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Comrades,
I don't know if anyone has ever had the pleasure of reading this book. If this has been posted before then I suppose I will look like an idiot. As some of you might know John Mead Gould was a Union soldier whose wartime journals contain a great deal of detailed knowledge on the life of a federal soldier. In 1877, he wrote a book entitled How to Camp Out that was based on and extremely reflective of his time in the Union Army. In the work he describes army tentage, cooking, bed rolls, etc., etc. Most of the work is fully applicable to Civil War living history.
Just to give a few examples: "Suggestions such as, "When the soldiers found their pantaloons were chafing them, they would tie their handkerchiefs around their pantaloons, over the place affected, thus preventing friction, and stopping the evil; but this is not advisable for a permanent preventive. A bandage of cotton or linen over the injured part will serve the purpose better." p. 44
Or on shelter tents: "Two men could button their pieces at the tops, and thus make a tent entirely open at both ends, five feet and two inches long, by six to seven feet wide according to the angle of the roof. A third man could button his piece across one of the open ends so as to close it, although it did not make a very neat fit, and half of the cloth was not used; four men could unite their two tents by buttoning the ends together, thus doubling the length of the tent; and a fifth man could put in an end-piece.
Light poles made in two pieces, and fastened together with ferrules so as to resemble a piece of fishing-rod, were given to some of the troops when the tents were first introduced into the army; but, nice as they were at the end of the march, few soldiers would carry them, nor will you many days." p.73
How to Camp Out apparently, was transcribed for the Gutenberg project and living historians were the main beneficiaries.
See here:
or: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17575
I hope this is useful to people.
Yours, etc.,
Matt White
I don't know if anyone has ever had the pleasure of reading this book. If this has been posted before then I suppose I will look like an idiot. As some of you might know John Mead Gould was a Union soldier whose wartime journals contain a great deal of detailed knowledge on the life of a federal soldier. In 1877, he wrote a book entitled How to Camp Out that was based on and extremely reflective of his time in the Union Army. In the work he describes army tentage, cooking, bed rolls, etc., etc. Most of the work is fully applicable to Civil War living history.
Just to give a few examples: "Suggestions such as, "When the soldiers found their pantaloons were chafing them, they would tie their handkerchiefs around their pantaloons, over the place affected, thus preventing friction, and stopping the evil; but this is not advisable for a permanent preventive. A bandage of cotton or linen over the injured part will serve the purpose better." p. 44
Or on shelter tents: "Two men could button their pieces at the tops, and thus make a tent entirely open at both ends, five feet and two inches long, by six to seven feet wide according to the angle of the roof. A third man could button his piece across one of the open ends so as to close it, although it did not make a very neat fit, and half of the cloth was not used; four men could unite their two tents by buttoning the ends together, thus doubling the length of the tent; and a fifth man could put in an end-piece.
Light poles made in two pieces, and fastened together with ferrules so as to resemble a piece of fishing-rod, were given to some of the troops when the tents were first introduced into the army; but, nice as they were at the end of the march, few soldiers would carry them, nor will you many days." p.73
How to Camp Out apparently, was transcribed for the Gutenberg project and living historians were the main beneficiaries.
See here:
or: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17575
I hope this is useful to people.
Yours, etc.,
Matt White
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