Battle of Chehalis, 2013

We had a blast, as always, in spite of being next to a food vendor with a loud generator, and with cars parked just at the end of our row - reminded me of Gettysburg!

This is Captain Kyle, from our Federal unit.  He's hanging out with us as a Confederate private.  I fed him a bayonet breakfast of these neat little pre-made egg cups.  I'm not really one for getting up early to stoke the fires, so pre-made breakfasts are the way to go around here.

Morning inspection.

With, as always, the hand slap game.

Private Calvin Kirkland.

Captain, um Private Kyle taught the fellows how to stack bayonets properly.

 

Isn't our young Corporal just the cutest?

And he let me fire his pistol, which was really fun!  Check out my new secession apron, featuring the Bonnie Blue Flag.

We were invited to dinner on Saturday night with the 20th Maine.  Yes, the folks that slaughtered us, both historically on Little Round Top, and last May at base ball.  They made up for it splendidly by feasting us royally on ribs, baked potatoes, coleslaw, potato salad, cake and blueberry cobbler.  Then they played music and we all sang together.

These tables were filled from end to end at dinner.  The Yankees began with some pre-planned speeches and toasts.  At one point, we were supposed to declare the motto of the state of Alabama as "for the heart of Dixie" or something similar.  But that's not the motto, so Captain Brock declared "We dare defend our rights."  The Maine Captain looked slightly disconcerted.

Captain Brock.

Sergeant Lawless.

Sergeant Newton.

A full moon.

Polly, (Mrs. Sergeant Newton.)

Private Calvin Kirkland. 

Hailey and friends, off to the dance.

The Yankees even played "Bonnie Blue Flag" for us!

Bonnie Blue Flag

Sunday morning Tai Chi.

This is Miss Sarah, our vivandiere.  Vivandière is a French name for women attached to military regiments as sutlers or canteen keepers.  During the American Civil War, many patriotic women on both sides served as vivandières.

Lieutenant and Private Rounds.

The Privates Barry.

Splendid new recruits.

Clarence is very excited to have her own dog tent.

On Sunday, Captain Kyle reverted to the Federal side, but not without a proper goodbye from Alabama.

Rufus looks a tad gleeful, don't you think?

On Sunday, our Hannah helped carry a wounded Clarence off the field on a stretcher.

Poor Corporal Long died on my skirt.

Because the 20th Maine made dinner on Saturday, I didn't have to cook, but I wanted to anyway, so I made macaroni and cheese for lunch, along with "Co K Corn," a receipt (recipe) I got from our Federal unit.  I love cooking in the 1860s.  

Possibly the best part of the whole weekend was dinner on Sunday night.  After packing up, we went out to dinner with Rufus, Capt Kyle and barefoot Donny, another Federal friend, who is exactly like a grown-up Brennan.  The food was good, the jokes flew, and we all had a wonderful time.  Brennan now calls shoes "foot prisons."  

And in three weeks we'll do it all again!

Silly pics

We keep finding more photos!  Here are some goofy (and not-goofy) from the Cross-Country Gettysburg trip.

Alien?  Or Hailey-en?

 

Hailey looking askance at herself.  Saves us the trouble.

We've seen Claire's tongue quite a few times I think.

 Mom trying to hide a cellphone.

Posted by Hailey and Autumn.

Oh Joy!

We're off again.  I know, we just got home, and I'm really happy to be home.

But I'm even happier to be going back to 1863 this weekend!

I'm less happy about going to fiddle camp for a week afterwards.  A week!  But I felt that way last year and had a great time.  Fiddle camp is a whole pile of fiddle-playing crazies, plus me, the token non-musician.  The kids have a blast there, and it definitely is a super-charged musical extravaganza.  I'll be doing school planning.  Oh joy.

Trip Summary

Number of states visited: 29

Number of aliens/alien ships spotted: 34 (33 in Roswell, NM, 1 in Montana)

Best meal: New Mexican food at Tortilla Flats in Santa Fe

Worst meal: Everything at the Gettysburg battle

Weirdest meal: Either the "freeway sausage" or the "Jubal Early Burger" at the Blue-Grey Diner


M&Ms consumed: Hundreds.  Hopefully not thousands.


Number of days camping: None.  Too darn hot.

Best museum site: Plimoth Plantation - so realistic it's like hanging out with the Pilgrims!

Worst museum site: 1880's Museum in South Dakota - junk pile

Biggest surprise: Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.  A lovely European village in the middle of District 12.

Biggest disappointment: The Battle of Gettysburg

Trip roles: 
     Autumn = Driver and dispenser of candy
     Hailey = Kitchen genius, photographer
     Claire = Navigator, with the awesome ability to get me around NYC without crying
     Brennan = Suddenly mature young man, who got through the whole trip without bugging us!  Much...
     Karl = Relief driver and chief financier
     Rufus = Team storyteller and kid wrangler

Trip quotes:
     Can I have an Oreo?  Where's my Oreo?  You said you'd give me an Oreo. - Rufus
     Turn on the snowflake! Turn down the snowflake!  Thank God for the snowflake!
     Oh, look, another Subway.
     Dad gum, dad gum, dad gum. - from Mater's Tall Tales
     Did you lock your door? - Everyone to Hailey
     Not more Pennsylvania bread.  (Bread in PA was invariably soft and mushy.)
     Well that's a bummer, because we don't have that. - Quoting Henry from General      Henry's Victory (We Happy Few Productions.)
     What room number are we in again? - Mom

Ticks removed: at least a dozen, (but none embedded, thankfully.)
And I'd like to take a moment to recall the bug, now undoubtedly long dead, who bit my elbow somewhere around Santa Fe, and whose legacy still remains.  Hats off to you, you vicious little creature.  You're an immeasurably tiny fraction of my size and still the bane of my existence weeks later.

Wish I could've: Spent a few days at the beach in New England.

Random acts of happiness: The free Starbuck's iced coffee in New Orleans.  The very friendly lady at Drayton Hall in South Carolina who explained to me why "enslaved peoples" has now replaced "slaves."  Walking in the footsteps of Merriwether Lewis at Harper's Ferry.  Milkshakes.  The River Walk in San Antonio.  Visiting friends in Wisconsin.  Getting caught in the Gettysburg downpour, which in hindsight was hilarious.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of all of us soaked.  Ice cream in the blazing heat at Williamsburg.  I also liked the kitchen and smokehouse at Williamsburg.  Did I mention that Hailey and I bought a book on smoking meats?  Abbeville, Alabama.  Treadmills with built-in fans in the south.  The hotel in Massachusetts near Cape Cod, and running on the beach there.

Dang!  I just realized we never had lobster in Boston.

Favorite moments:
     Hailey = I liked New Orleans because it was colorful and old and different.  It felt festive, but at the same time parts were quiet and peaceful.  I also liked sitting in the car, eating ice cream and laughing at jokes.  And I had fun watching the movie Mater's Tall Tales in a hotel room.  We laughed so hard! 
     Claire = Watching Pickett's Charge, because it was really cool to see huge lines of Confederates charging and to hear the rebel yell and the Yankees shouting, "Fredericksburg!"
     Brennan = The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History; it was so big, and cool to see all the animals and the Hope Diamond.  Also crossing the border into Washington again.
     Karl = Arriving in Boston and seeing my family.  (Aww.)
     Autumn = Running over Little Round Top and through Devil's Den in the early morning mist.  Seeing the battlefields from ground level and moving over the paths the soldiers trod was so immediate, both sad and awe-inspiring.
     Rufus = Hands down, it was this: In the early morning, Abigail and I walked onto the Gettysburg battlefield.  We climbed up the slope to Devil's Den and stood on the rocks, looking across the open valley land.  Morning mist was moving through the lowlands.  And in the distance, from across the field, came the crumping sound of artillery from the re-enactment site.  The hairs on my neck and arms rose.

Custer's Better Half - Montana

Pretty much the last thing we did before going pedal-to-the-metal for home, was visit the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  Kind of appropriate to finish with a battlefield, don't you think?  And lucky you, this isn't (yet another) Civil War battle.  Actually, it was far more pointless than any Civil War battle. 

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, aka "Custer's Last Stand," was fought between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the US Army, led by Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. The fight, which occurred on June 25 and 26, 1876 near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, was an overwhelming victory for the Native Americans.  Five of the Seventh Cavalry's companies were annihilated; Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. The total U.S. casualty count, including scouts, was 268 dead and 55 injured.

The battle, and Custer's actions in particular, have been studied extensively by historians.  Custer's field strategy was to capture native women, children, elderly and disabled hostages to use as human shields.  But the natives got wise to his plan.

A treaty had given the Sioux exclusive rights to the Black Hills, but when gold was later discovered in the area, white miners flocked to the territory. Despite the treaty, the U.S. government ordered the Indians away from the invading settlers, and Custer's job was to force the Indians back to their reservations. Some refused to leave their sacred land, and other hunters were camped in remote places and never learned of the order. The U.S. Army prepared for battle anyway.

On the morning of June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and the 7th Cavalry charged into battle against Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians. Custer's orders were to wait for reinforcements at the mouth of the Little Big Horn River before attacking, but Chief Sitting Bull had been spotted nearby, and Custer was impatient to attack.

Custer planned to attack the Indian camp from three sides, but Chief Sitting Bull was ready for them. The first two groups, led by Captain Benteen and Major Reno, were immediately forced to retreat to one side of the river, where they continued to fight as best they could. Custer was not so lucky. 

Custer's troops charged the Indians from the north. Quickly encircled by their enemy, Custer and 265 of his soldiers were slain in less than an hour. The Indians retreated two days later when the troops Custer had been ordered to wait for arrived.

The battlefield is dotted with individual graves where each soldier and Native American fell.

The Battle of Little Big Horn was, of course, a short-lived victory for the Native Americans. Federal troops soon poured into the Black Hills, and well, you can imagine the rest.

This was some kind of wire sculpture thing that I was too lazy to get out and look at.

See what I mean?  Pointless for everyone.

But I discovered something interesting.  Old Custer had an adorable wife, Elizabeth Bacon Custer.

Isn't she just the cutest?  Not only that, but the lady had gumption.  "Libbie" was the adored daughter of a judge, and graduated at the top of her seminary class.  She and George had a loving but tumultuous relationship; both were stubborn, opinionated, and ambitious.  Libbie always followed him on his assignments, even during the Civil War, in spite of the hardships of frontier life, and the fact that Custer’s career was plagued by problems, including a court martial (brought about by his leaving the field to be with Libbie.)

After the Battle of the Little Big Horn, many in the press, Army, and government criticized Custer for blundering into a massacre. President Ulysses S. Grant publicly blamed Custer for the disaster. Fearing that her husband was to be made a scapegoat by history, Libbie launched a one-woman campaign to rehabilitate her husband's image. She began writing articles and books and making speaking engagements praising the glory of her martyred husband.  After an initial period of being in debt after Custer's death, Libbie lived the rest of her life in comfort as a result of her literary career.  Largely as a result of her endless campaigning on his behalf, Custer's iconic portrayal as the gallant fallen hero amid the glory of 'Custer's Last Stand was a canon of American history for almost a century after his death.

Blasting home!  Note the sweatshirt - back in the Pacific Northwest.