The Irish Volunteer Official Newsletter of the 116th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Co. B VoL. X. - No. 1] PENNSYLVANIA, December, 1863 [SINGLE COPIES SIX CENTS Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1863, by Sullivan et-al in the Clerk's Office for the Far Western District of Pennsylvania December 2003 Joe and Holly Sullivan Editors ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ ADMINISTRATION IN THE FIELD Capt. Steve Stowell BEHIND THE DESK Chairman, Kevin Burton ON THE HOME FRONT Civilian Advocate, Lynette Stowell Official Web Site of 116 PVI http://www.116pvi.org ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ UPCOMING EVENTS AND MEETINGS Company Drill Saturday, January 10th, 2004 at 9 - 10:45 AM Aldrich Park, Salem See this newsletter for driving instructions. Board Meeting Saturday January 10th , 2004, 11AM at John Baker's office in Salem Company Drill Saturday, February 7th 2004 at 9 - 10:45 AM Aldrich Park, Salem Board Meeting Saturday February 7th , 2004, 11AM at John Baker's office in Salem For a full calendar of events visit our events web page at http://www.116pvi.org/Upcoming Events.htm COMPANY DRILL! Company Drill . This is the time that the soldiers get together to learn and practice those field maneuvers that can make the 116th the best looking unit on the field. Saturday, January 10th, 2004 at 9 - 10:45 AM Aldrich Park, Salem . The park has a flat ball field for marching and a small covered area if necessary. The park is located at the corner of 15th and Mill Street SE. (The board will meet at the Ned Baker Real Estate office 2339 State St from 11 am TILL ?) From I-5 take the HWY 22 Mission St. Proceed West on Mission. Turn right on 17th. Turn Left on Mill go two blocks. The park is on the left. From Dallas and points west come over the Salem Bridge(Center St) continue to 14th and turn right. Proceed south on 14th past State St and turn left on Mill. Go 1 block to the park on the right. From park go north on 15th to State St. Turn right and proceed to 2339 State St for the board meeting. ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ THE VOTE IS IN! *Restated 116th Articles of Incorporation passed. *The following positions were filled Captain - Steven Stowell 1st Sergeant - Kevin Burton 2nd Sergeant - Mark Stevens Corporal - David Baty Corporal - Michael Heggen Corporal - Thomas Sullivan Corporal - Eric Troxel FROM THE CIVILIAN ADVOCATE We had a great year and ended it with a fun time at the Christmas party. I have had to get out of my "comfort zone" being the civilian advocate and it has been a good year for me, hard at times but good. I like being your civilian advocate and will try to do a better job next year, and if I do too good of a job you might vote me in again, but we will think about that later. We had a great turn out for the Christmas party with plenty of food and ice cream, time for visiting, dancing and a gift exchange, a fun time was had by all. I am going to present to the NCWC board our idea about having a children's clothing exchange for everyone in the NCWC. Interested in helping? just let me know I want to thank you all for helping make this a better club, everything we do and go through we become stronger and better individually and corporately. Hope to see more of some of you next year so we can get better acquainted. Lynette Stowell Civilian Advocate ALBANY PARADE The was a good turnout for the Albany parade with a variety of reenactors participating in the event. The Color Guard took 3rd place this year. Congratulations! ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ 2004 CALENDAR Be sure to mark the following events on your 2004 calendar... January 10, 2004. Company Drill 9AM Board Meeting 11AM February 7, 2004. Company Drill 9AM Board Meeting 11AM March 6, 2004. Company Drill 9AM Board Meeting 11AM March 26-28. Winter Quarters at Camp Rilea. Training and Live Firing. Astoria April 3, 2004. Company Drill 9AM Board Meeting 11AM April 23-25, 2004 Estacada, Oregon, McIver Park. Battle Event May 31, 2004. Memorial Day at City View Cemetery in Salem. May 29, 2004. Starlight Parade, Portland Oregon. July 2-4 Weekend 2004. Brooks, Oregon, Willamette Mission. Battle Event September 4-6 Labor Day Weekend 2004, Hammond, Oregon, Fort Stevens. Battle Event September ? Fort Hoskins living history. October , 2004. Fresno, Kearney Park Living History. November 7, 2004. Veterans Day Parade, Eugene Oregon. November 11, 2004. Albany, Oregon. Veterans Day Parade. November 13, 2004 Portland, Oregon. NCWC Ball. Dance-non public. ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ SI KLEGG: HIS TRANSFORMATION FROM A RAW RECRUIT TO A VETERAN by John McElroy CHAPTER 6 DEATILES AS A COOK - SI FINDS RICE ANOTHER INNOCENT WITH A GREAT DEAL OF CUSSEDENESS IN IT. It would have been very strange, indeed, if Si Klegg had not grumbled loudly and frequently about the food that was dished up to him by the company cooks. In the first place, it was as natural for a boy to grumble at the "grub" as it was for him to try to shirk battalion drill or "run the guard." In the next place, the cooking done by the company bean-boiler deserved all the abuse it received, for as a rule the boys who sought places in the hash foundry did so because they were too lazy to drill or do guard duty, and their knowledge of cooking was about like that of the Irishman's of music: "Can you play the fiddle, Pat?" he was asked. "Oi don't know, sor-r-r-Oi niver tried." Si's mother, like most of the well-to-do farmers' wives in Indiana, was undoubtedly a good cook, and she trained up her daughters to do honor to her teachings, so that Si undoubtedly knew what properly-prepared food was. From the time he was big enough to spank he had fared sumptuously every day. In the gush of patriotic emotions that prompted him to enlist he scarcely thought of this feature of the case. If it entered his mind at all, he felt that he could safely trust all to the goodness of so beneficent a Government as that for the preservation of which he had offered himself as a target for the rebels to shoot at. He thought it no more than fair to the brave soldiers that Uncle Sam should furnish professional cooks for each company, who would serve everything up in the style of a first-class city restaurant. So, after Si got down among the boys and found how it really was, it was not long till his inside was a volcano of rebellion that threatened serious results. When, therefore, Si lifted up his voice and cried aloud, and spared not-when he said that he could get as good coffee as that furnished him by dipping his cup into a tan-vat; when he said that the meat was not good soap-grease, and that the potatoes and beans had not so much taste and nutrition in them as so much pine-shavings, he was probably nearer right than grumblers usually are. "Give it to 'em, Si," his comrades would say, when he turned up his loud bazoo on the rations question. "They ought to get it ten times worse. When we come out we expected that some of us would get shot by the rebels, but we didn't calculate that we were going to be poisoned in camp by a lot of dirty, lazy potwrastlers." One morning after roll-call the Orderly-Sergeant came up to Si and said: "There's been so much chin-music about this cooking-business that the Captain's ordered the cooks to go back to duty, and after this everybodyll have to take his regular turn at cooking. It'll be your turn to-day, and you'll stay in camp and get dinner." When Co. Q marched out for the forenoon drill, Si pulled off his blouse and set down on a convenient log to think out how he should go to work. Up to this time he had been quite certain that he knew all about cooking that it was worth while to know. Just now none of his knowledge seemed to be in usable shape, and the more he thought about it the less able he seemed to be to decide upon any way of beginning. It had always appeared very easy for his mother and sisters to get dinner, and on more than one occasion he had reminded them how much better times they had staying in the house cooking dinner than he had out in the harvest field keeping up with the reaper. At this moment he would rather have kept up with the fastest reaper in Posey County, on the hottest of July days, than to have cooked the coarse dinner which his 75 comrades expected to be ready for them when they returned, tired, hot and hungry, from the morning drill. He went back to the barracks and inspected the company larder. He found there the same old, coarse, greasy, strong, fat pork, a bushel or so of beans, a few withered potatoes, sugar, coffee, bread, and a box of rice which had been collected from the daily rations because none of the cooks knew how to manage it. The sight of the South Carolina staple recalled the delightful rice puddings his mother used to make. His heart grew buoyant. "Here's just the thing," he said. "I always was fond of rice, and I know the boys will be delighted with it for a change. I know I can cook it; for all that you've got to do is to put it in a pot with water and boil it till it is done. I've seen mother do that lots o' times. "Let's see," he said, pursuing his ruminations. "I think each boy can eat about a cupful, so I'll put one for each of 'em in the kettle." "There's one for Abner" he continued, pouring a cupful in for the first name on the company-roll; "one for Acklin, one for Adams, one for Barber, one for Brooks," and so on down through the whole well-known list. "It fills the old kettle tol'bly full," he remarked, as he scanned the utensil after depositing the contribution for Williams, the last name on the roll; "but I guess she'll stand it. I've heard mother tell the girls that they must always keep the rice covered with water, and stir it well, so that it wouldn't burn; so here goes. Won't the boys be astonished when they have a nice mess of rice, as a change from that rusty old side-meat !" He hung the kettle on the fire and stepped out to the edge of the parade-ground to watch the boys drilling. It was the first time he had had the sensation of pleasure of seeing them at this without taking part in it himself. and he began to think that he would not mind if he had to cook most of the time. He suddenly remembered about his rice and hurried back to find it boiling, bulging over the top like a small snowdrift. "I was afraid that kettle was a little too full," he said to himself, hurrying off for another campkettle, in which he put about a third of the contents of the first. "Now they're all right. And it'll cook better and quicker in two than one. Great Scott! what's the matter? They're both boiling over. There must be something wrong with that rice." Pretty soon he had all the company kettles employed, and then all that he could borrow from the other companies. But dip out as much as he would there seemed no abatement in the upheaving of the snowy cereal, and the kettles continued to foam over like so many huge glasses of soda water. He rushed to his bunk and got his gum blanket and heaped upon it a pile as big as a small haycock, but the mass in the kettle seemed larger than it was before this was subtracted. He sweat and dipped; and dipped and sweat; burned his hands into blisters with the hot rice and hotter kettles, kicked over one of the largest kettles in one of his spasmodic rushes to save a portion of the food that was boiling over, and sent its white contents streaming over the ground. His misery came to a climax as he heard the quick step of his hungry comrades returning from drill. "Right face; Arms a-port; Break ranks-March !" commanded the Orderly-Sergeant, and there was a clatter of tin cups and plates as they came rushing toward him to get their dinner-something to stay their ravenous stomachs. There was a clamor of rage, ridicule, wrath and disappointment as they took in the scene. "What's the matter here ?" demanded the Captain, striding back to the company fire. "You young rascal, is this the way you get dinner for your comrades? Is this the way you attend to the duty for which you're detailed? Waste rations in some fool experiment and scatter good food all over the ground? Biler, put on your arms and take Klegg to the guard-house. I'll make you pay for this nonsense, sir, in a way that you won't forget in a hurry, I'll be bound." So poor Si was marched to the guard-house, where he had to stay for 24 hours, as a punishment for not knowing, until he found out by this experience, that rice would "swell." The Captain wouldn't let him have anything to eat except that scorched and half-cooked stuff cut of the kettles, and Si thought he never wanted to see any more rice as long as he lived. In the evening one of the boys took Si's blanket to him, thinking he would want it to sleep in. "I tell ye, pard, this is purty derned tough !" said Si as he wiped a tear out of the southwest corner of his left eye with the sleeve of his blouse. "I think the Cap'n's hard on a feller who didn't mean to do nothin'wrong !" And Si looked as if he had lost all his interest in the old flag, and didn't care a pinch of his burnt rice what became of the Union. His comrade "allowed" that it was hard, but supposed they had got to get used to such things. He said he heard the Captain say he would let Si out the next day. ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ "Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored." -- A. Lincoln, January 27, 1838 - Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ CLASSIFIEDS Place your classified ads here, free to members ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION This is your newsletter and all are encouraged to submit articles to it. All announcements, advertisements, letters to the editor, and articles must be received by the 19th of the month to make the next newsletter. Make submissions to: Editor 24465 Gellatly Way Philomath, Oregon, 97370 Or email: mailto:editor@116pvi.org Christmas Party Photos For more Christmas party photographs take go to the 116th web page at http://www.116pvi.org/ and click on the "Photo Album" tab. The Irish Volunteer Joe and Holly Sullivan, Editors 24465 Gellatly Way Philomath, OR, 97370 1