What is the source for your "Sea Of Canvas" quote, Cemetary Ridge, July 2 I beleive 1863? I'd like to see the quote in context and see what my friends at the NPS in Gettysburg have to say about it. I have 40+ volumes on the Battle of Gettysburg and don't remember seeing the quote or any other reference of the sort. I'd think more than one of the 150,000 soldiers that were there might have mentioned it. You have my curiosity up.

Help, anyone?

bump

I stopped by the NPS building today (8-19-2007) whilst in Gettysburg. I spoke both to a park ranger and a certified NPS guide and neither have ever herd of such a quote. And, both spoke on their knowledge of history that no "sea of canvas" could have existed, because of the disposition of the Federal army on July 2nd 1863. That doesn't mean the quote doesn't exist. Both guessed the text may be from something that was written after the war, being "memory displaced"(nice term used by the NPS guide, by the veteran) a lot of vets did that when they wrote about stuff after the war. Joshoua Chamberlin's books are a good example. In two books he describes how he hated sidearms and never carried one and in the third he describes himself charging down LRT with his pistol in one hand and his sword in the other.

Stuff like that just interests the heck out of me. Like the supply system.  

--Last edited by grumpydave on 2007-08-19 19:09:55 --

what was the quote? i dont see it.

Quote :

GrumpyDave wrote : bump I stopped by the NPS building today (8-19-2007) whilst in Gettysburg. I spoke both to a park ranger and a certified NPS guide and neither have ever herd of such a quote. And, both spoke on their knowledge of history that no "sea of canvas" could have existed, because of the disposition of the Federal army on July 2nd 1863. That doesn't mean the quote doesn't exist. Both guessed the text may be from something that was written after the war, being "memory displaced"(nice term used by the NPS guide, by the veteran) a lot of vets did that when they wrote about stuff after the war. Joshoua Chamberlin's books are a good example. In two books he describes how he hated sidearms and never carried one and in the third he describes himself charging down LRT with his pistol in one hand and his sword in the other. Stuff like that just interests the heck out of me. Like the supply system.

Similiar to the thread I had started earlier about the veteran who claimed to have spent 15 months in Andersonville Prison, but still be at Appomattox for Lee's surrender..

The NPS ranger and I talked about that one and agreed it wasn't possible..

RJ posted the context of the quote over in OZ some weeks ago. I couldn't find the exact thread but, I think he was quoting a Confederate soldier, who was recalling what he saw during Longstreets assault on July 2nd. The quote really mad me curious to see the actual source and context of the quote. I hope RJ sees and replys to this thread.

Here's where he said it:

http://www.cwreenactors.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5224 Post #9: "Also your operative quote is morning July 2nd, 1863: 'Cemetery Ridge was awash in a sea of canvas'."

and also, over three years ago:

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-1797.html

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

Outstanding! Thanks Hank. When I get home, I doo some google stuff and see if I can find the source. Can't play on the internet here at work. Access to a lot of things is limited.

Ahh.. no wonder I couldnt find it... I was looking on this site good luck googling! i havent found anything.

Quote :

GrumpyDave wrote : RJ posted the context of the quote over in OZ some weeks ago. I couldn't find the exact thread but, I think he was quoting a Confederate soldier, who was recalling what he saw during Longstreets assault on July 2nd. The quote really mad me curious to see the actual source and context of the quote. I hope RJ sees and replys to this thread.

Dave

He also posted the qoute here on this forum:
4. Campaigning means no canvas. Horse hockey. lots of quotes about shelter tents, scraps of this and that, wagons carrying flys...and the classic quote about Gettysburg July 2nd 1863: "Cemetery Ridge was awash in a sea of canvas."

http://commonground.aceboard.com/249612-4922-3523-0-Reenactorisms.htm

Dave,

The only thing that I could find that remotely resembled anything that mentioned something being "awash" was "From Culp's Hill to beyond Big Round Top, they were awash in carnage." Wert, Jeffry D. Gettysburg, Day Three. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. page 288.

I could be that he got carnage mixed up with canvas in his memory.

I meant to say "It could be that he got carnage mixed up with canvas in his memory."

I'll keep searching for the quote about Cemetery Ridge being "awash in a sea of canvas" tonight also for you.

Google and Libriary of Congress Searches show nothing. PA state libriary shows nothing. RJ knows his history. I wish he'd show up and shoot this critter.

He's got my curiosity up on this. Have you tried the National Archives data base?

The only image I found of Cemetery Hill having tents on it was this picture of a GAR encampment on East Cemetery Hill in 1878.

Quote :

4. Campaigning means no canvas.

BS like that just frosts my ass six ways to Sunday. You don't need to attend too many events to know canvas is erected only when ordered to do so, and when the opportunity presents itself the tent flies come out from under the saddles, the large tents appear from the wagons (yes, I do mean wagons with equine motive power), and Snuffy Smith jerks his shelter half, ground cloth, and blanket from his knapsack to make his humble abode.

Part of the 3S process is "shelter," and if your unit isn't teaching you these things, then find another one that will.

Top of this soap box is a bit charred, may I have another?  

Charles,

I thought the 3S's were sh*t, shower, and shave.

"You don't need to attend too many events to know canvas is erected only when ordered to do so, Charles"

Lot's of ACW soldier's set up canvas with No orders to do so Charles. Si and Shorty talk about.....John Henry Otto also talk about it. If you had a rubber blanket, a sheet of drill, a shelter half, you buddied up and made a quick shebang. With NO Orders.

At reenacting events, I've known units that haven't set up canvas despite orders and a regimental/brigade impression to the contrary.

Part of our problem is that we don't have access to the materials that they did to make a quick shelter......rail fences, planks off the side of a barn or shed, existing structures to 'appropriate'.....and of course the $95 per half shelter tents from a documented 1862 onward time frame and the non existent reproductions of a properly constructed common tent brought up by 'wagon and mule team' (simulated or real) make it tough to provide some period shelter beyond a rubber blanket.

Charles, you were there at the Wilson's Leak in 2000......the farmer kicked you all out of his modern barn.....and there were some pretty interesting community shebangs set up to keep the AOP out of the DELUGE. I was sent down by Warnick IN the deluge just after 4AM to make sure you all didn't get up for the morning battle / raid that had been cancelled. Just a lowly bugler walking in 4 inches of water and getting soaked despite a rubber ponch AND a rubber blanket around my torso/knees.

Sorry about not responding to this topic earlier (I literally read this specific forum for the first time today!)
The "Awash in a Sea of Canvas" (not Carnage) quote is from PFANZ "The Second Day of Gettysburg" or the "Gettysburg" magazine (of which I have like the first 30 issues in their entirety". I'll also start looking for the quote so we can settle this once and for all. I have some 30+ books on Gettysburg so pardon me if If I don't remember exactly where I read it. But it is one of those things that stuck in my mind when I read it. (kind of like a Cavalry regiment advancing in 3 single ranks, dismounted, led horses to the rear. finally found the quote again, it's from The Story of a Cavalry Regiment by William Forse Scott (4th Iowa Cavalry)....and it's 3 single ranks in a column of Battalions!).

So Grumpy I will find your quote for you...researching in this order:
Coddington
Pfanz
Gallagher
Gettysburg MagazineS

Yes, the activities tent was where the AoP went after the landowner changed his mind about the boys using the barn.  I have to say it was novel shebang. One thing about it, sleeping "under the big top" kept us mostly in one spot.  That was one event where we neither carried nor erected any canvas, but back to documenting that oft-shouted Gettysburg assertion....

I've got this feeling it's going to be a quote from Bigelow, Cadava, Humphries, Hunt, or even a CSA observer. I'm not a good enough journalist, writer, or liar to make up "awash  in a [veritable!] sea of canvas". It's one of those things that just stuck in my brain. The "Gettysburg Magazine" articles are full of quotes from diaries and letters at the small unit observations level...." We [Company C, 'name the regiment'] moved up the road at 9AM. We saw many guns on the top of Cemetery Hill as we filed off to the left."

We know that the II Corps moved up to Cemetery Ridge during the morning of the 2nd (6AM move from camp)....and their Corps Wagons were explicitly left behind in Westminster. They complained of lack of food, and some erected shelter from the sun using Blankets.

The III Corps erected a few tents for SICKLES......Capt. Meade mentions them as he rides back and forth for his father trying to figure out where the III Corps has been positioned (incorrectly).

I went through Gallagher (essays from 1st and 2nd Day), Coddington, Pfanz (2nd Day....and Cemetery Hill/Culps Hill), Wert, and a few others yesterday....plus skimmed some 16 GBurg Magazine's.  I've got a bunch of ACW Illustrated/Civil War/Blue & Gray magazine's to go through as well. Plus another 50 books on GBurg.

Their is a quote in an O O Howard related book that states the XI Corps was using the Hanoverian Bugle Calls as they manuevered north of Gettysburg on July 1st.....any one ever see it, please let me know!!!

I'll save you some time, it's not Coddington of Pfantz, I already looked. Thanks for taking the time to find the source.