Wilderness NPS LH AARs

[Charles Heath]

I had fun, how about you? :D

(Should have trademarked that line.)

[NoahBriggs]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

Was I a surgeon, or a traffic cop? Folks must have gotten the two confused, and wearing a blue uniform and sounding like I knew what I was talking about did not help. I spent more time trying to stammer out coherent directions to the Brock Road presentation while nursing a splitting caffeine headache on Saturday. At least one tourist asked me if I was the "Doc", to which I explained if he really wanted to see a dock he ought to go to the Navy yard. Man, that nickname gets old.

I am certain the Brock Road tourists got to see an accurate stressed out surgeon trying to triage patients. At the same time I was having to weed out the chain-smoking Irish Brigade fan who pestered us with all sorts of irrelevant information. Well, maybe not totally irrelevant, but his timing stank. The tour groups were coming down the path and I needed him to go. The dude was a boomerang. Red shirt, frayed bag, and lots of cigs. You can't miss it.

Even with the modern talk sprinkled like had grenades all over the woods I had a period moment - trying to write out paperwork, sitting in the rain, rubber blanket thrown over my head, tired, cold, longing for my wife and a warm bed, REAL hungry. In that order, might I add. More to add to my "no s***, that's what it feels like, out in the field." monologue should anyone question whether or not I "walked the walk".

I regret I had to bow out Saturday evening due to a minor family emergency. It's taken care of now.

Oh, yes, I had fun, and I hope Todd Bemis (my hapless steward for the weekend) got an earful of information.

[justthemiller]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

I had fun, how about you? :D

(Should have trademarked that line.)

Charles,

I am glad that you enjoyed yourself at an event put on by the Southern Guard Living History Assoc. They, along with folks from the Stonewall Brigade, ONV & CR's helped in making this event a success. However, I feel that Jeff Johannes derserves the lion-share of credit for making this event work. He, along with some others, busted hump to get this shin-dig together. {Edited MJC}

[Yellowhammer]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

{Edited MJC}

Charles,

It was nice to see you this weekend. It's been a long time.

Everyone else,

This was a great event and a good time was had by all. It was really nice to come out of semi-retirement and work with such a good group of guys. Columbia Rifles, Southern Guard, Stonewall Brigade, Old Northwest Volunteers, and other groups all worked together to have a great event. I am honored I was allowed to serve as Captain for such a fantastic group of living historians.

Cheers,

John Stillwagon

[DougCooper]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

I echo what John said - heck, wish I had had someone film the tactical demos as John lead this outstanding company through manuevers on the actual ground on the actual day it all happened 143 years ago. It was neat to have a 55 man company, all the Sgt's, real size platoons, great bugler and musicians, medical and great guys from all over (including at least California, Wisconsin, New York, Michigan, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, Idaho, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Massachusetts.)

Personally, I gained even more respect for those brave men trying to fight a battle in impossible conditions. We marched over about 90% of the battlefield and the only damper was the rain - lots of it, but, as Charles said, beats 90 deg and high humidity. At one point the company had to push through a stand of briars and creepers and small tree growth that matched what was there in 1864. It was tough - cannot imagine doing it for miles on end with bullets flying about during a forest fire.

It all came together for this one and it was privilege to be there. Thanks to Jeff Johannes for pulling it together. Thanks to CWPT and Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield for giving us all a reason to celebrate and come together on those fields. Hwy 20 remains a two lane road and the living history community has made some more good friends with the good (and overworked) folks at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP.

[Andy Ackeret]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

Many thanks to Jeff, and to everyone else who helped make this a memorable event. The memories of the saturday evening tours and vignettes and the field music will stick with me for a long time.

[TKlas]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

Hi gents,

I had a great time at this one and it was my first time to step on the Wilderness Battlefield which was a big deal. I really enjoyed the various stops on the battlefield, Jeff's history lesson at each along with Doug Cooper's, and time at Ellwood learning about the Lacy House. My thanks to the Southern Guard for a rewarding time, especially Jeff Johannes whom did a lot and it showed in the event results. Also it was fun to serve under Stillwagon once again and good to see some familiar faces and new ones.

It sounds like the event went very well for the park and was enjoyable for the visitors as well. Hopefully we can do this at the Spotsylvania NBP some day as well. Too all involved my compliments on an enjoyable weekend.

[RangerSWB]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

I thought this was one outstanding event! First time wearing blue but it won't be my last. I especially enjoyed the long blue line snaking through the woods Saturday morning along the entrenchments and lunettes while a Wood Thrush was singing Taps in the nearby woods, the skirmish lines advancing over same ground at Higgerson Farm, the Brock Road scenarios, and meeting a lot of new folks.

You Yanks ain't a bad lot at all!...Old Blue Light may have been lyin' a little.

A big Huzzah to Jeff and the other folks involved in this weekend. Well done!

Thanks.

George Walters "Ranger"
Co. D, 27th VA
Stonewall Brigade

[billwatson]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

George,

Was the thumbnail photo accompanying your Wilderness post from the event?

Thanks!

Bill Watson

[RangerSWB]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

Bill,

Yes it was. Here are a few more.

George "Ranger" Walters
Co. D, 27th VA
Stonewall Brigade

[BillO'Dea]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

Here are some more pictures. I thought they were some of the best demos ive ever been a part of. I'd wander the woods with Jeff any day.
Bill O'Dea
http://rugglesrag.com/wilderness.htm

[Johannes]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

Boys,
For those who attended the event last weekend, thank you all again for coming out the past weekend. I sent out an email with a detailed thank you to everyone who made it out.

Bill - thanks for those pic's! Great shots!! I will be posting some more pictures on the forums in the next few days.

I will also be letting you all know how much we donated to CWPT. Again, we are going to request that this money go toward Wilderness Battlefield preservation.

Thanks again,
Jeff

[justin hammond]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

George,
Nice pictures, I really like the ones with me in them. :D
Justin Hammond "Hammbone"

[Charles Heath]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

Charles,

It was nice to see you this weekend. It's been a long time.

John,

It was nice to see you, too. I guess the last time we were at an event together was late last July at Jeff Hayes' enjoyable Old Bedford Village effort, and the time before that was perhaps Payne's Farm. I can tell "semi-retirement" has been good to you. :wink_smil

While Chris Piering has penned a fine AAR for the Columbia Rifles' newsletter and the details of the weekend are best said in that periodical, as the President of the Columbia Rifles, I have to take a moment or two to publicly compliment Jeff Johannes on a job well done not as a knee jerk reaction, but as a true compliment. I understand Jeff is also an SGLHA member in addition to being a member of the CR, and both groups generally use a somewhat similar design template for battlefield living histories. The event organizer had but one goal, and that was to "honor the men," and there is little doubt that goal was achieved.

On the CR listserver, and in private emails, Jeff extended offers to attend the event after registration had closed, and I'm really glad a number of us accepted, attended, and enjoyed the time there at Ellwood, the Vermont monument, fair Parmelia Higgerston's homeplace, and elsewhere. It was good to see participation from a cross section of members of the Potomac Legion, to include the northern "half" of the water supply team courtesy of the Living History Guild, the SWB, and the fellows from the ONV, who were none the worse for eating my cooking just weeks before at Jim Butler's Shiloh NPS LH. The maxim "you see the same faces at quality events all over the country" really applies.

As you know, this NPS LH was originally designed for Spotsylvania, and a after real world capital improvement project (major road reconstruction) was scheduled to shut down access to much of the park for an extended period of time, the event shifted to the Battle of Chancellorsville, and finally the Battle of the Wilderness to coincide with the Friends of the Wilderness' anniversary weekend. In spite of all of the changes and permutations during the precdeding 18 months, it went very well.

Speaking of very well, IMHO these aspects are worth mentioning:

- The moment of silence at the Vermont monument. Spontaneous. Unscripted. Genuine. Heartfelt. It doesn't get much better than that.

- Seeing some of the SWB fellows in blue looking over the marker for Ol' Blue Light's amputated arm. (Ranger, the indigo dye in that jacket should have washed off by now, if not, try some Orvus.)

- Seeing the lunettes along the trail. Unlike the ones over at Fairview, these don't receive a heck of a lot of visitation.

- Feeding spoonfuls of Essence of Coffee straight from the tin to a number of select caffiene addicts in the drizzling rain. Cured that headache right up, didn't it? The faces you guys made were priceless.

- The laid back nature of the event gave us time to relax and enjoy the surroundings, as we were neither as if on a fast freight train timetable, nor generating enough activity for a three ring circus. That was a relaxing change from events that have tried to load seven pounds of sugar into a five pound bag.

- Returning the emphasis to public interpretation, as opposed to what we can do for ourselves was refreshing. In spite of the fact we had good wool weather (damp, cloudy, cool) on Saturday the site had a good amount of visitation.

- The CRs had a Chancellorsville-Wilderness NPS LH in 2004, and while portions of the event traced some of the same steps in The Wilderness (it's hard not to do so), this event was substantially different --- and this time around no one asked us to perform the "Charge of the Texans" in blue!

- Soup Bone's "Cleopatra" impression by the fire Friday night. Well, you had to be there....

- Snoozing with the boys in that little barn to avoid the rain. It was dry. The floorboards were level and comfortable. It was also a virtual wind tunnel early Sunday morning, too!

- Last but not least was a large company instead of breaking 60 or so men into a demi-battalion, or some laughable "brigade" structure. That's a dang fine size company, and it was a bit of a challenge for both officers and NCOs to manage it properly -- making the event more enjoyable for all.

While it appears we already have a conflict on the calendar with the dates for the 2008 Chancellorsville NPS LH in the form of our own COI at Fort Ontario, I do look forward to the 2009 Spotsylvania NPS LH. I hope the high level of interest and widespread enthusiasm that was evident during the planning stages for Spotsylvania in 2006 will be revived, and the event will have another good showing from living history enthusiasts nationwide.

Back to our regularly scheduled bickering already in progress.... :p

[BillO'Dea]

Re: Wilderness NPS LH AARs

Something that would interest Charles and others who attended Into the Wilderness, Chris Piering has just placed the new flag pole in Oakwood cemetery, (to the left rear of the sentinel bronze) and soon will have an interpretive sign of the type the NPS uses to tell the story of section 56 using the 1904 photo.
Regards.
Bill O'Dea
Salt Boilers mess

The Sentinel rededication