Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-07-06
4 VETERANS "REMINISCENCES.
Civil Var Experiences With Tents OF
Hrious Kinds and With Nome.


s,Nhen We started out, said civil
war. eteran, tour regiment had tents
furnihed by the state, just rs many
other equipments besides were in
thosedays at the outset to volunteer
regiments, and as L suppose they will
be ,nav. Those tents were made to
hold bn men each. We had five of
them ID each side of the company
street, They had q ridge pole. sup
ported by centre pole, forming
sort oI great T. The tent was drawn
over the ridge pole from which it
sloped down all around to the ground,
wheresit was pegged down. The guns
we're aacked around the centre pole.
In these tents the men slept, lying
like tile spokes of wheel, with their
feet toward the centre, though in cold
weather they would often lie closer to-
getheI spoon fashion, to keep warm:
With ten men in tent there was no
roomIp spare. They were made to
hold that number and ND more, but
there Mas likely to be somebody out
on guard duty or away for one reason
and Another, and so these tents were
not always crowded. There was some
times q little spare space. 1t was
mighty little, but as compared with
nothing it was room. This spare
space when it did exist was variously
utilized. In the tent that I was in,
with one Or two men out, we used the
space for D stove which we built OF
bricks!and some pieces of iron that
we GOT from dismantled building
near where our camp was located, with
a chimney of tomato cans, which for
some reason we couldn't get to draw.
stWhen those first big tents wers
worn out, rs they were in afew months,
they were not renewed. From the
time sof. leaving the state we had
ceased to draw supplies from the state.
We had become actually O part of the
army and we drew army supplies.
When we needed tents we drew from
the .quartermaster' department the
regulation A tents, wedgs-shaped, and
about seven feet square at the base,
and made to hold four men, or five on
a pinch. remember very well the
first CAMP we had With our new tents.
We made new camp ground at lit
tie distance from the old, and pitched
the tents there. They we're brand
new, of n uniform whiteness, and they
certainly did look slick and handsome
and businesslike.
ssWe liked these tents better than
the old ones. With four men in
tent, in settled camp, it was possible
to build raised hunks for two men
each, a bunk ON each side of the tent,
with little gangway between, where
you could stand, or put your feet II
You were sitting on the edge of the
bunk. Sometimes with four in a tent
the men build separate hunks, one on
each side, and two hunks one above
the other in the middle. Then there
were two narrow gangways and each
man had Il separate bed. Tie beds
were narrow, of course, but any sort
of bed was great thing, and an A
tent was as good as house.
'sThere were times when nil we had
were shelter tents, half of shelter
tent being al piece of cotton cloth about
six feet IN length by three or four
feet In width. Two pieces fastened
together made tent, OF rather shell
ter for two men. Sometimes man
preferred to sleep alone unler his own
single piece, rugged up the best way
he could fix 1t, so that lie could crawl
underiit. He had to lie straight and
quiet to keep under it. And then there
vera times when men had no tents at
sall, or no chance opitch them, ,andwhen
they just simply. lay down without
shelter and were glad OF the chance,
but whatever q ran might have or be
without, he always hung on to his rub
ber blanket" New York Sun.