The record-union., 1898-05-08
A VETERANS "REMINISCENCES.
Civil War Experiences With Tents
of Various Kinds and None.


When we started out" said q civil
war veteran. our regiment had tents
furnished by the State. just as many
other equipments besides were in those
days at the outset to volunteer. .regi-
| ments, and l suppose they will be now.
Those tents We're made to hold ten men
| each. We had five of them on each side
of the company street They had a
ridge pole supported by center pole,
forming a sort of great T. The tent was
drawn over the ridge pole, from which
it sloped down all around to the ground
where it was pegged down. The guns
were stacked around the center pole
In these tents the men slept, lying like
| the spokes of a wheel, with their feet
| toward the center, though in cold
weather they would often lie closer to-
gether, spoon fashion, to keep warm.
With ten men in tent there was no
room to spare. They were made to hold
that number and no more. but there
was likely to be somebody out on guard
duty or away for one reason and an
other, and so these tents We're not al
ways crowded. There was sometimes a
little spare space. 1t was mighty little,
but as cOm2ared with nothing it was
room. This spare space, when it did
exist, was variously utilized. In the
| tent that l was in with one or two men
out, we used the space for stove which
we built Of bricks and some pieces of
iron that we got from a dismantled
building near where our camp was 10
Gated, with a chimney of tomato cans,
which Cor some reason we couldn't get
! to draw.
when those first big tents were worn
out, as they were in a few months, they
were not renewed. From the time of
leaving the State we had ceased to
draw supplies from the State We had
| became actually a part of the army,
and we drew army supplies. When we
needed tents we drew from the Quarter
masters department the regulation A
| tents, wedge-shaped, and about seven
feet square at the base, and made to
hold four men or five on a pinch. 1 re-
member very we'll the first camp we had
with our new tents. We made a new
camp ground at a little distance from
the old. and pitched the tents there.
They were brand-neW, of a uniform
Whiteness, and they certainly did look
slick and handsome and business-like.
I'VE liked these tents better than the
old ones. With four men in a tent, in
a settled camp, it was possible to build
raised hunks for two men each a bunk
on each side of the tent. with a little
gangWay between, where you could
stand, or put your feet if you were sit
ting on the edge of the bunk. Some
times, with four in a tent the men built
separate hunks, one on each side and
two hunks one above the other in the
gangWays, and each man had a separ-
ate bed. These beds We're narrow of
course, but any sort of bed was a great
thing, and an A tent was as good as a
house.
! There were times when all we had
were shelter tents, half of shelter tent
being a piece of cotton cloth about six
feet in length by three or four feet in
width. Two pieces fastened together
made a tent, or rather a shelter for two
men. Sometimes a man preferred to
sleep alone under his own single piece,
rugged up the best way he could fix it.
so that he could crawl under it. He
had to lie straight and quiet to keep
under it. And then there were times
when men had no tents at all, or no
chance to pitch them, and when they
just simply lay down without shelter,
and were glad of the chance; but what
ever a man might have or be without,
he always hung on to his rubber blank
et.-New York Sun.