Preparations for Dunmore's War and did I mention I don't Shave between events?

DISCLAIMER: I don't shave my beard between events. But I DO shave for events and you should to. 

    As I write this on the morning of August 16th, I am thinking of Dunmore's War and the preparations I need to make as the 250th anniversary event at Pricketts Fort looms not very far in the future. The Dunmore campaign is something I have always wanted to reenact and portray. My 7th Great Grandfather, Francis Cooper was stationed at Glade Hollow Fort in modern day Russell County, Virginia.  

    So the question is, what should one take with them on Indian Campaign? I'm a sucker for a good gear post about lists of items one decides to take with them. I've made lists of basic backcountry gear in previous posts, but I'm going to try to dig a littler deeper this time around and see what happens. 

    I'm going with a cocked hat for this one, and a red cockade (which I have to make still) based on the following description : 

"My Brother Jams went with Dumore as a Lieutenant.  He raised some of his men in our county.  They had Cockades of red ribond. I admired the looks of these soldiers so much I would have been glad to have went with them if I had been old enough." -Westward Into Kentucky: The Narrative of Daniel Trabue p42

    Hunting shirt of natural linen and red leggings. In some instances blue leggings were issued. I am trying to pair down my gear a great deal from what I normally take. I want it to feel like the descriptions I've read of going on Indian Campaign. This will be a fun challenge. I think when we approach this stuff, we want to bring all our toys with us, cause let's face it, we accumulate a lot of gear and pieces of clothing in this hobby. So leaving stuff behind can make us second guess and think "But what if I need that?" or "What if I want to wear that?"

    So let's break down what I am carrying. It's still probably too much, but maybe I just overthink it. 

    First I have my shot pouch and horn. Just a basic pouch, inside is a cuttoe knife, patching for cleaning, and a few blank cartridges as I am not going to carry roundball at an event for safety reasons. From the bag hangs my Kyle Wilyard trade knife. 

    

    Next up, I have my tobacco pouch of muskrat and pipe in a native style. It also contains my flint and steel and fire kit. I based carrying this on a Cresswell account and I think it would have been a plausible item to have. He writes: 

Sunday, October 1st, 1775. Took leave of most of my acquaintances in town. Mr. Douglas gave me an Indian Tobacco pouch made of a Mink Skin adorned with porcupine quills.

     Next is my wallet with bags for dried foods and such. This will eventually contain parched corn, jerked meat, dried peas and bread along with a little flower or cornmeal. It will also house my horn spoon and bowl. In a previous article, Matthew Fennwald wrote about a "Wallet Well Stored" which I recommend and will provide some good period accounts of goods carried on Indian Campaigns. 

Moving along we have my water bottle, or pocket bottle. Kobuck has been writing and advocating for such for a while now and I'm going to take him up on it and see how this works. I can't find any evidence for canteens being issued so I'm leaving my wooden behind this trip I think (although I did carry it on my hike today.) 

    This time around I am going to ditch the knapsack that I usually like to carry (because of all that space for junk I don't need) and I am going to just carry a blanket on a tumpline. Inside the blanket will be a knit cap, extra shirt and maybe a jacket. Tied to the tumpline will be my trade kettle for cooking. 

    As my side arm, I am carrying a hunting sword rather than a tomahawk.

    That basically rounds out the gear. Now, how should one carry this gear. Carrying gear is all about strategy and common sense. I'm always amazed at how many guys I've seen over the years would show up to an event with gear hanging sloppily all over them, haversacks that hung so low at the knee that I highly doubt they had ever really been in the woods. If they had, that would snag on everything. So, a balance between high and tight, but loose enough to be able to get it on and off easily must be struck. 

    

Yes, I have a beard. Yes, I will shave for the event. 

    I put on my gear in this order. 

-Horn and Bag

-Canteen (if carried) 

-Hunting sword 

-Blanket roll 

    The order is based on the importance of the gear. If I have to make a run for it and I want to shed gear, my most important gear is going to be my shot pouch and horn, so it stays close to the body and everything else can be shed as I run from whatever danger. Obviously a scenario I don't want to experience. 

 

    The kettle ended up riding really nicely hung from the blanket roll and I was extremely comfortable. I love when I really nail tying up the bedroll. It's aesthetically pleasing and it makes hiking that much more enjoyable when everything is riding comfortably. 

    Hiked a mile on a local trail and everything really worked and functioned. Still tweaking and wanting to add a bit more on the practical side of things, but overall I am pleased with the outcome. 

    

    Thanks to my best reenacting buddy who also happens to be my beautiful wife for enabling the weirdness and taking pictures. She's the best. 

 

    

    

    

    

"...A Wallet Well Stored..."

"A heavy blanket, rifle, hatchet, knife, powder horn and powder, bullets, extra gunflint, a picker, a wallet well stored with parched corn, some salt and a tin cup."  

- description of gear used in a 1770 expedition  

- Life and times of Gen. James Robertson

"They take about a gallon of corn and parch it well, then they pound it fine and mix it with as much sugar as would make it sweet enough for coffee, then put it in a buckskin bag and stow it in their knapsack; then take a chunk of raw bacon, wrap it up well and stow this in their knapsack.  A tin cup was tied to the strap of their knapsack.  this store is for a reserve - 

never to be used till there is no other shift; with a tomahawk and a butcher's knife and rifle gun and blanket, this is the equipage of an Indian campaign."   

Reminiscences of a Pioneer, by Thomas Rogers Sr.  

 I try to tailor my gear to each excursion, or event, trek, or activity.   And this tailoring is a constant evolution as my knowledge or what is "right" changes, combined with past experiences of what works for me.  

It is my hope that a quick overview of what I carry, and how, will be useful to some.  This is certainly not a tell all end all, and my gear is bound to change some the next time I go out -  my goal is to be always learning, always evolving.  

My bullet pouch contains just the bare essentials and has no inside pockets.  A turn screw, extra flints, loose round ball, patching,  and a fire kit sit in the bottom.  An antler measure and a pick hang from a wang attached to the strap.  The cows knee is usually tied to the wrist of my gun.  

I carry my bedroll, which always consists of two blankets - both centerseam, handwoven wool, one heavy but smaller, the other thin but large - with a hemp tumpline.  The tumpline is worn across my chest and goes over both shoulders with the bedroll snug against my upper back.  Inside the bedroll is a minimum of 2 extra pairs of moccasins.
  

Over my left shoulder, with a single twist through the middle portion, I carry my wallet.  Inside the wallet is all my food, and just necessary day to day stuff.  Linen sacks contain deer jerky, parched corn flour, coffee, shredded up bark for fire tinder, extra lead and a bullet mold, my toilet supplies, and other random foodstuffs such as nuts or apples (depending on season and my stomachs mood when I'm packing).  Raw meat is wrapped in linen scraps.  A small buckskin bag holds tobacco.  I also carry a small bottle of bear grease and greasy rag for gun maintenance,  a bundle of buckskin and linen scraps with thread, needle, and awl inside for trail repairs.  A brass kettle and hot dipped tin cup round out my cooking gear.  A larger buckskin bag holds a Katadyn water filter.  Extra water is carried in a simple gourd canteen on a cordage strap.  

I make two compromises to history in my gear.  One is in my toilet linen sack.  Inside I carry a small mirror, eye glasses in a buckskin cover, extra contacts, and contact solution covered up with a linen sack.  The justification I use on this is pretty straightforward - I don't believe it would have been historically common for the type of person I usually portray to have worn eye glasses, and thus contacts make more sense.  It stays hidden away till night, at which point if with a group, I discreetly remove my contacts, don my glasses for sleeping in case of a 3 a.m. pee time, and put the contacts back in with the sunrise.  The other obvious compromise is the Katadyn filter.  This probably doesn't even need an explanation.  Most areas I go on, the water is not safe even after boiling, due to high agricultural run off.  I've been water sick before, and hope to never have that experience again.

-Matthew Fennewald-