On the Road Again

No, the old Willie Nelson song is not what I'm referencing in the title of this post, but that song is running through my head these days. Seems I just got back from the two weeks in Alabama and now, tomorrow morning I am heading out again. This time its to Alamance Battleground for a day-and-a-half costuming workshop. This particular workshop was organized by my colleague Chris Graham and focuses on the colonial and Revolutionary period. This is certainly an area where my knowledge is lacking, so it will be a learning experience for me. I am actually helping to teach part of this thing - the part that deals with how to purchase items through our state's online purchasing system, known to us as Eprocurement. Yeah, it sounds like a snooze and I may hear some snoring, but at least it is one thing I know about.

Home!

I have returned safe and sound from Alabama. I had a great time the two weeks I was there, but I was certainly ready to come home. For our live fire exercise on Thursday it was raining and in the 30s. So we shot muskets and cannons from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. in the cold rain. Not fun. By the time we got back from the range it looked as if I had jumped in a swimming pool with my uniform on. The upside of Thursday was the end of class banquet, which was very fun. A photo from the banquet follows. All in all, it was a very good experience, I learned a lot, and I made some great contacts within the National Park Service. As I said to some of my classmates, its like summer camp for adults. You go, you make a few friends, you have fun, then about the time you start getting sick of each other its time to go home and you hope to keep in touch with one another until next time.
Our gun crew minus two members.
Me and my sailor friend John at the range (on the good day).

Alabama - Day Ten

OK, so I missed posting yesterday. It's been a very busy week. Yesterday we had our written exams and practical small arms exams. The practical was a breeze and the written exam, though difficult, was passed with flying colors. There were three parts to the exam: black powder storage, handling, and transportation; small arms; and artillery. On the three parts I missed a total of 4 questions, so overall I scored in the 97% range.

We had our practical exams in artillery at the range today. In my ten years of shooting artillery this was one of the absolute worst. Our crew had not one, but TWO, Level II misfires (the kind where you have to pull the round from the piece). I've never had two Level II misfires in one day. Our instructor was none too happy, but sometimes shit happens. I had a lot more fun firing the swivel gun (with no trouble I might add). Hopefully we'll put this experience behind us because tomorrow we are at the range all day. We're live firing small arms in the morning and artillery in the afternoon. To make things more interesting it is looking like rain tomorrow. What fun.
Our artillery crew, minus three members

Alabama - Day Seven

Two mini-road trips this weekend yielded lots of photographs, so I'll be challenged in electing which ones I want to share here. Our first road trip was yesterday to the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, GA. If you haven't visited, this is an awesome museum with a ton of great stuff to see, including mock-ups of the CSS Albemarle casemate, the USS Monitor turret, and parts of the interior of the USS Hartford; the remains of the ironclad CSS Jackson; and of course, a ton of naval artifacts. Now for some photos.Hilt of the sword carried by Surgeon Daniel Conrad, Confederate surgeon on the USS Underwriter expedition.Personal flag of US Admiral David Dixon Porter.

Today's road trip took us to Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, a site where in March 1814 Andrew Jackson and over 3000 troops defeated 1000 Creek Indians, thus ending the Creek War. The nature trail is a great hike, the battlefield is very nice and also well-interpreted, the exhibits, though small are good, and the orientation film is excellent. This park is pretty well out of the way in rural eastern Alabama, but its well worth the trip. Photos:
6-pounder in its original position on the battlefield.Looking at the battlefield from behind Jackson's lines.

Tomorrow we go back to work, so to speak. Our written exam is on Tuesday, so I will post again after we're through that ordeal. Much studying will be done between now and then.

Alabama - Day Five

OK, so I seem to have gotten into an odd day rotation here, which is fine. The first black powder was burned today. It was supposed to have been done yesterday, but the instructors felt that we hadn't drilled enough on artillery, so they cancelled our range day and had us drilling. This afternoon we headed to the range to do the only small arms blank firing we will do. I shot 30 blank rounds today, which is more than I shoot at any given time during the year except maybe at the Battle of Plymouth reenactment. After the shooting of course came the cleaning. I can honestly say that I've never cleaned a weapon so thoroughly in my ten years of living history. This is something I should really get used to. So tonight it is time to unwind. I am doing laundry, drinking a bit of rum, and reading a book. Tomorrow Guy and I head to Columbus, GA and the National Civil War Naval Museum, then Sunday we are heading to Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. I'll be sure to report on our trips Sunday evening, because after all, it will be Day Seven.

Alabama - Day Three

It snowed here today. Yes, folks, I am in NORTHERN Alabama; in fact, I can see mountains all around. I figured we'd have a few cold days, but I never imagined snow. And yes, we were out drilling in it, both small arms and artillery. To put this into perspective for those of you who will understand this, it was "Fort Fisher in January cold" here today. Aside from the miserable temps, today was a physically tough day in terms of drill, drill, and more drill. I am not a big fan of close order small arms drill (which is why I am not an infantry reenactor), but I damn sure did some of it today. Much to my credit, I did it pretty well. I certainly think I was among the top half of the class. I also got to learn the period drill for the Spencer Repeating Rifle, which is interesting and something I can take back to North Carolina with me that I didn't know before. Tomorrow it's back to more drilling and we will burn our first powder as well. Hopefully it will be warmer.

Alabama - Day One

No, I'm not going to blog every day while I'm here. That will be impossible and would certainly get a little boring. After being here for 28 hours I think I am finally settled in. The BOQ rooms are nice; my room has been a little on the warm side, but I finally figured out how to operate the heating and cooling system (I think). The Internet connection was crappy last night, but seems to be fine today and I hope that keeps up. Meals at the "dining facility" as the instructors are calling it are good, especially breakfast. There are a fair number of restaurants in town as well, so lots of options to choose from there.

First day of class was good. My partner on this trip commented that he didn't learn anything new today, but of course most of it was very basic. I had some difficulties in getting my rifle disassembled, mainly because it hasn't ever been taken apart before. I'm sure once this course is over it will be well broken in. I've had a chance to meet a few new folks already and most are very nice. The instructors seem firm and serious, but accommodating and willing to help. I am noticing that NPS folks have a slightly different outlook on the world than what I am used to in NC Historic Sites, but I can't quite put my finger on what that is; I just know that it's different. More to come later.

Weekly Quote (a bit early)

Since I'll be on the road tomorrow and Monday will be busy with the start of class (see post below) I am putting up the quote of the week from the Mariner's Book of Days a little early.

History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. ~David C. McCullough

Hitting the Road

Tomorrow morning I will set out on a road trip, the proportions of which I have never done. My colleague Guy Smith (Site Manager of the CSS Neuse/Richard Caswell Memorial) and I are heading to Fort McClellan, Alabama for two weeks to participate in the National Park Service's black powder certification class. Our division always tries to send two of our black powder instructors to this course, which is held every four years. I will be taking the 19th century section of the course and Guy the 18th century section. I will blog the experience as much as possible because the military has agreed to allow us Internet access on the base (very nice of them). At any rate, we'll be doing a lot of shooting with both small arms and artillery so it should be a fun-filled two weeks. We also have a couple of road trips planned for next weekend, since we have Saturday and Sunday off. This should prove to be a most excellent adventure (thanks to Bill and Ted for that line).

Weekly Quote (and a milestone)

My weekly quote from the Mariner's Book of Days is also my 100th post! Very exciting stuff I suppose. I'm not sure how I feel about my centennial post. It really isn't devoted to anything special, but rather to something very ordinary. Maybe that's the way it should be. Anyway, without further adieu, the quote....

Go out some day and run before the gale. You will talk less and think more. Read less, good people, and sail more. ~Hilaire Belloc

Book Notes

First of all, let me begin by saying that this blog will not turn into another Civil War Books and Authors; Andrew Wagenhoffer does a fine job on that blog and I enjoy reading it frequently. However, from time to time I do like to discuss books and related themes. So, if you'll indulge me, here we go....

This week I received a review copy of How the South Could Have Won the Civil War by Bevin Alexander. I normally don't read a lot of the "could have, would have, might have, etc." type books out there. I haven't decided whether I will give this one a thorough read or not, but it sure won't be anytime soon because I have too many other projects going on right now. I'll let you know my thoughts on this book if and when I have time to examine it, but feel free to check it out if you are interested.

What I am reading right now (if you'll look on my blog's side bar) is a book about the Union Navy's Mississippi Squadron. This is for a book review for Civil War Book Review. In case you are interested, their Winter 2008 edition was just put up on the web. My review will appear in the Spring 2008 edition and I'll be sure to put an announcement up when it is viewable.

Finally, I have another publication coming out in the Winter 2008 edition of History News which is a publication of the American Association for State and Local History. I co-authored an article about planning commemmorations for this publication and I am happy that is finally about to appear; it has been almost two years in the process.

That's all for now. Happy reading everyone!

Update on Musket

This is the musket I wrote about in my last post. I got a lot of photos of the thing and after consulting with two more colleagues I was informed that this is in fact an early model Enfield. The first models had the retention spring held barrel bands, similar to a Springfield.I also found out that this weapon was brought back to the states from Afghanistan by a currently serving US soldier. This simple fact explains a lot about the weapon. This weapon most likely did not see Civil War service, but rather was a weapon given to provincial Afghani troops during the days of the British Empire. Stuff like this is turning up all over the place over there. In the photo below you will notice the weapon is now smoothbore, rather than rifled. The Brits did this to most of the weapons they gave to the colonials for a variety of reasons. So while this weapon will not go on display in the Civil War visitors center, its an interesting piece of history that we seem to have collectively solved.