I just wanted to thank everyone who helped in putting this event on. I had wonderful experiences that will last as memories for many years. Many thanks go out to Steve, Tom, Andy, and Brian for helping us better understand what happened to the 6th WI and Battery B at Antietam. The march we did following the footsteps Saturday night was amazing. It was good to see everybody again.

Ryan Protz
ONV

My personal thanks to the ONV and Steve, Tom, and Andy for a wonderful time. I will send the photo of the westerners in front of Dunker Church soon.
This event meant alot to me to do Chandlers again and the 6th Wis. We became a pretty sharp company. Our mess all said they liked every aspect of the LH.
On behalf of Ron, Shawn, Zach and pojohn thanks too

Bill
Salt Boilers mess/122nd NY

I enjoyed the event as well, and it was good to see everyone again. I always enjoy the events where we get to be on the original ground, and we really learn about what happened there.

Thanks to Tom and Steve for all their work, I'm sure we'll hear from them when they get home. Thanks to Jerry Stiles for making things work out for the CS side of the event.

AGAIN, just a big THANK YOU to Tom, Andy, Jason and especially Steve to let us all have this special experience.

Weed:)


ps. I have the picture of us by the Dunker Church up on my web site already


www.cwquartermaster.com

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who particpated and helped make the Antietam event possible. Without your particpation and help I would have been sitting out there by myself yelling Toot Toot at passing cars.


Steve Acker

Hi comrades,

Thank you to all that supported our event and helped us to tell the story of the 6th Wisconsin at Antietam. I think we did our best to honor the brave men that we attempted to portray this weekend with everyone's efforts to make it happen.

To those whom helped to shed light on some fine Badgers that tried to uphold the honor of the West, my humble thanks.

Take care,

Tom

Just wanted to say that I had a great time this last weekend and looking forward to doing an event like this again. Great place to be at and great company on top of it. Thank you to everybody that made it what it was and my hat goes off to the organizers of the event for all the hard work they put into it.

Brian Staples

Pards and comrades,

Great event. Thanks for a one of a kind experience. It is not often that you get to do that kind of event. My hiighlights are as follows and in no particular order.

1. Great tour on Sat. night
2. learning and perfecting chandlers.
3. Good Fir per moments on sat. afternoon.
4. waking up to the haze looking over the battlefield
5. Good talks with pards by the moom light
6. Seeing T try Don's pop skull
7. having my food sabotaged
8. Toot toot
9. Apples
10. Church on Sunday


RM

It will be hard to beat this living history experience. I can only repeat the thanks to all that made this possible. The entire weekend was outstanding with many, many memories: Rod's service in the Dunkard Church, the Saturday evening tracking of the route of the 6th on the actual ground, Steve surprising all with the apples at the Miller Farm orchard site, the heavy ground fog on Saturday morning, and just the overall comradeship.

I trust that it is noteworthy that the Park Service made a point of asking if we will be back next year. I am not sure if it was said to be polite or if that is indeed there feeling. It certainly would be tempting to go back, but the conversation about Gettysburg was also very interesting

Again thanks to all, and I enjoyed being there with everyone

Dan Barker

Hi comrades,

Now that I have some more time to prepare for a proper thank you, I will try my best to cover all that I can.

I know each will have their favorite moment of the event but for myself the 6th Wisconsin march covering the actual ground while reading docents was worth going to the event alone and seeing my comrades faces in the moment. Steve and I hoped the apples in David Miller's Orchard would be a fine treat and living history experience as well. Thank you to Steve, Andy, and Brian for helping with the march and docents. As I told many of my comrades, it dose not get much better than this and will certainly go down as one of my high points in the hobby for sure.

A Grand Thank you to Steve for all his work on this event. Thanks comrade for all the work behind the scenes that goes along with putting on a quality event. Whether it was getting the pork shanks, logistics, working with the NPS, and some many other tasks, I think the calico boys would be proud of us. My friend I would work again with you on an event any time.

Many thanks are due to my mess mates in the Hard Heads that have supported our efforts over the past two years to bring this event from a concept to a reality. We hoped to bring alive the Sixth Wisconsin to the public and our chums desiring an accurate representation of a unit that had a grand story to tell at Antietam. My only drawback was that Lance could not be there in person to enjoy the moment to see his beloved Sixth Wisconsin be represented at Antietam. Hopefully in the future we can bring an accurate impression of the Iron Brigade of the West on the actual ground for our comrade to be a part with us. Stay tuned for a possible carpe eventum Gettysburg NPS LH next August representing the Second Wisconsin.

I also want to thank Lt. Ackeret and NCO's - Jason Reinholz, Dave Gerow, Ivan Ingraham, Rod Miller, Don Barnett, Rich Propp, and Dan Barker whom in many cases studied a manual which was a new challenge to them. Excellent job for everyone coming together and getting Chandler's School of the Soldier down well. Also well done on forming the company with Chandler’s and our firings. The NPS was very happy with our compliance with their procedures with misfires and Steve and I were complimented by them for your attendtion to detail. Many thanks again for allowing me to have the honor of leading the company. I hope I lived up to your expectation for the event and I was very proud to lead the company.

Above all thanks to those that supported our event and made it happen. The ONV, Southern Guard, and the Salt Boiler Mess/122nd New York were great to work with. Also many thanks to Jerry Stiles and the Stonewall Brigade for being a wonderful group to work with and share in the experience. Thank you all for your dedication to doing it right!

I will leave with a brief docent from Major Rufus Dawes of the Sixth Wisconsin in a letter he wrote a day after the conflict:

In Line of Battle, Near Sharpsburg, Maryland, September 18th, 1862
(Letter from Rufus Dawes)

"My Dear Mother: I have come safely through two more terrible engagements with the enemy, that at South Mountain and the great battle of yesterday. Our splendid regiment is almost destroyed. We have had nearly four hundred men killed and wounded in the battles. Seven of our officers were shot and three killed in yesterday’s battle and nearly one hundred and fifty men killed and wounded. All from less than three hundred engaged. The men have stood like iron. We are now under General Joseph Hooker. Lieut. Colonel Bragg was wounded yesterday and I commanded the regiment during most of the battle. The battle may be renewed at any time."

Yours in the Anderson Guards of Company "I" Sixth Wisconsin Vols.,

Tom

Great Event had by all.


What else can be said? Was it worth it? You bet. I put a new gallery of photos from Antietam with the Help of Dave F. Most were shot by Steve, myself or Bill O'Dea. See you all at Old World. Go Little Mac.

Jason Reinholz

With the money raised above the cost of rations and the stripper for myself and the command staff it looks like we'll be able to donate $200 to Antietam (basically a return of the money they provide for us) and a little over $200 to the CWPT for the purchase of new battlefield properties.

Thanks again for supporting an event and supporting preservation.

Steve Acker