I hope you all survived the holidays, and are surviving the off season. Well, good news for all of you who are surviving. The season rapidly approaches. On Saturday January 22nd we had our annual meeting to get things off to a start. Unfortunately, only 10 of us were able to make it to the meeting, but we covered a lot.
First, we decided to keep our present rank structure of one officer, two sergeants, and two corporals. For those offices we elected Jim Martin, captain; Will Eichler, 1st Sgt.; Jim Church, 2nd Sgt.; and Jon Frazho and Adam Bender, corporals. Congratulations to them on their positions. Also, on this same page, for all you who don�t know yet, I�ve been asked to work on Brigade staff this season so I will not be on the line much. I will miss not fighting along side you all. But remember I haven�t left the company, I am just detached for the season.
Another thing we covered was the voting in of a couple of new members, Derek Schroeder and Kevin Buzzard. Please welcome them and make them feel at home as you always do. We also have a few perspective recruits that will be coming out to drills and events this season. We are steadily growing, but don�t let this stop us from recruiting. We need to grow and become stronger. We have a few ideas we are going to try for our recruiting efforts. If you have any ideas which might help our endeavors, please let Will, Jim Martin or me know.
A few other items that were discussed were, musket cleaning at events, inventory, a phone tree, and early war impressions. First of all is the musket cleaning. We had decided last year that we would clean our muskets after battles at events. We also decided to put together a unit cleaning kit. Well, the cleaning kit fell to the side. Very few people put in for the kit, even though we agreed that we would all contribute. But, regardless of that, we decided to continue with the cleaning at events. As far as supplies each man must supply there own. A combination tool, and a worm. For those who have Enfields you don�t have to use a worm if you wish not to. Tow will still be supplied for the company use. Also, Abe is checking to see if he can make some combo tools for us to use. Either way, we will still clean at events. Also, the tools needed are quite inexpensive and fit nicely in the front pocket of your cartridge box.
Next is inventory. With the steady increase in our numbers, we need to know what clothes and equipment are available for loan or for sale. So please take an inventory of all your stuff and contact me soon with what you have available for loan or sale. This will make getting equipment for recruits a lot easier. Either writes me, e-mail me, or call me.
The next two things are a little more complex. First, a phone tree. As we know there are times when we must put word out very fast to every one about something or another. So I have put together a phone tree for us to use so that it will make things easier for us to do this. Plus it will cut the cost for the one or two people who have been making all the calls in the past. Please keep this list handy so if it�s needed you know who to call. Some people have two people to contact. That is because of the geographic location, or normal personal contact with that person(s).
JimMartin
1)Jon Frazho
a)Dave Thompson IV
1)Dave Thompson III
2)Derek Schroeder
b)Kevin Buzzard
2)Jim/Bryson/Collin Churc
a)Abe Tessin
b)Eric Grzegorczyk
1)Eric Ratajczak
3)Dan Martuch
Kurt Loewe
1)Will Eichler
a)Chris Balash
b)Justin Spenski
2)Jerry Walters
3) JR Schroeder
1)Jeremy Lobbezoo
a)Mike/Dave Golden
1)Adam Bender
To give an example to explain this format to you all; Jim Martin calls Jon, Jim, and Dan. Jon calls Dave IV and Kevin. Dave IV calls Dave III and Derek. Use this example to understand who you call if needed. If you are in the middle or at the bottom of the list and need to get information out to everyone, contact the person at the top of your list. That person (Jim or myself) will contact the other to move the information along. If you have any problems with this please contact me.
And finally the last item, early war impressions. We have been striving to improve our kits and impressions which we will continue to do. We have plans for at least one sewing party this winter to work on that. But Will brought up the fact that we and a lot of other units don�t have very good early war impressions. So Will came up with some ideas to start working on to improve this. We figure it will be a slow process to complete (roughly 2 years), but that will keep the cost down for each of us. Roughly $100 over two years, plus some labor on our parts. What we plan to do is make generic pieces of equipment that we will all have, so when we do an early war event we look completely uniform. What we want to make is; Havelock, white gaiters, and hardpacks. For the cost of materials and some labor on our parts we can easily do this.
Basically once we have all this we can go to an early war event with this stuff, plus light blue trousers and sack coats for enlisted, frocks for officers, and all be completely uniform. The key is that we would all look like we were supplied by the same contracter or arsenal (whether state or federal). Most regiments were supplied all the same equipment. It will look really good and will be generic. We�ll talk more about it in the future.
And with that we ended the meeting/powder party. On top of what we discussed we succeeded in making between 600 and 700 rounds, 500 of which are arsenal packed for the unit supply. As you can tell, we accomplished a lot. And it was a lot of fun. So, without further ado, here are the events.
February 26th-27th Sewing party Saturday afternoon/night, drill Sunday. Location Pigeon, MI. (in the thumb). More on this from Will further down in this newsletter. STRONGLY RECOMMEND-WILL BE FUN.
March 24th-26th Cross Roads Village drill. $5 a person to cover the cost of renting the building we sleep in.
April nothing is established yet. Should have info if there is anything by the February drill.
May 5th-7th Ft Wayne, IN. Terry Giffin commanding, Dave Shackelford commands a battalion. Unit voted to not make this a max effort because of Holly. Anyone wishing to go contact me. I�m Chief of Staff, so I�m going. It would be nice to get some bodies down there to support the Cumberland Guard. Blue ribbon event. May 19th-20th Holly, MI. You all know this event. It�s in our back yard. It�s a max effort.
May 27th-29th Greenfield Village, MI. Don't know if unit is accepted by event to register. If we get accepted, it would be nice to get some people out. But it is not a max effort. (EDITOR�S NOTE: Since printing, we have been accepted and are waiting for the paperwork to come in. More info to come.)
June 10th-12th Billie Creek, IN. Max effort. Treat this like our national for the year.
June 16th-18th Wilson�s Creek, MO. Because of the distance and Billie Creek the previous weekend the unit voted not to go as a unit effort. Individuals who wish to go can. I�m going to both. The Dedman�s have opened up their place in Illinois for anyone who wishes to camp the week in between the two �Creek� events. If you are interested or want more info contact me ASAP, so we can start making plans. Blue ribbon event.
July 3rd/4th Anderson, IN. 4th of July parade. First in the nation. Starts at midnight. Arrangements for camping are being made.
July 21st-23rd Hastings, MI. Battle of Winchester (don�t know which one of the 72). Max effort. We are camped in the village. No dusk battle, only two tacticals and two for the spectators. Blue ribbon event.
August 25th-27th Jackson, MI. Max effort. Scenario to be announced. Blue ribbon event.
September 23rd-24th River of Time. Max effort. There will be a battle this year.
October-mid month Hartford City, IN. Not a unit max effort. Last CG event of the year. October-sometime Spring Hill, TN. Have more info in February.
That is the schedule for the year. All the events, which say blue ribbon, are Cumberland Guard max efforts. Even though the unit voted to not do all the Guard events as a unit effort it would be nice if we could still show our support for the Guard, even with just a few guys. Also, please look over the list and figure out what you are planning to go to for the season. Then contact me ASAP with that information, so I can know who and how many roughly are going to each event. For the CG events, I need to get this information to Dave as soon as humanly possible.
And finally one last note. For those who haven't heard (a perfect example of why we need the phone tree), J.R.�s mother passed away on Tuesday January 18th. The funeral was Saturday the 22nd. Please keep J.R. and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
With that I bid you all farewell for now. I look forward to seeing you all in the upcoming season.
Your servant,
Dirty
I�m going to keep this brief as work is busy the next few weeks. Thank you all for returning me to the 1st Sergeant�s position for another year. It looks like I�ll be attending more events then last year. I was glad to see those of you who could make it to the meeting at Church�s. Those who didn�t, we missed you and you missed a great time.
The weekend of February 26th-27th I am hosting the sewing party, powder party, party party, and drill. Here�s the scoop. Arrive in Pigeon (directions further down) around noon on Saturday. Starting at 1pm I will host a basic sewing class. There are five major hand stitches that were common in Civil War garments. By the end of the afternoon, you will know all of them and will have two ration bags to show for them. You will also know how to properly hand sew buttonholes so you can improve your existing jackets by sewing over the machine-stitched buttonholes. (ED NOTE: Since then, I've been able to pull the pattern off an original housewife and you will have option to make that as well.)
For those who want I bought the end of a bolt of blue and white check cotton fabric. I have enough to make five, maybe six shirts, and the pattern in various sizes. Three of the five are spoken for. If you call soon enough, you can cut out your own shirt. We will discuss how to speed the hand sewing process up by machine sewing seams that dont show. You probably won�t finish the shirt but will get going well. If you want, bring your own shirt fabric. Bring 2-3 yards of a cotton weave (you can see the design on both sides of the fabric. If you see it only on one side, skip it. It's a print fabric. They had them, but you need to learn to identify what style is period. WASH THE FABRIC BEFORE YOU COME, OTHERWISE IT WILL SHRINK AFTER YOU ARE DONE MAKING IT AND THAT WOULD SUCK!!!! Been there, done that-didn�t get to keep the shirt.
Then in the evening, we will have a powder party, can get pizza and watch movies. There is a carpeted floor for all to sleep on. Mom is turning the place over to us as long as we don�t wreck it. Jon Frazho is arranging a site for drill on Sunday. I suggest we drill from noon �til 4pm on Sunday, rather then our usual 1 to 5 time. If you can�t make it for both days, please call me for directions to the drill site. We need as many at drill as possible. Also, please contact me directly and let me know if you can't make it at all. I�ll expect everyone otherwise.
To get to Pigeon from bay City:
Take M-25 out toward Essexville and up through Unionville and Sebewaing. About 43 or so miles out of Essexville will be the intersection with M-142. A sign will tell you to turn right to go to Pigeon. Last time I was there it had a stop light on it. Turn right, go into Pigeon (about 7 miles). Pigeon has one stop light. As you come up to it, you will see a gray building kitty-corner from you. It is mostly unmarked with big windows in it. That�s the place. Park on the street and come on in. We�ll jockey cars later in the afternoon.
Bring your uniform/equipment (with WARM clothes-hats, gloves, scarves), sleeping bags, modern clothes to hang out in, rolling kits, and any basic sewing supplies you have. Bring a few dollars for food and to help defray the cost of some other basic sewing supplies. If you need directions from someplace other than Bay City, call me. If you can only make it to the drill and are concerned about the weather, we will make a decision by 10am Sunday morning. Call my cell phone. I�ll either pick up or there will be a pre-recorded message. I look forward to seeing you all there.
Best,
Will