About Us - In Camp - Sleeping
Without a doubt sleeping can be one of the hardest aspects of Civil War Reenacting, yet doesn’t really need to be if a person knows what they are doing and can equip themselves properly. Being a skirmish unit we most likely would have been on campaign a lot, which means our soldiers wouldn’t have had access to tents as often as other units, which is why we can often be found sleeping without tents ourselves, though if it does rain, and rain it will at some point, we do seem to be able to find shelter pretty easily whether it be another reenactors tent, a barn, a wagon, a gazebo, a covered bridge, or by making one giant shelter with our gum blankets and canvass. We also do pretty well with staying warm even on cold 40 degree nights, usually by sleeping by a long fire with shelter halves and gum blankets all around reflecting back the head. Most think we are crazy when we do this, but I bet any amount of money we are always warmer than they are.
Now, many people it seems have an built in fear of sleeping on the ground out in the open, but really after just one event most find it quite enjoyable, and then, when it comes time to leave, and you watch those with huge tents spending hours cleaning up, you really realize how nice it is to simply throw a few blankets on the ground, because that is all you have to gather up in the end.