Thanks everyone for all the responses, this is exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping for on this. And I love how we all add our own angle to it brought from our own experiences etc. Great forum!
Like seeing how soldier's personalized their uniforms as much as regulations would allow to be stylish and useful.
I do too, I'm a big fan of uniform variations. I think it makes the subject of Civil War uniformology [if that's a term] even
more interesting than it already is.
The top 1 is more than likely for multi use laundry etc as you mentioned. The second one shows the inganuty of the troops as the chest high log serverd to secure the side of the wall tent and a place for the second canvas tarp to be tied to as these were prone to leaking. The bottom one is defiantly for shade.
Thanks UCVRelics, that makes sense.
and last is First Chapter of AA.
"Keep coming back, it works if you work it!"
Certainly been there, done that.
I've seen these "hitching rails" or "decorative fences" used for latrines. The procedure is hang on, drop trow, and let rip into the shallow ditch behind. Try not to get it on your shoes and track it back into camp.
And that, folks, is the way it was in 1863. Wonder why so many died of disease?
I noticed that ditch behind the "rail" in question but didn't make the connection. I immediately thought it was a small drainage ditch beside the company street but I may have been thinking inside the box so to speak.
The only problem with that is a latrine would never have been that close to the tents.
That's true, it would make for quite a nasty smelling sleeping area. Not that 1860s-era men who probably haven't taken a bath in a couple weeks or more all crammed into a little cabin wouldn't already be quite a malodorous place to begin with but the poop smell added with it might just make it too unbearable to be lived in.
Most of the winter huts sites I have dug over the years were set into the ground a few feet so they wouldn't have to stack that many logs in order to get the head room. The flat boards in the hole would be the flooring. The barrel is part of the chimney system that was used to heat these winter huts.
I've noticed those barrels (with bottom cut out) on top of the rest of the chimney in many photos of winter huts and presumed it was a quick and easy way to extend the height of the chimney but it's great to have that confirmed. Thanks for that. You've got to tell me sometime about digging at winter quarters sites, that would be fascinating to hear about.
[Have you dug C.S. winter quarters sites as well as Union? Because as interested in the minutiae of the war as I am I'd be thrilled to find out what Confederate cooking utensils (like ladles, strainers, meat forks, spatulas etc.) looked like since I've already got pictures of the U.S. equivalents. Have you found any of them over the years of archaeology?]
It strikes me that the men in these photos are unmistakably American. The informality, the relaxed poses, the casual attitude, and the youthful swagger could only belong to a free and independent people. Every man arranges his uniform to suit himself as much as he can get away with. Hands in pockets, feet spread apart, facing directly into the camera-they must have been a handful for the officers to manage!
You're right, now that I think about it they do look pretty relaxed. Maybe because I haven't had the horrifyingly scary but undeniably noble honor of serving in a war myself, being prevented from joining the Army when I tried to join when I was 18 (because even then I already had to be taking 200 mg of sertraline every morning in order to keep my seratonin from being too off kilter for me to function in a remotely normal way) but I've always been amazed by how relaxed these fellows can look when they're a part of a life-and-death struggle with momentous consequences for their respective countries, U.S. and C.S., and enormous consequences for themselves personally as they have no way of knowing if the next time they shoulder a musket in combat might be the last thing they ever do in this world. And they look like they're camping out waiting to go to Busch Gardens or Six Flags the next day, not a care in the world! Amazing!
It is a little known fact that the game limbo was all the rage in the 1860's..............
First baseball and now the limbo? This war is the gift that keeps on giving!
and what the hell would happen if one of these hitching rails should snap or work itself lose, what a mess that would be.
You mean with the horse attached to it, dragging the hitching post through camp behind him? Yeah I could see how that could be quite a mess. How do you first catch the spooked horse and get him under control to get him untangled from the hitching post? Having had little experience with horses I can't imagine how to handle that situation.
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