shelter with only one tent half.

[lincolnsguard]

You only NEED one.

THEY only had one in most cases (that was all they were issued).

Unless you plan on being a Sergeant, as a grunt, you only need one shelter half.

And from my own experience, they're worthless except for a dew cloth: they leak when it rains, no two seem to fit together right, and they're just more weight to march with, or if you don't march, another thing to get lost in the truck/van/trunk.

The last shebang I built, the rain pooled in the center, leaked through the edges, and didn't keep us much drier than if we'd slept out in the rain.

A additional gum blanket is more sensible: one for a ground cloth, one for a dew cloth. Some J clips and you have an instant poncho, too.

Leak!! I think Civil War shelter tents were designed to channel water directly on to the user! LOL!!

[Rob Weaver]

During the great Gettysburg Deluge a couple years ago, my tent had one dry spot. About the size of a dinner plate, it was on the other side of the tent from me. when I found it, it was immediately occupied by a pard who was washed out of his tent on the other side of the street. Me, I was lying in a shallow pool of rainwater that collected under me. It was pretty warm, sorta like a shallow hot tub, so I went back to sleep. Everything in the tent was trashed in the morning, though.