As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
In 1850's America, it is of interest in what the American military was in Texas. Texas was nothing but Indian terrorists and Mexicans coming in to take horses, mules and whatever else they could loot.
The American Army was one of "forts" which could be defeated by winds from the north. The infantry slept in A tents under a shed. These would have dirt floors and that was living in the American military.
General Sheridan was sent to this nothingness of danger and rapine and gives this account of the "quarters" he had constructed. It is of historical interest in the type of shelter he constructed to raise his standard from dirt grubber to shack bum.
"In this manner my first summer of active field duty passed rapidly away, and in the fall my company returned to Fort Duncan to go into winter quarters. These quarters, when constructed, consisted of "A" tents pitched under a shed improvised by the company. With only these accommodations I at first lived around as best I could until the command was quartered, and then, requesting a detail of wagons from the quartermaster, I went out some thirty miles to get poles to build a more comfortable habitation for myself. In a few days enough poles for the construction of a modest residence were secured and brought in, and then the building of my house began.
First, the poles were cut the proper length, planted in a trench around four sides of a square of very small proportions, and secured at the top by string-pieces stretched from one angle to another, in which half-notches hack been made at proper intervals to receive the uprights. The poles were then made rigid by strips nailed on half-way to the ground, giving the sides of the structure firmness, but the interstices were large and frequent; still, with the aid of some old condemned paulins obtained from the quartermaster, the walls were covered and the necessity for chinking obviated. This method of covering the holes in the side walls also possessed the advantage of permitting some little light to penetrate to the interior of the house, and avoided the necessity of constructing a window, for which, by the way, no glass could have been obtained.
Next a good large fire-place and chimney were built in one corner by means of stones and mud, and then the roof was put on— a thatched one of prairie grass. The floor was dirt compactly tamped.
My furniture was very primitive: a chair or two, with about the same number of camp stools, a cot, and a rickety old bureau that I obtained in some way not now remembered . My washstand consisted of a board about three feet long, resting on legs formed by driving sticks into the ground until they held it at about the proper height from the floor.
This washstand was the most expensive piece of furniture I owned, the board having cost me three dollars, and even then I obtained it as a favor, for lumber on the Rio Grande was so scarce in those days that to possess even the smallest quantity was to indulge in great luxury.
Indeed, about all that reached the post was what came in the shape of bacon boxes, and the boards from these were reserved for coffins in which to bury our dead."
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army
The above is not to condemn the military as they still are the same cloth and dirt dwelling creatures. What seemed odd to me, although Lt. Sheridan was infantry, that in a land of horses and mules, and Mexicans to fetch them, horses were not in a common use.
Granted horses required feed which was available, but there was absolutely nothing in the country but wild game to eat fodder.
I think I would have obtained a froe, or some wedges and made split boards, but at least Lt. Sheridan had the initiative to build a shack.
"So during all the period I lived at Fort Duncan and its sub-camps, nearly sixteen months, fresh vegetables were practically unobtainable.
To prevent scurvy we used the juice of the maguey plant, called pulque, and to obtain a supply of this anti-scorbutic I was often detailed to march the company out about forty miles, cut the plant, load up two or three wagons with the stalks, and carry them to camp. Here the juice was extracted by a rude press, and put in bottles until it fermented and became worse in odor than sulphureted hydrogen.
At reveille roll-call every morning this fermented liquor was dealt out to the company, and as it was my duty, in my capacity of subaltern, to attend these roll-calls and see that the men took their ration of pulque, I always began the duty by drinking a cup of the repulsive stuff myself."
Philip Henry Sheridan
Interesting in the wonder of the Civil War in General Sherman's Army if it could live off the Georgia landscape. They were doing this in Texas almost 20 years before.
agtG
