The Irish Volunteer Official Newsletter of the 116th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Co. B VoL. X. - No. 1] PENNSYLVANIA, August, 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 August 2004 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 September 4-6, Labor Day Weekend, Hammond Oregon, Fort Stevens, Battle event. For more information please visit our web page at http://www.116pvi.org/ and follow the events link. September 18, 2004. Fort Hoskins Living History. Hoskins Oregon. September 25-26, Fresno Kearney Park. Battle event. For a full calendar of events visit our events web page at http://www.116pvi.org/Upcoming Events.htm Fort Stevens Our last and largest Oregon Battle event for the year will be at Fort Stevens on September 25th -27th, Labor Day weekend. There will be two battles on Saturday, two on Sunday and one on Monday. This weekend the weatherman is predicting partly cloudy days with highs around 71( and lows around 56(. For more information check out NCWC's website at http://nwcwc.org/ft.htm . ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ Fort Hoskins Living History Please plan on spending Saturday, September 18, 2004 at Fort Hoskins. Dr. Brauner has scheduled a public open house for Archeology Month and has asked for a living history presence. This will be a great opportunity for socializing and maybe for some drill! We need to be set up by 9-9:30 am. Dr. Brauner will be giving a talk starting at 10:00 AM and the rest of the day is set aside for the 4th California. (That's us!) ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ Fresno Kearney Park Event September 25-26. They say that this is the largest battle event this side of the Mississippi. Every year a group from the 116th goes down to California and has a great time. PHIL SHERIDAN AT HOSKINS RECALLED CORVALLIS GAZETTE TIMES MARCH 27, 1933 Two Oregon incidents, General Phil Sheridan never forgot. One was a romance, the other was horse racing with James Plunkett who was Sheridan's bass drummer at Fort Hoskins in 1856. At this time Sheridan and Plunkett were frequent visitors at the home of Lucius Norton whose beautiful daughter, Ashnah, later Mrs. James Plunkett, prepared many a delicious meal. And it is said that the young lieutenant frequently danced with the charming daughter of Lucius Norton. Although Plunkett won the bride, he and Sheridan remained the best of cronies. While Lieutenant Sheridan was stationed at Fort Hoskins, James Plunkett kept time with a bass drum to the martial strains of John C. Loutsenhiser's fife and the tenor drum of Charles A. Frank; and old-timers tell us that the fire of musketry and the roar of cannon frequently gave dramatic effect to Phil Sheridan's drum corps. It was the best out-door music that King's Valley had heard up to that time. The Frank- Loutsenhiser-Plunkett drum corps also played for a reunion at Newport in 1890. Again they played at the McKinley rally in 1898 with their headquarters at the old Occidental hotel in Corvallis. Drum in Museum Plunkett's bass drum, which is in the Oregon State college muse um, was a curiosity. It was really two drums made into one. This is how it happened. The regular bass drum of the troopers was destroyed in moving some effects from Dayton, Oregon, to Fort Hoskins. Sheridan thereupon gave two snare drums to the drum corps. The drums were glued together to make the bass drum, which support. a double coat of arms. Frank and Loutsenhiser were the mechanics that fashioned the historic drum, which is a vivid reminder of old times to many a pioneer who visits the college museum. Besides enjoyment of the military drum corps there were many matters of interest occurring at Fort Hoskins at that time. Beer From Corvallis Sheridan got most of his grain and flour for Fort Hoskins at Rowland Chambers' grist mill which still stands in King's Valley. He bought hay, butter, eggs and beef from the farmers, there being scarcely any other market for this produce. Beer, transported from Corvallis, was retailed at a saloon just off the reserve at Hoskins. Groceries were purchased at Dayton and Corvallis, and hauled by six-mule teams - the drivers usually. being Charles Day, David Thompson and James Plunkett. Mrs. Plunkett is authority for the statement that some men at Fort Hoskins who became incensed at the saloon-keeper, put him in the saloon, locked, the doors and set the building on fire. Some one who came along put out the fire before the building had burned down. So, it will be seen, that the troops at Fort Hoskins had entertainment other than placing Indians under guard. Soldiers Are Named Indians along the Luckiamute were making threatening demonstrations , where upon the volunteers sent all of them to the Siltez reservation. There was, however, an Indian woman by the name of Shay, whom the soldiers did not send to the Siletz reservation. Their reason for the exception was that when some of the soldiers had been stationed on the Rogue river, the Indians poisoned the soldiers spring. The Indian woman reported the matter to the soldiers who brought her to Fort Hoskins, where she drew a soldier's rations for several years. Later they allowed her to come into the mess house after the. soldiers ate. In this way she was sustained until her death when she was buried with funeral rites at Fort Hoskins. Among the soldiers stationed at Fort Hoskins, whose names are familiar to Bentonites and who marched to the drum beat of James Plunkett were William Dunn, Captain Roy Bensill, Charles H. Frank, John C. Leutsenhiser, Josiah S. Copeland, Thomas S. Espy, Samuel Case, John McDowell and Isaac Norton. Readers of the foregoing are reminded that the college museum where the historic drum may be seen will be open to visitors from 2 to 4 p. m. every day beginning April 1. ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ Reverse Arms and Rest On Arms: For Lost Comrades and Criminals by Mark Stevens and Mike Heggen Reverse Arms and Rest On Arms: For Lost Comrades and Criminals by Mark Stevens and Mike Heggen The custom of reversing arms at military funerals is centuries old, perhaps going back to the Greeks. We reenactors rarely hear these commands. Yet, with all of the death (and disgrace) present in military camps during the American Civil War, these were commands that the common soldier in the Army of the Potomac quickly became familiar with (unfortunately). There is ample evidence that, while funeral protocol may have varied slightly depending on the circumstances and the interpretation of the U.S. Army regulations, serious efforts were made to follow protocol whenever possible. There is, after all, no institution that is more filled with tradition than the military - especially Victorian-era militaries such as the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. Revised Regulations for the Army of the United States 1861 Funeral Honors. 290. The escort will be formed in two ranks, opposite to the quarters of tent of the deceased, with shouldered arms and bayonets unfixed.... 291....The arms will be reversed at the order by bringing down the firelock under the left arm, butt to the front, barrel downward, left hand sustaining the lock, the right hand steadying the firelock behind the back, swords are reversed in a like manner under the right arm. 292. The column will be marched in slow time to solemn music, and, on reaching the grave, will take a direction so that the guides shall be next to the grave.... And when the coffin reaches the grave, he adds, 1. Shoulder - ARMS! 2 Rest on - ARMS! The rest on arms is done by placing the muzzle on the left foot, both hands on the butt, the head on the hands or bowed, right knee bent. So, the above three excerpts explain the use of Reverse Arms and Rest On Arms for lost comrades, but what, the reader may ask, about criminals? The regulations spell out Reverse Arms (without bayonet) for displaying honor at funerals. But, military tradition and culture requires its use for a totally different purpose. When soldiers committed more serious and disgraceful crimes, the guards escorting the disgraced soldier out of camp used Reverse Arms (with bayonets fixed) to ritually humiliate the offender. Many cultures utilize forms of punishment that make the offender "as if dead" to the rest of the community (such as the shunning used by some branches of the Amish). The U.S. Army in the 1860s would show its deep disappointment and shame in convicts by walking the dead (to the army) out of the camaraderie, trust and support of his former comrades-in-arms - including using a modified form of Reverse Arms to reinforce the connection with death and separation. Many, many first-person accounts of life in the Army of the Potomac describe such shaming. So, soldiers of the 116th, if you hear the order "Reverse - ARMS!" or "Rest on - ARMS!"; what do you do? In the event of a scenario (or, God forbid, an actual funeral), the last thing one would want to do is fumble through the commands. Surely the U.S. Army would explain this in Tactics, or Hardee's, or somewhere, right? Interestingly enough, for two such important ceremonial arms positions, there is no reference in any of the army regulations or drill manuals on how to perform Reverse Arms or Rest On Arms. In an article published in the Winter 2004 issue of The Watchdog, an excellent quarterly publication by and for serious Civil War reenactors, three techniques were found in period sources. After several sessions testing these, we offer the following techniques for the 116th, as outlined by Colonel G.M. Baker of the 74th Regiment of the State of New York: Reverse - ARMS!One time and three motions (From Shoulder Arms) (First motion) Seize the piece with the left hand at the middle band, and detach it slightly from the shoulder. (Note: We found that grasping the piece with the thumb down and the palm to the front to be important to maintaining good body position.) (Second motion) Carry the piece vertically opposite and outside the left shoulder, the left forearm against the inner side of the stock and close to the body, the rammer to the front, the right hand grasping the small of the stock. (Third motion) Reverse the piece by dropping the muzzle to the rear, butt to the front, barrel downward, at the same time seizing the piece at the lock with the left hand, and carry the right [hand] in rear of the body and grasp the piece between the two bands, the right forearm resting against the hollow of the back. Now, to get you back to square one.... Shoulder - ARMS! One time and three motions (First motion) Change the position of the hands, the right hand seizing the small of the stock, the left hand grasping the piece in rear of the body, near the middle band; bring the piece to the front with both hands, opposite the left shoulder, the piece vertical, and near the shoulder. (Second motion) Carry the piece to the right shoulder and place it in position of shoulder arms, the right hand embracing the guard. (Third motion) Drop the left hand quickly by the side. In experimentation, we found this technique to work well both with and without the bayonet fixed. Rest on - ARMS! One time and two motions (From Shoulder Arms) (First motion) Detach the piece slightly from the shoulder with the right hand, and seize it with the left hand reversed at the middle band, the palm of the hand to the front. (Note: Just as with Reverse Arms, we found thumb down and palm to the front to be important to maintaining good body position.) (Second motion) Turn the piece with both hands, and rest the muzzle on the left foot, the rammer to the front, both hands on the butt, the left hand uppermost, the head on the hands or bowed, the right knee bent. (Note: Emphasis added. Taller soldiers will need to simply bow their heads, as resting the head on the hands will require them to distort the position of their body in an ungainly manner.) It should also be reiterated that soldiers "uncovering" their heads while at prayer or as a mark of respect appears to be a modernism. Military custom at the time dictated that if soldiers were under arms and outdoors, they were to retain their head covering regardless. As a side note, there are many cultures that require that the head be covered at prayer (Orthodox Judaism being one of them). Cultural practices do change: only sixty years ago it was almost unheard of for men (especially well-dressed men) to be seen in public without a cap or hat. Now, to get you back to square one.... "Shoulder - ARMS!" One time and two motions (First motion) Drop the left hand, and seize the piece to the full extent of the arm, the palm of the hand to the left and front, with both hands bring the piece to the right shoulder, the right hand embracing the guard, the left hand at the height of the shoulder. (Second motion) Drop quickly the left hand by the side. These maneuvers take practice, but with practice, they will look smart and military. All soldiers in the 116th should be familiar with them so that when we are called upon to use them, we can do so with confidence and crispness. For a more detailed look at military funeral practices, the reader is directed to: · Revised Regulations for the Army of the United States 1861, pp. 43-45. Available in modern reprints or online at: http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=AGY4285 · The 6th Arkansas Volunteer Infantry's web page on 1860s funerals http://www.geocities.com/capitalguards/memorial.html ¾¾¾¾¾(¾¾¾¾¾ SI KLEGG: HIS TRANSFORMATION FROM A RAW RECRUIT TO A VETERAN by John McElroy CHAPTER 9 SI GETS A LETTER AND WRITES ONE TO PRETTY ANNABEL, UNDER DIFFICULTIES. COMPANY Q, tumble up here and git yer mail !" shouted the Orderly one afternoon, soon after the 200th Ind. turned into a tobacco patch to bivouac for the night. It had been two weeks since the regiment left Louisville, and this was the first mail that had caught up with it. It seemed to the boys as if they had been away from home a year. For a whole fortnight they hadnt heard a word from their mothers, or sisters, or their "girls." Si Klegg couldn't have felt more lonesome and forsaken if he had been Robinson Crusoe. In the excitement of distributing the mail everything else was forgotten. The boys were all getting their suppers, but at the thought of letters from home even hunger had to take a back seat. Si left his coffee-pot to tip over into the fire, and his bacon sizzling in the frying-pan, as he elbowed his way into the crowd that huddled around the Orderly. "If there ain't more'n one letter for me," said Si softly to himself, "I hope it'll be from Annabel; but, of course, I'd like to hear from Ma and sister Marier, too !" The Orderly, with a big package of letters in his hand, was calling out the names, and as the boys received their letters they distributed themselves through the camp, squatting about on rails or on the ground, devouring with the greatest avidity the welcome messages from home. The camp looked as if there had been a snowstorm. Si waited anxiously to hear his name called as the pile of letters rapidly grew smaller, and he began to think he was going to get left. "Josiah Klegg !" at length shouted the Orderly, as he held out two letters. Si snatched them from his hand, went off by himself, and sat down on a log. Si looked at his letters and saw that one of them was addressed in a pretty hand. He had never received a letter from Annabel before, but he "felt it in his bones" that this one was from her. He glanced around to be certain nobody was looking at him, and gently broke the seal, while a ruddy glow overspread his beardless cheeks. But he was secure from observation, as everybody else was similarly intent. "Dear Si," the letter began. He didn't have to turn over to the bottom of the last page to know what name he would find there. He read those words over and over a dozen times, and they set his nerves tingling clear down to his toe-nails. Si forgot his aches and blisters as he read on through those delicious lines. She wrote how anxious she was to hear from him and how cruel it was of him not to write to her real often; how she lay awake nights thinking about him down among those awful rebels; how she supposed that by this time he must be full of bullet-holes; and didn't he ge' hungry sometimes, and wasn't it about time for him to get a furlough? how it was just too mean for anything that those men down South had to get up a war; how proud she was of Si because he had 'listed, and how she watched the newspapers every day to find something about him; how she wondered how many rebels he had killed, and if he had captured any batteries yet-she said she didn't quite know what batteries were, but she read a good deal about capturing 'em, and she supposed it was something all the soldiers did; how she hoped he wouldn't forget her, and she'd like to see how he looked, now that he was a real soldier, and her father had sold the old "mooley" cow, and Sally Perkins was engaged to Jim Johnson, who had stayed at home, and as for herself she wouldn't have anybody but a soldier about the size of Si, and 'Squire Jones's son had been trying to shine up to her and cut Si out, but she sent him off with a flea in his ear.-"Yours till deth, Annabel." The fact that there was a word misspelt now and then did not detract in the least from the letter, so pleasing to Si. In fact, he was a little lame in orthography himself, so that he had neither the ability nor the disposition to scan Annabel's pages with a critic's eye. Si was happy, and as he began to cast about for his supper he even viewed with complacence his bacon burned to a crisp and his capsized coffee-pot helplessly melting away in the fire. "Well, Si, what does she say?" said his friend Shorty. "What does who say ?" replied Si, getting red in the face, and bristling up and trying to assume an air of indifference. "Just look here now, Si," said Shorty, "you can't play that on me. How about that rosy-cheeked girl up in Posey County?" It was Si's tender spot. He hadn't got used to that sort of thing yet, and he felt that the emotions that made his heart throb like a sawmill were too sacred to be fooled with. Impelled by a sudden impulse he smote Shorty fairly between the eyes, felling him to the ground. The Orderly, who happened to be near, took Si by the ear and marched him up to the Captain's quarters. "Have him carry a rail in front of my tent for an hour !" thundered the Captain. "Don't let it be a splinter, either; pick out a good, heavy one. And, Orderly, detail a guard to keep Mr. Klegg moving." Of course, it was very mortifying to Si, and he wonld have been almost heartbroken had he not been comforted by the thought that it was all for her! At first he felt as if he would like to take that rail and charge around and destroy the whole regiment; but, on thinking it over, he made up his mind that discretion was the better part of valor. As soon as Si's hour was up, and he had eaten supper and "made up" with Shorty, he set aboat answering his letter. When, on his first march, Si cleaned out all the surplusage from his knapsack, he had hung on to a pretty portfolio that his sister gave him. This was stocked with postage stamps and writing materials, including an assortment of the envelopes of the period, bearing in gaudy colors National emblems, stirring legends, and harrowing scenes of slaughter, all intended to stimulate the patriotic impulses and make the breast of the soldier a very volcano of martial ardor. When Si got out his nice portfolio he found it to be an utter wreck. It had been jammed into a shapeless mass, and, besides this, it had been soaked with rain; paper and envelopes were a pulpy ruin, and the postage stamps were stuck around here and there in the chaos. It was plain that this memento of home had fallen an early victim to the hardships of campaign life, and that its days of usefulness were over. "It's no use; 'tain't any good," said Si sorrowfully, as he tossed the debris into the fire, after vainly endeavoring to save from the wreck enough to carry out his epistolary scheme. Then he went to the sutler-or "skinner," as he was better known-and paid 10 cents for a sheet of paper and an envelope, on which were the cheerful words, "It is sweet to die for one's country !" and 10 cents more for a 3-cent postage stamp. He borrowed a leadpencil, hunted up a piece of cracker-box, and sat down to his work by the flickering light of the fire. Si wrote: "Deer Annie." There he stopped, and while he was scratching his head and thinking what he would say next the Orderly came around detailing guards for the night, and directed Klegg to get his traps and report at once for duty. "It hain't my turn," said Si. "There's Bill Brown, and Jake Schneider, and Pat Dooley, and a dozen more-I've been on since they have !" But the Orderly did not even deign to reply. Si remembered the guard-house, and his shoulder still ached from the rail he had carried that evening; so he quietly folded up his paper and took his place with the detail. The next morning the army moved early, and Si had no chance to resume his letter. As soon as the regiment halted, after an 18-mile march, he tackled it again. This time nothing better offered in the way of a writing-desk than a tin plate, which he placed face downward upon his knee. Thus provided, Si plunged briskly into the job before him with the following result: "I now take my pen in hand to let you know that I am well, except the dog-goned blisters on my feet, and I hope these few lines may find you enjoying the same blessings." Si thought this was neat and a good start for his letter. Just as he had caught an idea for the next sentence a few scattering shots were heard on the picket-line, and in an instance the camp was in commotion. "Fall in !" "Be lively, men !" were heard on every hand. Si sprang as if he had received a galvanic shock, cramming the letter into his pocket. Of course, there wasn't any fight. It was only one of the scares that formed so large a part of that campaign. But it spoiled Si's letter-writing for the time. It was nearly a week before he got his letter done. He wrote part of it using for a desk the back of a comrade who was sitting asleep by the fire. He worked at it whenever he could catch a few minutes between the marches and the numerous details for guard, picket, fatigue and other duty. He said to Annie: "Bein' a soljer aint quite what they crack it up to be when they're gittin' a fellow to enlist. It's mity rough, and you'd better believe it. You ought to be glad you're a gurl and don't haf to go. I wish't I was a gurl sometimes. I haven't kild enny rebbles yet. I hain't even seen one except a flew raskils that was tuk in by the critter soljers, they calls em cavilry. Me and all the rest of the boys wants to hav a fite, but it looks like Ginral Buil was afeared, and we don't git no chance. I axed the Ordly couldn't he get me a furlow. The Ordly jest laft and says to me, Si, says he, yer don't know as much as a mule. The Capt'n made me walk up and down for an hour with a big rail on my sholder. "You tell Squire Joneses boy that he haint got sand enuff to jine the army, and if he don't keep away from you Ile bust his eer when I git home, if I ever do. Whattle you do if I shouldn't ever see you agin? But you no this glorus Govyment must be pertected, and the bully Stars and Strips must flote, and your Si is goin to help do it. My pen is poor, my ink is pale, My luv for you shall never fale. "Yours, affeckshnitly, Si Klegg." 1