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All,
I had a great time at the event. I was happy to finally attend an event with the ONV, as I've been a member since after Piney Woods. I especially wanted to repay the favor of all the work Tom Klas in getting together a progressive company as an adjunct to the 24th Michigan living history at Gettysburg last year, which I couldn't be part of, as I was the Captain of the 24th. The event site was great, I really enjoyed the mix of fields, dense woods, clear woods, streams, a river, and hills to work with. I feel far too many campaigner events are bound into the woods for the entire event. Sometimes that's very appropriate, such as Piney Woods last year. I know many of the times it is not appropriate, it is because of having to make do with the sites we can get. This place was beautiful though, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I had the honor of serving as the 5th Sgt in the Federal company there and stayed very busy all weekend, as the commissary sgt for the company, as sgt of the guard, and in running the advance for the federal force for most of the weekend. I was foot sore when it ended, but glad for a lot of new experiences. I traveled out to the event from Detroit with my friends from the Sally Port Mess, Tom Steele, Sean Collicott, and Jeremy Bevard. We stopped Thursday night in Madison, WI and spent the next morning and early afternoon, visiting the Veteran's Museum, the State Museum, and walking State St. I saw some items that made my mouth water there, most particularly the Iron Brigade presentation flag made by Tiffany and Co. As a reenactor from a unit that does the Iron Brigade, it was very special to see that flag in person and in such beautiful condition. We got to the site about 3pm and enjoyed the mid afternoon greeting our comrades as they arrived. It was nice to meet new people, meet some people I'd only known through the forum, and see old friends. We got dressed around 6pm and started getting the company in order. After we formed the company and distributed supplies, my 1st section moved off as the advance in the dark night, following the cavalry with the guide. After a while, we were told to halt our advance because someone in the column had hurt his ankle, however, the cavalry continued to ride on and we lost track of them for a while. Once the column resumed the march, we shortly came to a fork, but there was no cavalry there, so we took our best guess as to which way to go. However, after a short time we realized our mistake and backtracked and took the other fork and found our cav again. We continued on the trail to the campsite and put out 1st section as pickets just before the confederate cav attacked us. It was very fortunate that our entire company was still under arms and formed, for we easily drove them off and for the rest of the night, watched them annoy us for a while before they got tired and went away.
Saturday, 1st section was again in the advance and tangled with the confederate horse on and off over several miles through woods and fields for the next two hours. We kept pushing them hard, and drove them back any time they showed themselves, but after 1.5-2 hours of this, I had to left Terry know that my men were beat, though it worked out that this was about the time that the reb cav fell back to the river, as we only saw them once more before getting there. Terry sent Hollar out with a section as the advance until we reached the river. Taking a bath in the river was a truly wonderful experience for many reasons. First of all, the water was wonderful. It was like taking a dip in Lake Superior, and I loved every minute of it. Today, while I was watching the Ken Burns civil war documentary, I saw the beginning of episode six start with a picture of a dozen men swimming in the river. It was a wonderful period moment, and it was great that everyone stayed in first person during it. Even the Wolverines shouting every time another man got in is the kind of kidding around and closeness you would expect from soldiers.
After the river, we set out and moved out across another creek, where we got left by our scout and had to find our way to the mountain. The rebs apparently weren't ready, though they felt that throwing large rocks at us was a safe and appropriate exercise. I especially loved the one that bounced down the hill and nearly took out my left leg. Since the rebs couldn't move the cannon up the hill in time, after we stormed up the gap, we found out that we had to go back down the mountain and do it again, which certainly led to a breaking of first person by some, most especially when we were at the watering hole and had rebs coming down and filling up there too. We went back to the creek and waited for the rebs to finally get set, then moved off around 4 for the assault. 1st section moved out again as the advance and pushed hard up the gap. I remember everyone moving like lapping waves up the hill, firing as they moved forward, hiding to load, and finding the best ground to move forward. Jeremy Bevard ended up next to me and we were one of the first right up among the reb gun crew. It was a blast getting to turn and fire the cannon. I didn't know until Fred Baker posted it here that some of the Union men had been trained specifically for this. I saw Scott Gutzke was the gunner (and I know he is/was in Battery B, 4th US), so I figured we were alright to jump on where ever. Ironically, I'm in the middle of reading French, Barry, and Hunt right now, so I jumped on the number 1 man position. We loaded and fired 2 rounds up the hill, which was an amazing experience. After the assault, I interviewed the prisoners for the captain and escorting Jason to get checked out at Mrs Crabb's and then joined my platoon out on the picket line before being relieved by Hollar and 2nd platoon. We set up camp down by Mrs. Crabb's, who had the most wonderful meat pie. I could have ordered another 2 pieces of that delicious pie, but sadly I could only get one piece before it ran out. I ended up bedding down for the night with Jeremy Bevard, with whom I tried my new mosquito netting, which worked wonderfully. I had a great period conversation with Terry Sorchy and another man, who I cannot now remember (my apologies) for over an hour before bedding down for the night. Unfortunately, the rains came, and after trying to make do with my shelter half curled up with Jeremy, we decided to head down to the tunnel that everyone else from the platoon, save Tom and Sean, had already gone to.
Sadly, in the morning many of the federals had already bugged out by first light, without so much as a word. I know that some of the men from my section (I think they were with Mess Number 1) didn't let me know before they left before dawn. Terry, Eric Fair, Hollar, and Jeremy all talked amongst themselves and decided to pull out the rest of the company, since we all thought the rebs had pulled out too in the night. The Hair Nation Boys, Sally Ports, Terry and I were the last Feds to make the way down the hill to Happy Barn. All things considered, it was a great event, though Saturday evening I heard some laxness in first person from some in the federal camp. Leaving early Sunday was a let down, especially since the rebs were still ready for us, but I did appreciate getting home earlier since I had to catch a flight back to NAS Pensacola the next day. I want to thank the Officers and other NCO's of the company for doing a great job, the fed cav for doing an excellent job with their limited numbers of scouting out the enemy and working with us on the advance, and the event organizers for finding and utilizing that great site.
Andrew Roscoe,
24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry
Old Northwest Volunteers
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