Jubal Early said, "The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage."

A common complaint about reeanctors is that we bring everything including the kitchen sink into camp with us. I think that most of us have to agree that we often bring lots of things we don't need, or that would not have even been present in the mid nineteenth century. Let's consider what is and what isn't appropriate to bring.

The first point that we have to resolve is whether we are doing a camp impression or a campaignimpression. Some people feel that a campaign impression is the only legitimate one for most events that include a battle scenario, but let's consider each. This month we will talk about a camp impression, and leave campaign until next month.

What about an item we all have: tents? Tents are appropriate for a camp impression, although in a winter camp they would most likely have been used as the roof for a log cabin (called stockading the tent). In fact, there would even be a stone or mud chimney out one side! The best place to go for ideas on this is period photographs. You will find all sorts of tents in pictures of winter camps, with a variety of structures built in, around, and under them. Just remember that most of this would have been "found" material, and would have been left behind when camp was moved.

Soldiers were also notorious for raiding hay stacks for miles around, so our hay is appropriate, but it should be taken out of the bales. The bales of the mid-nineteenth century were completely different shape and size than modern bales. Soldiers sitting around on haybales is completely incorrect and should be avoided.

On the other hand, most chairs that one sees are not right either. The most common seat was the ground, but the chairs which occur in pictures usually have been scavenged from a local house. This means that rather than buying a nifty folding canvas chair, or one of those two piece chairs which nest for travel (no known documentation for them anyhow) it would be better to get an old chair from a farm kitchen. There are also photos of all sorts of rough furniture made from old wooden boxes, logs, etc. Tables, shelves, bunks, cupboards, and almost anything the soldiers could imagine were made from discarded and scavenged materials. Of course all this had to abandoned every time the camp was moved, and in the middle of winter much of the wood ended up in the fire.

Another type of item which is useful is the replica of some kind of packing case. Virtually all the packing boxes of the time were made of wood, so it would be possible to find boxes for ammunition, rifles, various kinds of food, artillery shells, and a host of other things. Most of these were eventually burned on the fire, but they certainly made a good place to sit, and to stow some of your "stuff".

When thinking of things to add to your camp impression, the main criteria should be "could I have scavenged it somewhere?" Next month: The Campaign Camp!