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| April 2011 www.nwcwc.org | ||
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SPRING BATTLE IMPENDING |
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| The Spring of 1863 is almost upon us. With the battles of the East going badly for the Union it is up to two commanders to fight for possession of the State of Oregon. Commanding the forces of the Army of the Willamette, the young Colonel Scott Eakman faces a battle hardened Confederate force led by the daring Colonel Jim Stanovich.
Colonel Eakman's forces have been drilling throughout the winter and he stated to this reporter, "God willing, we will drive the Confederates out of Oregon for good. It appears they may try for the rail yards in Eugene. If so, we will give them the bayonet!" In a letter submitted to the offices of the Bugle Call anonymously, Colonel Stanovich wrote, "The Willamette Valley, being far removed from the East, is as good as a place to fight for control of the West as any I know. With God on our side, the right for Oregon to decide if it will join the Confederacy and weaken the Yankee hold on the West Coast, will be assured." ~ Although this bit of fictional story telling is not as events happened, I hope to inspire others to join me in the telling of events this year and I will be approaching many to tell their story as part of the enrichment of the Bugle Call. Please feel free in emailing me at ncwcnews@hotmail.com if you are interested. My apologies to Jim and Scott for creating quotes for them, but I needed the drama. Your humble servant, D. E. Gering, Editor |
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BATTLE OF MT. PISGAH
This beautiful park sits at the base of Mt. Pisgah where the land is all flat and the ground is full of lush green grass. This battlefield is the largest out of all the other parks the NWCWC is currently using so the battle scenarios are endless. There is lots of room for modern campers. Albertsons is a 10 minute
drive for your last minute grocery needs. Please Stop at the historic house and register as you drive into the park. Be sure to place your parking pass on the dash board/driver side of your vehicle. Please write your name and unit (company) name on your pass. WOOD DISTRIBUTION/FIRE MANAGEMENT CHECKLIST ONLY SUTLERS AND MOUNTED CAVALRY MAY BEGIN SET UP ON THURSDAY.
I am currently working on having a scheduled dance on Saturday night. More details will come soon. Driving Directions
If you have any questions, please email me at: |
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THE COST OF EVENTS SADLY INCREASESEverybody should realize by now what has happened to the cost of our NCWC liability insurance over the past year. Like the price of gasoline it has gone through the roof. We had $4,800.00 in our 2011 official budget but they wanted $8,000.00 (yikes). So Vice Chairman Scott Ingalls went to work on this and obtained a policy through Fireman's Fund that does everything we need for $6,000. I know this is a lot of money but it really was the best we could do. This will hold us through next March and make the state parks happy. |
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SCHOLARSHIP WINNERThe NCWC Field Music Scholarship winner for 2011 is Jonathan Leaton
of the 116th Pennsylvania. He will be attending the National Field
Music School near Petersburg, Virginia in June of this year. Jonathan
in a fifer who has only been playing for the past few years but
has made excellent progress due to some plain old hard work. He
has also shown himself to have leadership abilities and plans to
return to pass the information he learns on to the rest of us. We
are so fortunate to have such fine young people in the NCWC. |
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ATTENTION! ATTENTION! NCWC EVENTS CANCELLED!Upon the recommendation of the Event Planning Committee the Board voted not to have us participate in either the Lebanon Strawberry Festival Parade or the Iris Festival Parade or Living History weekend. In the case of the Strawberry Festival Parade it was to be held the same day as the Starlight Parade in Portland (June 4th) and the Iris Festival Parade and Living History weekend was May 21-22 ... only one week after our first major field event at Mt. Pisgah. That is a lot to ask from the schedules of our membership. It is also pretty demanding of our wallets since the price of gasoline is going up so fast. There is an old saying about "less is more" and the Board decided to concentrate our efforts on doing fewer events that are so close to each other. |
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USING AND MISUSING THE NCWC WEB FORUMSeveral months ago it came to the attention of the Chairman and the Board that certain members were using the Web Forum to make some very critical statements about individuals in our club and even other units. On the one hand there is the freedom of speech and press. People should have the right to think and say what they want to. Thousands of American lives have been given to preserve these precious rights. But, how far do they go? When somebody sets themselves up as the "authenticity master" and makes a prospective new recruit think twice about joining our ranks because they are a woman or writes about the cultural heritage of another units musical instruments as "strangling cats" then how does that make the whole organization look? What do you even know about that other individual or unit or even our own rules which give permission to express our talk and laughter and music until Taps at 11:00 PM. In February, by request of the Public Relations Committee, the Board passed a policy statement ... "Rules for Using the NCWC Online Forum." It also gave permission to Captain Peter Vrooman of the 5th New York Infantry to monitor the web forum using that policy. This policy, which you can read on our web site, is one way to deal with this problem. PLEASE READ IT IF YOU PLAN TO USE THE WEB FORUM. It has some do's and dont's and some consequences which we will try very hard to follow. This is NOT an attempt to curb free expression (most of you are doing a great job); but, it is a way to advocate for that "Golden Rule" that says "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." |
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CIVIL WAR RELIC FOUND!
The Albany Cannon is said to have been originally fitted on the deck of a sailing ship which had run aground on a island spit at the mouth of the Columbia River. The ship had been salvaged and towed into Portland, where the cannon had been removed from the deck of the vessel, and stored dockside. The cannon rested on the dock for many years until, one day when it was used for ballast for a Sternwheeler going down the Willamette river to pick up a load of Grain at Corvallis and Albany. When the vessel was loaded to capacity the Cannon was loaded on to the Albany dock and left there. The Cannon next appeared in Albany in 1858 mounted on the riverbank at the foot of Ferry Street just a couple of blocks from the Monteith House, where it was used to fire salutes or whenever a lot of noise was needed during public celebrations, Firemen’s Parades and Union Political Campaigns. As this was the years just before Civil War, the City was divided into pro slavery and anti slavery factions. The East side of Albany, which had been settled by pioneers from the North Eastern States mostly New York and Pennsylvania, were anti slavery while the Eastern part of town had been settled by pioneers from the Southern States, were pro slavery. Now, during the presidential campaign of 1860 the Oregon Republican Party (which was formed at the Monteith House) became the custodians of the cannon and fired it continually during Lincoln's successful bid for President. And at any perceived Union victories. The following is told by Mr. Frank Priest, the youngest Child of J.P. Priest, who operated the ferry across the Willamette at that time. The Unionists who had been firing the cannon without cause just, to antagonize their political opponents, were asked not to fire the cannon while the Ferry was crossing the river with live stock or horse drawn vehicles as it spooked the animals, but as Priest was a Southerner, they continued their firing. On the fallowing day when the ferry was it the middle of the river carrying a well known and much admired teem of matched Bay Horses, The Cannon was tired for no apparent reason except to defy the ferry man. The prized team, frightened by the sudden loud noise, bolted. and dashed off the end of the Ferry to their death in the River. In the early hours of the following morning, a group of men led by the Ferryman took the Cannon off its pedestal and pushed and shoved it down the bank and on to the Ferry. As they reached the middle of the' River they pushed It off the deck and into the river, where it sank out of sight beneath the water, The cannon rested at the bottom of the Willamette for nearly 75 years until when dredging gravel out of the Willamette River for many months, trying to clear the channel of the river, when, on January 13th 1933 the dredge hit a solid object in the river which almost stopped the operation. After many hours of dredging around the object buried in the mud of the river bottom, they were finally able to dislodge it and bring it to the surface, then after hosing down the object to remove the muck and slime of the river bed, they recognized it as an old muzzle loading cannon. The 4.5 feet long cannon, capable or firing a 25 pound ball, was still in good condition after its long bath in the River. Portions of an old oak sled still clung to the metal. The owner of the dedging operation decided to exhibit their find outside their office building where, after it was cleaned up and polished it became a local and tourist attraction. Later it was moved to the steps of the Albany Post Office and fired to inaugurate the Albany Centennial Celebration, But almost immediately afterwards it was housed in an out building of the owner where in total obscurity It is sheltered from it’s violent and colorful past. The current owner of the cannon is looking to sell it. and has offered it to the Monteith Historical Society for $15,000. The Society would like to keep the cannon in Albany and use it to show how the Civil War affected the residents of Albany, Oregon. The Monteith Society is asking the NCWC, to help fund the purchase of the cannon to perserve this peice of Oregon Civil War history. We appreciate the opportunity to bring this request to the NCWC and are hopeful that we can work together to preserve and interpret this tangable link to our past. Oscar Hult |
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Confederate
forces were successful in hiding their location of their Winter
camp. Rumors have reached the Bugle Call staff that they
are beginning to prepare for the Spring campaigns and the forces
are preparing to march as soon as the roads have dried.
The
Battle of Mt. Pisgah will be on May 14th and 15th.
SIGN
UP! RENEW! GET THAT MEMBERSHIP FORM IN!
Just
in time for the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, a long
lost peice of Oregon's connection to the war between the states
has been rediscovered.