Shelter/dog tents

[Poor Private]

Has anyone taken the time to compile, and diagram the different ways a dog tent can be set up?

[MarkTK36thIL]

I don't have my copy of Hardtack and Coffee, but I believe there are pictures in it.

You might try locating an Edwin Forbes book. He was an artist that travelled with the Federal army.

Arguably one of the best image accounts of the war are his books, many of the daily chores and habits of enlisted men.

[flattop32355]

I assume you mean both individually and with other shelter halves.

Many, many ways, from the simple lean-to to roofing over winter quarters log huts to a multi-half shebang to 2-4 buttoned together to make traditional or long shelter tents.

Or you can just use it as another blanket or ground cloth.

In hot weather, you could stake them up off the ground for better ventilation.

Most likely, if you can think of a way, it was probably done then at least once.

[Claude Sinclair]

I do know that most people set up a dog tent incorrectly. Most will reverse a side of the shelter half and button both rows of buttons. When a side is reversed it defeats the reason for the button end on the end. The buttons on the end were to join other halves to make a longer shelter and are not there to add a triangle end enclosure. Those type of ends didn't come into play until the end of the 1800's. I have set up four halves and made a longer tent just to see how it would look. I have also set up four halves and made a large fly for about 4 people to get under. I would suggest picking up Fred Gaude's(sic) book on Shether Tents and look at the various set-ups.

Regards,
Claude Sinclair

[RJSamp]

I do know that most people set up a dog tent incorrectly. Most will reverse a side of the shelter half and button both rows of buttons. When a side is reversed it defeats the reason for the button end on the end. The buttons on the end were to join other halves to make a longer shelter and are not there to add a triangle end enclosure. Those type of ends didn't come into play until the end of the 1800's. I have set up four halves and made a longer tent just to see how it would look. I have also set up four halves and made a large fly for about 4 people to get under. I would suggest picking up Fred Gaude's(sic) book on Shether Tents and look at the various set-ups.

Regards,
Claude Sinclair

yea those triangle thingies are a hoot.....

They must have been pretty skinny to use 3 shelter halves, 1 as a 'bell' end, and sleep 3 per 'tent'......

us 6'3" ground pounders just get wet.....

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Has anyone taken the time to compile, and diagram the different ways a dog tent can be set up?

Not that I've ever heard of, but then again, with such an open-ended question, one might as well ask if someone has categorized all the ways in which a soldier might be creative in the use of his "kit". Whether in diagrams in history books about soldier life (or diaries and memoirs, such as "The Civil War Journals of John Mead Gould"), I've read of numerous ways that ingenious soldiers set up shelter. To boot, I've seen most of 'em in use by reenactors, along with other ingenious ways of constructing shelter that I haven't seen in history books, but that certainly appear to be done entirely with period materials available to soldiers.

Reading is great, but at a certain point some "experimentation" in the field is also useful, educational, and probably historically accurate as well.

[Claude Sinclair]

yea those triangle thingies are a hoot.....

They must have been pretty skinny to use 3 shelter halves, 1 as a 'bell' end, and sleep 3 per 'tent'......

us 6'3" ground pounders just get wet.....

I am 6' and I put up the tent at the correct height and I sleep the width of the tent with room to spare. I have instructed others to sleep that way and they have been surprised at the added room they have. Two can sleep comfortable that way without their head or feet exposed to the elements.

Claude Sinclair

[MarkTK36thIL]

[RJSamp]

I am 6' and I put up the tent at the correct height and I sleep the width of the tent with room to spare. I have instructed others to sleep that way and they have been surprised at the added room they have. Two can sleep comfortable that way without their head or feet exposed to the elements.

Claude Sinclair

Can't put two 6'3" guys diagonally under two shelter halves at the same time Claude.....and I always slept diagonally in mine.....but alone.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

I agree with RJ on this one. I'm 6 feet 1.5 inches tall and a 5.5-foot long shelter half (or two of them) doesn't cover me that well in a driving rainstorm, regardless of how it's set up.