Weird Coincidence at 150th STRI

[Craig L Barry]

The weather for the 150th Stones River event at the battlefield park in Murfreesboro was just like what was recorded in late 1862/early 1863, meaning cold, wet and miserable. There was one strange moment on Monday. We were doing infantry demos in the rocks at the Slaughter Pen and the park ranger was giving his talk about that part of the battle. He said, "...the weather 150 years ago was just like it is today, except it was sleeting."

As soon as the ranger said that, we began getting pelted with sleet which continued for the next five minutes. The sleet also rounded the weather out nicely because we had already experienced hard rain, light rain, freezing rain and snow. Everything except the rocks was a hog wallow.

The park was even weirder than usual about BP rounds. They had to be just so, 60 grains Goex FFg. They had to be in arsenal packs, etc. Well, when I left on Monday a couple of my remaining rounds were soaked through so I left them behind. Todd Watts apparently felt mischievous and tossed them in the fire where some civilian woman was drying out her feet. They were in there a long time, Watts said, then all three went off at once. This startled the poor woman who fell backwards off her seat into the mud. Sorry I missed that particular highlight. Todd blamed me, of course.

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

That is eerie! In my g-g-grandfather's journal (37th Indiana), he mentioned the bone chilling cold and freezing rain. When he was captured, he was sans blanket, as they had dropped packs. He noted that he was almost happy to get captured, as the CS guards allowed them to start fires in the rear at the collection point.

[Craig L Barry]

Yes, it was. I have been both wetter and colder but not at the same time. The gum blanket got a lot of use. Of course in weather conditions like that it was not unexpected to get sleet mixed in but the timing was perfect for the first demo. Then the sleet stopped and we never saw it again. Let me hasten to add that the ranger gave the same presentation five or six times and nothing happened at all except that once. I was at the end of the line and had been tossing my spent percussion caps at the back of Watts' head all morning as we were deployed as skirmishers and he was my file partner, then I felt the sleet hit. My first thought was "who is beaning me with their spent caps? I'm the end of this line."

[Mojo1842]

I must say that the weather for the STRI 150th put a lot of things about the battle that I've read into perspective. I don't think that it would've been the same if it had been 40s and sunny that weekend because having much the same weather as 1862 while looking out toward the cedars made it quite a memorable experience for both myself and the rest of the 19th US.
As a living historian it's long been my opinion that you have to experience things (to the extent that we can recreate them) in order to better teach but I kinda think that a lot of what I experienced that weekend wont be able to be passed on simply in words. Intangible. I froze my butt off, I slipped in the mud, I itched in an issue shirt, my fingers kept dropping caps, my rifle would not go along with the program, I twisted my knee and am just now feeling better. I would not trade a second of it for anything.

[Todd Watts]

I knew I got hit with a cap or two but wasn't smart enough to figure out why.