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| Very Basic Pack for chasing war parties |
So to keep ideas floating out there
in the multiverse about Just what to carry for an Immersion event I’ve been
going back thru some narratives to try and find the few times they actually
mention carrying anything. The stuff
I’ve found or recalled all seems to focus on an idea that can apply to most
scouts. You focus your gear on the three F’s Food, foot ware and Firearm.
Col.
John Graves gives a nice run down of the mentality of the guys who acted as the
local ranging party: We were all minutemen ex-officio. A little parched
corn kept in a little bag & some jerked Venison in another and a horse
standing in the stable. When you seen a man coming all you wanted to know was
where you were marching
During
one of these rescues Graves mentions a little more about his gear after he
makes an attempt to kill a member of a war party : Leaving blanket,
moccasins and all , I threw my tomahawk at him. *He missed
Another
young guy going on an “expedition” Named Nathaniel Hart mentions being given
some bread before heading out and another party member noticed it and : I
just handed him the bread and he put it in one end of the bag and the bacon in
the other, he had bacon and no bread , I had bread and no bacon. So A
bag with two separate sides? Sounds kind of Like a wallet to me? This is
another account of a backcountry guy carrying foodstuffs in a wallet as opposed
to a “haversack” almost like it’s a pattern or something. Yes, that’s sarcasm
and “forage bag” is just bush crafter for haversack. Yeah, I said it.
So
a blanket, spare Moccasins and food. Not really much to play with there or
overthink. Hart does talk about earlier in his frontier life a run in with
natives and he recovered that natives packs or “Budgets” as he refers to them.
He mentions they contain “all their things; a soup bowl made of cane
splints, and so close that it would hold soup, a very pretty piece of
workmanship; a piece of wire which was twisted so as to have a spring to it.
And with which they drew their beards; looking glasses &c.”
Mrs.
John Mckkinney mentioned a fench man with a war party losing his pack: A
Frenchman came up in about twenty steps of the door, and put two bullets, a
double load, into the facing of the door…The Frenchman all the way out said he
had killed a great big damned Englishman…he dropped his knapsack in the yard…it
had three pair of moccasins besides other things in it. Every time I
read that I have to wonder if that’s the same Old French hunter from the
Illinois country I know. Gotta be Baptiste.
More
on the foot ware part of the equation Gerry Neilands turned up this gem about
wearing multiple Moccasins in bad weather. It’s from Thomas Dudley at the
battle of Frenchtown in January of 1813 : “after going a short distance
he discovered my feet were suffering. Being without shoes and he having on two
pair of moccasins, pulled off the outer pair and put them on my feet.” This is one of those things I’d been leaning
towards for a while but hadn’t seen anything solid on doing. Along the lines of
Trabue’s Buffalo hide over mocs (think he wore bread bags under them?). If you grease both sets of mocs and wear
stockings/wrappers/chausons/deerhair or whatever in the inside moc this would
be a great way of getting more water resistance out of your foot ware.
Moccasins in Mocs.
If
your looking for some rations for an event I know I’ve mentioned them before
but a great consistent resource is the folks at Turkey Foot Traders https://turkeyfootllc.com/
They have parched corn and the salted bacon they sell holds up really
well even on prolonged warm weather trips.
Ive
included a Picture of my “scout” pack. Its simply a smallish wallet that I
carry extra stockings, a small leather bag with extra flints, tow and ball in.
The small striped bag is a wallet tied in the center with jerk on one side and
parched corn on the other. Rather then a canteen I carry a small bottle and a
drinking kettle. The spare moccasins are wrapped in my blanket roll. Not a lot of
stuff But I generally carry this set up when I’m just doing walks during the
year. Gets me used to my pack and can cover a few days in the woods easily. I
wont be super comfortable as if I had packed for a “campaign” but for an overnight
trip its more then I need.
To
keep with the rescue party vibe, I’m also tossing in this excerpt from
Thwaites. One of the common themes you see in these accounts is parties chasing
war parties often had an idea of just where they were heading to to intercept
them. You see trailheads, River
crossings and the like as being common targets for these guys. Its also the
same spots you often see “spies” watching. These war parties like most 18th
century travelers used the rivers and roads to travel. They just didn’t head
off in a random direction and hope they’d hit a settlement. It’s like when taking my daughters trapping, I
ask them if they should put the set along to trail or in the middle of that
group of bushes? Where does the animal travel? The path of least resistance. ( I mean they get it…).
Reminiscences
of Rev James Haynes W Meek lived on Indian Creek about 4 miles from its mouth
opposite to which was Culbertson's Bottom with his wife & children &
mother all taken prisoners by a party of eight Indians on the 3 of March 1781 M
Haynes recollects the date from an old song about it Capt John Wood raised a
party of some 10 men among them James Elliston David Frazier in the settlement
& went in pursuit Two men were to meet the party at the mouth of Big Blue
Stone with a canoe with which for the party to cross When the two men reached
the mouth of Blue Stone they espied the Indians about making a raft the men
undiscovered crept ashore & hid themselves after a little the Indians
happened to see the canoe availed themselves of it & crossed the river New
River there the two men thought it imprudent to fire upon the Indians &
kept out of sight soon Capt Wood came up with his party constructed a raft
& crossed followed on the trail discovered over night that they were close
upon them next morning very foggy came upon the Indian camp could see the fires
at a distance fired upon the Indians killed one the others fled one however
turned & in the act of firing at Capt Wood he dodged as the gun flashed
& escaped All the prisoners were thus rescued Where this rescue occurred
was near the head of Paint Creek in the now County of Fayette.
Finally,
to show that backcountry folks didn’t normally just rush into danger and even the
backcountry knew a thing or two about Military discipline here a nice little
blurb from Cave Johnson. I like how he mentions using flankers without actually
saying it.
Having
understood from the spies that were sent to examine the neighborhood, and that
they apprehended they might be waylaying that trace. The inhabitants…raised a
company and undertook to examine that trace. They divided into three companies.
One marched along the trace, the other two marched along the woods on each
side. They found the Indians as they had expected, lying in ambush near the
road, and, coming on their backs fired on them
Hope this gives
you something to think about on the Flintlock Friday. I’m actually off work so
I’m going to be watching Croatia hopefully beat Brazil, weave and debate with
my internal demons on what project just NEEDS started that I should pull me
away from the 100 other things I need to do. Three posts in a week…don’t get
used to it my brain will start to follow a new rabbit down a rabbit hole soon.
What kind of Kettle do you carry?
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