide," actually came back to Indiana with the 10th IVI and enlisted in the regiment as its Commissary Sergeant. He served in the 10th IVI until he died from typhoid in March 1862.

Inquiring minds want to know,

Mark Jaeger

[Eric Tipton]

Mark:

How about the 25th Virginia for a Confederate impression?

Much appreciated. That's a good start and more than I know right now. There is a lot of homework ahead if we can get this off the ground. The unique thing about this particular battle, if we can get it together, is the presence of eastern and western troops. My preliminary idea would be to have the western boys on the Federal side and some of our friends out east on the Confederate side. The site is located pretty well for joint attendance.

I'm not sure why the 6th Ohio was picked for an impression. Although I'm admittedly a Hoosier, better impressions would be the 8th, 10th, or 13th Indiana Volunteer Infantry regiments or, conversely, the 19th Ohio. The 10th IVI, raised in my part of Indiana, took the lion's share of the casualties and I've done tons of research on its uniforms, arms, and equipage. David Hart, the "Rich Mountain Guide," actually came back to Indiana with the 10th IVI and enlisted in the regiment as its Commissary Sergeant. He served in the 10th IVI until he died from typhoid in March 1862.?

The simple answer is that I'm with the Sixth Ohio , and a Buckeye. We have an excellent source right off the bat, because the Sixth Ohio Regimental, written by Hannaford has a fairly detailed account of what they did in this area - almost to the hour in most parts. We also have several members who can practically trace the path of the Sixth throughout the entire war. The impresion isn't set in stone, but it would be an excellent opportunity with the wealth of knowledge we have at our disposal and within the unit.

This is all a concept right now, but I wanted to get it out there to avoid any potential conflict with something else that might be in the planning stages and find out if there is any interest to do this.

I have exchanged several e-mails and provided a preliminary proposal to the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation and their board will discuss this at their meeting this week. If we can get a meeting set up, I want to assemble a team to meet with them to give them a more detailed proposal. I want to involve them in the planning if we can get that far, because they appear to have an excellent understanding of the private property owners around the site as well as on-staff historians.

At first, they were a little wary about the concept, since they do the mainstream thing on alternating years. I hope we can get it going, because from what I've heard, the surrounding area is in pristine condition. We'll find out more when we get down there.

[markj]

Sounds good, Eric. If you want any first-hand accounts of the battle (the Indiana papers printed several of them), let me know. I also have a very lengthy account of the battle that I found in the diary of Valentine Thuma, a guy who served in the 8th Indiana

Of course some sticking points, when it comes to "authenticity," are the issues of uniforms and arms. From the pics I've seen of previous Rich Mountain events, the uniforms are generally incorrect for that period (e.g., sack coats, which apparently weren't issued to Indiana troops until the end of 1861 or beginning of 1862 at the earliest). The 10th IVI, to name one regiment, was issued "light blue jean" roundabouts with 9-button fronts and matching trousers in late May 1861. They also wore gray "rough and ready" (somewhat similar to "Hardee") hats. The 10th IVI (contrary to what is stated in Todd's Military Equipage) were issued .69 M1816 altered-to-Maynard's-system arms.

If you want to see a man wearing a typical early-war Indiana-issue uniform, go this URL and scroll down to "Philander Wisehart" (bottom row, far left). Wisehart served in the 8th IVI and was KIA at Rich Mountain so the image dates to early June 1861 (the 8th and 10th IVI's deployed to Western Virginia on 19 June).

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[Mike Ventura]

Mark:

My g-g-grandfather, Archibald Scott, fought with the 10th IVI at Rich Mountain. He returned home and then enlisted as a Corporal in the 43rd IVI.

I didn't see the URL posted that you mentioned in your above post.

Please email me off line - I'd love to see some of your other resource material on the 10th IVI.

mikeventura@venturacompany.com

Once a Hoosier, always a Hoosier!

Regards,

[BerkeleyBorderGuard]

Eric-

First, as a resident of WV, let me say THANK YOU for putting this event together. Many parts of WV are well suited for better events as the Trents have shown. I hope this is the start of a trend to bring these better events to the Mountain State.

Here is a link to some good OR material. There was simply too much to cut and paste.

http://www.ehistory.com/uscw/library/or/002/0193.cfm

I also have a great little booklet published back in 1963 that contains wondeful information on Rich Mountain. I will look for it and will send it to you if need be.

All the best to you on this event!

[markj]

Hi Eric, et. al.

For those of you interested in a Rich Mountain event, here are some newspaper letters I transcribed many moons ago for my 10th IVI website (since taken down due to reasons I won't bore you with here!). These discuss life in the 10th IVI from the time of its organization, in April 1861, to the Rich Mountain fight. Enjoy.

Regards,

Mark

[Pritchett Ball]

Interesting discussion...

I happen to have a letter, (Copy) in the handwritting of a THG Beck, to a "Miss Ann" dated July 23, 1861

OK, this letter describes events around the battles of Rich Mountain, and Laural Hill. He also mentions Beverly.

The letter is hard to read, but one part states:
" The yankees came on us at Laurel Hill on the 7th of July. We went out to meet them, we had it round there for a while but we made the rascals run like turkeys. I tell you it was not fun at all for the bullets whized by my head too much to suit me. We killed twelve and they killed one of our men."

He latter desribes retreating to Rich Mountain Road,five miles from Beverly they found out there were ten thousand yankees there, and they decided to cut across to Stanton;
"but had not gone very far when the rascals overtaken us and there we had it. you could not hear the words the officers said, it was shooting here & there, men falling all around you. we killed twelve hundred of the (?) and they killed fifty to sixty of our men."

Now, I have no clue who this "Beck" fellow was, or even what unit/State he acually came from. This "Miss Ann" may have been the Mother to a Eunice Ann Loughridge, who was born in Eton, Murray Co. Georgia in 1882. Ivan Thornton of Fort Worth, TX. was the Son of this Eunice (Loughridge) Thornton, and he found this letter when his Mother Eunice died. Ivan and I are related, and he gave me a copy of the letter.

I will be more than happy to snailmail copies of this letter to anyone who emails me, and gives me their address, for I am having PC problems, and it would be too hard to email the document.

I just read this posting, and it reminded me of the letter. Sure would like help in figuring out who this Beck feller is!
Respectfully:

Kevin Dally Kdallyrm@aol.com

[6thLouisiana]

This sounds like it might make a great event. I remember going through Beverly WV on my way to the McDowell event and seeing signs for Rich Mountain. My father's family came from that area and I would like to do an event there.
Dirk Behana
6th Louisiana

[Eric Tipton]

Comrades:

Your encouragement means a lot to me. I think this would be a great opportunity for us. I just hope we can convince the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation. Their board meeting is tonight (Tuesday, July 13th) at 7:00 PM and for their consideration, I have requested a face-to-face visit sometime in August. If we can secure the meeting, we would tour the field and then sit down and meet with the Foundation folks to discuss the possibilities for the event. At some point, I'd like to involve the CWPT, but I'm probably putting the cart before the horse. First, we need to get this meeting set up.

If you are interested in helping this along, here is the link for the board members. A short e-mail to them expressing your support for this potential event probably wouldn't hurt:

http://www.richmountain.org/staff.htm

If you write them, please remember that at this point, I have only sent an e-mail proposal to each of the board members (who have a listed e-mail) and I spoke with Ruth Brinker on three or four occasions. Everything is VERY preliminary at this point.

Our overall goal would be to benefit their hallowed ground and create an outstanding experience for all of us while aspiring for the highest possible standards. I want to do it as a partnership of the foundation and some of the best and the brightest our hobby has to offer.

We have a long, long way to go... from concept to reality.