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 2003 Joe and Holly Sullivan Editors 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 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 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 UPCOMING EVENTS AND MEETINGS Fort Stevens Reenactment August 30th through September 1st 2003. Fresno, Kearney Park Living History October 4th and 5th, 2003. Fort Hoskins Living History September 27th and 28th For a full calendar of events visit our events web page at http://www.116pvi.org/Upcoming Events.htm 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 Company Commander's Report July 19, 2003 Thanks to all who participated and helped make the Willamette Mission event a most pleasant and successful re-enactment. The 116th has received high compliment from the battalion on our performance and conduct at this event. As a result the Lt. Colonel has asked us to be the color company at Fort Stevens. I have most graciously accepted this appointment for the 116th. Everyone also did an excellent job of cleaning up our camps and fill in our fire pits " thanks everyone for your hard work and great effort ". I look forward to seeing everyone at our next big event , Fort Stevens and remember to read your newsletter for other great upcoming events , see you at the Fort. Company Commander 116th PVI Capt. Steven L. Stowell 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 Fort Stephens Modern Camping Registration Modern camping will be situated in the same location as last year and will be severely restricted. Relatives of reenactors will be unable to camp at the site. . To reserve a campsite; 1) Write a check for $10 for each camp site, payable to Fort Stephens 2) Send check along with a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope with information on whether you will be camping in a tent, RV, camper, or whatever. John will send you a campsite number. 3) Deadline is Augst 20th. Send to: John Frenzel 33698 Bond Road Lebannon, OR 97355 541-451-2436. 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 From the Civilian Advocate: Hello to all, Hope you all are having a fun summer, and looking forward to the last event at Fort Stevens. Those of us who are "old hands" at this re-enacting need to remember when we first started and give new ones a helping hand not a cold shoulder, we all need reminding now and then that we need to look authentic as much as possible, especially when public is around. As the civilian advocate it is my "duty" to remind us but you all can help too!!!! Please remember I need to have your tent space reservation on Monday Aug.11, because I will be gone that Friday when I need to send the count to the civilian advocate. If you think you might be there but not for sure, make it a yes as it is best to have too many than not enough!!!!! Also remember our tea party/meeting on the Sat. at 4pm, feel free to bring cookies and or tea to share . If you need to know anything before the event please do not hesitate to call or email me at: (503)623-8839 or inftymen116@juno.com. Address it to me. Thanks Your Civilian Advocate (trying to do my best) Lynette Stowell 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 The hen is the wisest of all the animal creation because she never cackles until after the egg has been laid. Abraham Lincoln January 1863 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 Fort Hoskins Rescheduled The living history event with the 20th Maine will be the weekend of Sept. 27-28 at Ft. Hoskins. This will coincide with archeology month and a public turn-out for Sat. the 27th. There will be no event with the 20th Maine on August 2/3. AUCTION AT FORT STEPHENS! Once again Major Whittaker, our paymaster, will be putting on a company auction. To participate you must donate one item for the auction, it does not have to be period but the later is preferred. In addition he will also have a raffle for a few choice items. Bring all your Civil War greenbacks you have received at paydays; this is the only kind of money acceptable for the auction and raffle. 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 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 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 CLASSIFIEDS Place your classified ads here, free to members 3/43/43/43/43/4(3/43/43/43/43/4 SI KLEGG: HIS TRANSFORMATION FROM A RAW RECRUIT TO A VETERAN by John McElroy CHAPTER 2 THE OLD CANTEEN - THE MANY AND QUEER USES TO WHICH IT WAS AT LAST PUT. When Josiah (called "Si" for short) Klegg, of the 200th Ind., drew his canteen from the Quartermaster at Louisville, he did not have a very high idea of its present or prospective importance In the 22 hot summers that he had lived through he had never found himself very far from a well or spring when his thirst cried out to be slacked, and he did not suppose that it was much farther between wells down South. 'I don't see the use of carrying two or three pints o' water along all day right past springs and over cricks," he remarked to his chum, as the two were examining the queer, cloth-covered cans. We've got to take 'em, any way, " answered his chum, resignedly, "It's regulations." On his entry into service a boy accepted everything without question when assured that it was regulations. He would have charged bayonets on a buzzsaw if authoritatively informed that it was required by the mysterious "regulations." The long march the 200th Ind. made after Bragg over the dusty turnpikes the first week in October, 1862, taught Si the value of a canteen. After that it was rarely allowed to get empty. When it didn't have water in it, it had milk, molasses, or even applejack, for Si then \vas not a member of the Independent Order of Good Templars, of which society he is now an honored officer. Nothing could be nicer, when he was on picket, to bring buttermilk in from the neighboring farm-house to his chum Shorty, who stood post while he was gone. Later in the service Si learned the inestimable value of coffee to the soldier on the march. Then he stript the cloth from his canteen, fastened the straps on with bits of wire and made a fine coffeepot of it. In the morning he would half fill it with the splendid coffee the Government furnished, fill it up with water and hang it from a bush or a stake over the fire, while he went ahead with his other culinary preparations. By the time these were finished he would have at least a quart ot magnificent coffee that the cook of the Fifth Avenue could not surpass, and which would last him until the regiment halted in the afternoon. The bully of the 200th took it into his thick head one day to try to "run over" Si. The latter had just filled his canteen, and the bully found that the momentum of three pints of water swung at arm's length by an angry boy was about equal to a mule's kick. Just as he was beginning to properly appreciate his canteen, he learned a sharp lesson that comes to all of us, as to how much "cussedness" there can be in the simplest things when they happen to go wrong. He went out one day and got a canteen of nice sweet milk, which he and "Shorty" Elliott heartily enjoyed. He hung the canteen upon the ridgepole of the tent, and thought no more about it until the next day, when he came in from drill, and found the tent filled with an odor so vile that it made him cough. "Why in thunder don't the Colonel send out a detail to find and bury that dead mule? It'll pizen the hull camp." He had been in service just long enough to believe that the Colonel aught to look out for and attend to everything. 'Taint no dead mule," said Shorty, whose nose had come close to the source of the odor. "It's this blamed canteen. What on earth have you been putting in it, Si ?" "Ha'int had nothin' in but that sweet milk yesterday." Shorty "That's just what's the matter," said the Orderly, who, having been in the three-months' service, knew all about war. He had come in to detail Si and Shorty to help unload Quartermaster's stores. "You must always scald out your canteens when you've had milk in 'em. Don't you remember how careful your mother is to scald her milk pans?' After the company wagon had run over and hopelessly ruined the neat little frying-pan which Si had brought from Posey County, he was in despair as to how he should fry his meat and cook his "lobscouse." Necessity is the mother of invention. He melted in two a canteen he picked up, and found its halves made two deep tin pans, very light and very handy. A split stick made a handle, and he had as good a frying-pan as the one he had lost, and much more convenient, for when done using the handle was thrown away, and the pan slipt into the haversack, where it lay snug and close, instead of clattering about as the frying-pan did when the regiment moved at the double-quick. The other half of the canteen was useful to brown coffee, bake hoe-cake, and serve for toilet purposes. One day on the Atlanta campaign the regiment moved up in line to the top of a bald hill. As it rose above the crest it was saluted with a terrific volley, and saw that another crest across the narrow valley was occupied by at least a brigade of rebels. "We'll stay right here, boys," said the plucky little Colonel, who had only worn Sergeant's stripes when the regiment crossed the Ohio River "We've preempted this bit of real estate. and we'll hold it against the whole Southern Confederacy. Break for that fence there, boys, and every fellow come back with a couple of rails." It seemed as if he hardly ceased speaking when the boys came running back with the rails which they laid down along the crest, and dropped flat behind them. began throwing the gravelly soil over them with their useful half-canteens. In vain the shower of rebel bullets struck and sang about them. Not one could penetrate that little ridge of earth and rails, which in an hour grew into a strong rifle-pit against which the whole rebel brigade charged, only to sustain a bloody repulse. The war would have lasted a good deal longer had it not been for the daily help of the ever-useful half-canteen.