I have previously discussed my participation in a reenactment of the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 4, 2013. Well, I have caught the 150^th anniversary event fever and  I am organizing a 150^th anniversary of a little known battle. It was the ONLY action of my new (as of 2014) CW reenacting unit, the 37^th Iowa volunteer infantry.

A summary of the battle is as follows:

… the regiment was called upon to furnish the guard every other day for the provision train from Memphis east to LaGrange, Tenn., and from there south to Holly Springs, Miss. The country was infested with roving bands of the enemy, making the duty of guarding the trains both dangerous and difficult. It was while in the performance of this duty that the Thirty-seventh Iowa came into conflict with the enemy, and sustained a loss of several men, killed and wounded. 

The “Gettysburg of the west” occurred on July 5, 1864. I plan to organize a reenactment of it in nearby Wheaton Regional Park. They have a train that is appropriate to the period (see photo) the C. P. Huntington. While not full sized, it looks cool and we will not need thousands of reenactors; 20 or so on each size will do I think. I suspect we will provide strong competition, but a welcome alternative, to the boring annual reenactment of Gettysburg!

I was recently lamenting the lack of good chambray shirts on the market, L. L. Bean and Lands End offer expensive and really unacceptable versions of shirts they call chambray. Bah! My mind drifted (intentionally this time) back to the Seafarer brand shirts of my Navy days. So of course I Goggled Seafarer dungaree shirts and found the company is still in business, more or less. The Navy changed its utility uniform in 2009 to a sea-camo BDU affair. (My nephew, a Navy Lt., informs me that sailors circa 2013 think it great fun to lie down on the decks of their ships, which are also painted in a sea-camo pattern, and have their photos taken.) Seafarer is selling its stocks of “irregular” chambray shirts at about $7.00 a copy. I am now the proud owner of enough to constitute a lifetime supply. Thank you Al Gore, for giving us the internet! But Al, you could have spared us the carbon credits scam.

So, my work wardrobe has been given to Goodwill and replaced with smaller sized jeans, cargo pants and “surplus chic” shirts and field jackets. My OD M65 field jacket arrived yesterday (this is it) and it completed my collection M65 field jacket collection. The Woodland Camo pattern version is the best. Life, which after all is but a vapour, is at the moment good; or so I thought until last night when...

I got a call from the son of a late friend who found a copy of my unpublished military memoirs among his "parent's effects." Seems his mother died last year. His mom and dad were among my closest friends in the 1970s through 2003 when his father died although we were losing touch at that point. Now she is dead too, both from smoking related illnesses. So much is ending these days and yet there is the grandkid to remind me life goes on; with or with out me.

Adios!