After Action Report for “September Storm”
M. A. Schaffner
Captain & AAG, Federal forces

Overview

“September Storm” aimed to provide realistic, well-scrïpted scenarios set during the battles of South Mountain and Antietam.  Chris Anders provided the inspiration and much of the leadership, with Kevin Air serving as the Federal commander.  They staged it, as reenactors, for other reenactors and for preservation, with proceeds going to the Western Maryland Heritage Foundation.  With a cap of 800 Confederates and 1,200 Union soldiers, and some 300 civilians, it would have substantially more participants than previous Anders-Air events.  

Though artillery, cavalry, and the Confederates were by unit-invitation only, anyone who agreed to meet authenticity standards could join the Union ranks.  The rules were not especially strict, and simply restricted specialty impressions (e.g., Lincoln, Jackson, women soldiers) and anachronisms (e.g., corps badges), as well as distinctive unit impressions except when called for by the scenario (e.g., Bucktails and Berdans).  Units camping with civilians, cots, and coolers had separate areas from other military units.  Organizers provided water, porta-johns, and ice but not straw.  All cars were to be out of camp by 11 p.m. Friday night until after the Sunday morning battle.

The event opened for registrants Thursday afternoon, September 6.  Most reenactors arrived Friday, and Chris and Kevin met jointly and separately with US and CS officers Friday night.  We had two battles on Saturday:  Fox’s Gap took place before spectators at 2:00 p.m.   At 7:30 p.m., for reenactors only, Frostown Road and Crampton’s Gap were fought beyond sight but within hearing of each other.  Sunday morning at 8:30 we had the final scenario of the weekend, the assault of the Iron Brigade at Antietam.

By the end of the shooting on Sunday, “September Storm” had scored a significant success in its principal goal of providing an accurate and intense historical experience, giving the hobby a significant uplift during a slow period.  This happened despite a number of challenges that I’ll cover these in the following sections on logistics, battle management, authenticity, and military administration.  

These observations reflect the limits and biases perhaps inherent in my role at Federal headquarters.

Event Logistics

Within the Federal military camps we had four water tanks and it seemed that none of our people were camped much more than 100 yards of any of them.  We had problems with the plumbing on one, but that got fixed not long after Chris heard of it.  All Federals seemed generally satisfied with the quantity and quality of water provided.  This proved especially important in the heat and humidity that lingered throughout the weekend.

We had more than enough firewood, both delivered and cut in place by volunteers before the event.   Conditions would have had to turn Arctic to strain the supply.

Planners had provided about 30% more porta-johns than guidelines suggested for the numbers registered, and actual attendance lagged registrations.  After the event I saw one complaint from a Confederate civilian in their mixed camp regarding cleanliness, but none came to US headquarters and I personally thought ours stayed reasonably clean.

Ice became a problem Saturday afternoon when we temporarily ran out.  The temperature hit 90 degrees with plenty of sun and humidity.  The Federal mixed camps had no shade and folks needed to cool down after the first battle.  Dirk Armstrong, Federal staff surgeon, had arranged to pre-position ice for soldiers as they came off the battlefield, but most commanders led their men directly back to camp so they could drop their gear and excess clothing first.  Some took the bags with them.

Overall medical support came from Armstrong and Laura Anders (both professional nurses), as well as local EMTs available on call.  Additional Confederate medical support was, from what I heard, hindered by sickness and injury.   Dirk held sick call twice on Saturday and again Sunday morning, treating several soldiers with relatively minor problems.  More taxing work came during the battle scenarios, especially at the start of Fox’s Gap, when two soldiers collapsed before the start, one on the Union right, then one on the far left, the latter requiring evacuation.  This delayed the beginning of the scenario by 20 minutes and risked further casualties as we drank further down in our canteens.

Parking presented the greatest logistical challenge.  Vehicles filled both the regular and overflow spaces well before 11 p.m. Friday, requiring the organizers to find more space locally.   Other vehicles accidentally parked on a neighboring farm field and had to be towed at the organizers’ expense.  The jobs of handling traffic, locating additional spaces within the areas nominally filled, and otherwise addressing the crisis consumed considerable time and energy, and at one point led to the detail of a squad of reenactors to direct parking, a service they might have volunteered for, but did not like being tasked with.  All the efforts solved the problem before the Saturday spectator battle.

Scenarios and Battle Management

As mentioned above, we had three battles to fight, one of them a double-engagement at dusk, involving in part a woods fight in fading light.  The battles involved eight to ten maneuver elements on each side.  Because we ran into problems earlier at “Down the Valley” with just a third of the men and half the units, we absolutely had to apply the lessons learned there.  To this end, Chris made scrïpts as simple and clear as they could be, consistent with history.  Tom Piston turned each scrïpt into little works of art in  Powerpoint, with each running to eight or nine slides, including one for opening dispositions.  Each slide showed individual units superimposed on a color aerial photo of the event site.  This made both topographical features and each unit’s relationship to the others easy to see.  The scrïpts went out by e-mail two weeks before the event and, on the Federal side, then passed on to a distribution list of some 40 unit commanders, adjutants, and other staff.  Those unable to open Powerpoint received Word versions.  I had a couple of back up hard copies at Federal HQ, but Rob Carter distributed others to regimental staffs during the pre-battle tactical walks.

We still faced challenges.  Units would have to move fairly promptly from their camps to individual jump off points without impeding each other or opposing units and, hopefully, without too much parading in front of the spectators.  Radios had proved problematical at “Down the Valley” – it’s hard to hear over a walkie-talkie in the midst of a firefight, and one channel can quickly become overloaded with messages to sub-units layered on top of messages between commanders and to event support.  We tried on the Federal side to alleviate this with buglers and runners and, at Crampton’s Gap, mounted couriers.  These tried and true methods again proved their worth.

Ultimately, however, the success of any of the scenarios would depend on the regimental, troop, and battery commanders’ ability to lead their men and follow the scrïpt.  In this area we ended up very well served.  The oft-maligned commanders of “mainstream” units demonstrated the value of their experience, including their experience working with each other, while “Progressive” units did the same.

Still, by the time we marched out for Fox’s Gap I was for various reasons – partly due to the heat, partly because of the scale, and maybe to some degree from congenital nervousness – considerably apprehensive of disaster.  However, despite a couple of miscues the battle unfolded largely according to plan.  

Our cavalry and artillery had set up in a field to our right front while the whole of the infantry staged in or next to a sunken road in the woods.  Fighting began on the far left of the Federal line, at the extreme view of spectators, while the Federal artillery section went into action just to their left.  We turned the Confederate right with the 2nd & 3rd USV, the 1st USV followed behind, then moved to extend the attack.  As the battle unfolded nearer spectators, the National Regiment and Western Brigade debouched from the woods, closely followed by Vincent’s, who moved to the fore as the battle developed.  

From behind the lines, I thought I had seldom seen a prettier fight.  All three arms worked together and units moved forward in depth, rather than in the wall to wall phalanx one often sees at larger events.  The Confederate horse artillery rode into and out of action and their cavalry fought both on foot and horseback.  I did not see the hand to hand combat toward the end of the fight and later heard that there was some awkwardness in executing it, but we had no scrïpt-busting or injuries, and whatever the spectators saw apparently left them as impressed as I was.  From the moment the fight ended I knew that if we just kept working at it the event would succeed.

In the evening battles, I didn’t see the Frostown fight but was pretty concerned about how it would go.  The 1st and 2nd USV and National Regiment would deploy on a thickly wooded ridge, move through the trees and brambled underbrush into a valley and up the next ridge, all in fading light.  As it was, I heard later that one Federal unit changed its route of advance and confused both sides, but that otherwise all went as planned with no injuries and only a couple of MIAs on the Confederate side, who all showed up shortly after.  The sight of the Bucktails deploying as skirmishers and firing in advance as they attacked the high ground was remarked on by folks on both sides.

While this went on I had the honor of serving with Mike Lavis, who commanded the 3rd USV, Western Brigade, and Vincent’s Brigade at Crampton’s Gap.  Crampton’s Gap took place in the same field as the morning fight but with both sides starting from different directions, which together with the twilight gave it an entirely different feel.  The 3rd USV broke into two battalions for this action and we also had support from a section of guns.  The fight progressed across the open field under waning light, with enough maneuvering and firing to keep the command staff pretty occupied.  Early on, as I ran to deliver an order to the Western Brigade, I found myself overtaken by Dave Myrick on horseback who quickly demonstrated the role of mounted courier.  From that moment I became something of an armed tourist on the field, but a very grateful one.

Everyone I think will have their own most vivid memory of this event.  For me it came as I drew my sword in the final charge, halted before a last flurry of fire from Confederates falling back under a flank attack, then saw a body of troops ahead to my left.  I could not tell whether they were our own men or enemy reinforcements.  I only found out when they fired, and I saw the Stars and Stripes in the light of their muzzle flashes.  That is a sight I will remember for quite some time.

After all this, my only concern about Sunday’s fight was that we got no one hurt and could all go home happy.  That pretty much proved to be the case.  I was posted with Vincent’s Brigade, which acted as the 7th Wisconsin.  Other Black Hats included the 2nd USV to our right as the 19th Indiana, the 1st to our left as the 6th Wisconsin, a dozen Berdans between us and the 1st , and, holding down the left of the Iron Brigade, the Western Brigade portraying the 2nd Wisconsin.  On the left of the Federal line, the National Regiment and 3rd USV portrayed the Pennsylvania Reserves.

The Confederates had the most work to do and the more complex job in this scenario, staging two separate assaults of their own.  The first of these found Stark’s Louisianans receiving fire from three sides in the Sharpsburg Pike and suffering horrific losses.  The last involved a grand assault by Hood’s Texans across the full sweep of the field.  There was some post-event criticism that the Federals did not take many hits, but the same accusation could not be made of the Rebs, who heaped themselves in numbers along the Pike and elsewhere in front of our lines.  Over on the left, I hear that the National Regiment’s retreat by wings under fire was beautiful to behold; from where I stood there were too many well-executed maneuvers to note in any detail.  When it was all over many of us stayed on the field another ten or twenty minutes to greet friends on both sides and shake hands with others we now had something great in common with.

All three scenarios demonstrated the tactical success one can achieve through the combination of clear, well-crafted scrïpts distributed in advance, walk-throughs with commanders on both sides, and thoughtful use of both modern and period forms of communication.  

Authenticity Issues

Standards for this event attempted to reduce or restrict unauthentic features while still accommodating the majority of reenactors.  To do this we augmented the standards posted on the event web-site with communications to commanders and answers to any questions that came up.  Requests from women to portray soldiers went to Chris, Tom Piston, and myself, and resulted in I believe a total of five acceptances.  A few other women showed up and were stopped at registration for Tom’s review.  Altogether I encountered five women portraying male soldiers in the Federal ranks and saw none among the Confederates.  That said, the women I did see did as good a job looking like the “boys of ‘62” as the average male reenactor.

I also saw one corps badge and a handful of individual unit designations (e.g., brass regimental numbers on caps).  I did not consider these egregious enough to warrant taking time from my other duties.  A scattering of soldiers had noticeably bad kits, including one highlander who at least was wearing trousers.  With the vast majority of reenactors present having good to splendid impressions, the isolated bad impression was its own punishment.

Cars in camp did not present a problem, despite the parking issues.  Mark Maranto, the Federal provost, and I rode along with Bobby Smalls, Skip Koontz, and Tom Piston to inspect both camps after lights out Friday night and only had to roust a handful.

Merry-making after “lights out”, including drinking and music, continues to present a challenge.  No complaints came to Federal HQ, perhaps because most practitioners were in the Mixed camps, where local community standards are more tolerant.  Still, one wonders how much of the difficulty with the heat Saturday had to do with an excess of elevated spirits Friday night.  And, not to be a spoil-sport, but “Marching Through Georgia” really has no role at an 1862 event.

Reenactors continue to bring cameras on the field.  Most people were pretty good about this, but in the final battle the temptation proved too great and I saw a number of “casualties” pull out pocket cameras – not many, but enough that I wondered how many of them ended up with shots that included other reenactors shooting right back at them.

Military Administration

I spent huge chunks of my free time in the eight months before this event working on “the Valley Trilogy”, including “September Storm”, “Down the Valley”, and McDowell.  This really pushed the tolerance of both my wife and my unusually indulgent boss.  Others involved in pulling together the campaign did this to an even greater extent.  Distributing roster updates, answering questions, debating standards, finding homes for independent units and individual reenactors, and on site work days pretty much crowded out most other leisure activity for the period.   It was all my choice, for good or ill, but in the midst of it I struggled to focus on the reason I got involved in the AAG work in the first place – to explore and learn about period staff duties.

At “September Storm” these took several forms.  On Friday, once units got on site and set up, I made the rounds to each Headquarters with a stationery issue and the first two orders.  The issue consisted of two consolidated morning report blanks with a sheet of instructions, a map of Federal camps, the schedule, and a list of unit portrayals together with a matrix that indicated who everyone was at what point in the weekend – most units portrayed three different regiments and Kevin Air was at various times Brigadier-General Jacob Cox of the Kanawha Division, Major-General George B. McClellan commanding the Army of the Potomac, or Major-General Joseph Hooker, First Corps.  (Oddly enough, Capt. M. A. Schaffner, 1st District of Columbia Volunteers, was the AAG for all of them.)   As a final touch, each command received about a yard of red office tape.

The orders covered the hours of reveille and lights out, when cars were to be out of camp,  when morning reports were due, and the times of the Friday night officers’ meetings.  Subsequent orders covered the hours of pre-engagement meetings and walk-throughs for the battles and a change in hours of reveille and morning reports for Sunday.  I had prepared ten copies of each order in longhand in advance of the weekend; I thought that getting a detail of clerks to do them on-site would be more trouble than it was worth.

Bill Wilson, as ADC, compiled the morning reports as they came in from the different commands.  This involved receipt and tabulation of seven consolidated returns, company returns for artillery and cavalry, and a separate count of headquarters staff.   In total, of about 1,040 Federal registrants some 670 reported for duty Saturday morning and slightly more on Sunday.  As often happens, the numbers of those leaving Saturday evening were more than balanced by those who had arrived after roll call.  Bill’s other staff duties included delivering orders, standing fire watch with the Federal provost Friday night, keeping an eye on camp during the battles, and anything else required, but his efficiency and artistry in preparing the returns was truly exemplary.  

Mark Maranto served as AIG/provost, with Kevin Kelley assisting.  Both issued passes and administered oaths of allegiance to period civilians, including several newspapermen.  They also looked for cars in camp, directed traffic, inspected the camps for compliance with standards, and performed “other duties as assigned.”  Both are thorough, dedicated, and rock-solid staff officers.   They had help in the Mixed camp in the person of Doug Slagel, Provost of the USV, who was there before any of us to establish order in the camps, and graciously offered us his cooperation throughout the event.

Doug Dobbs and Vic Bonardi worked as Kevin Air’s other ADCs.  Vic guided spectators through the Federal camps and explained the battle scenarios to them, piloting a role that will become even more important at “Andersburg.”  He also coordinated with the 3rd USV on Kevin’s mess arrangements.  

Doug Dobbs did everything else.  In addition to pre-event work involving several weekends with chainsaws and other implements of destruction, he painted signs Thursday and tried to un-snag the problems arising when some of the first arrivals began to camp randomly without consulting event maps.  After getting home at about 10 p.m., he went to work the next day and, as soon as he showed up on site, worked with parking, traffic direction, and delivering orders.  He was the ultimate go-to guy – if an order needed to go to Vincent’s on the other side of camp, he took it.  If Kevin needed to correct a regiment during battle, Doug’s long legs were the media of choice for delivering it.

As mentioned above, we were fortunate to have Dirk Armstrong of the Army of the Pacific with us as chief surgeon.  Much to my gratification, he fulfilled the administrative role of his position, turning in Surgeon’s Morning Reports (Medical Department form 16) for both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday’s showed two soldiers treated and returned to duty, one for a spider bite and the other for nausea.  Sunday’s problems were more serious, with one reported case of hypoglycemia, one eye contusion, one twisted ankle, and five struck down by heat; of the eight, two were reported in hospital, three confined to quarters, and two returned to duty.  On the whole, his willingness to go beyond the call of duty and take care of problems early on saved the event for several reenactors.  

We also had a cadre of buglers at headquarters.  With John Teller serving as coordinator, we tried to exploit their talents as much as we could.  Calls in camp – in addition to Reveille, Tattoo, and Lights Out – included Sick Call, Officers Call, and meal calls.  The General sounded 45 minutes before each unit was to form to take the field, followed by the Assembly a half hour later, then To the Color.  This gave everyone a heads up and time for weapons inspections.  In battle the buglers used calls to cue the action at key points.  They augmented these with prelude calls for specific units, such as “Dan Butterfield” for Vincent’s and the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth for the Western Brigade.  Wayne Abernathy used the Brady Sharp Shooter prelude for the Frostown fight, which we were amused to hear transliterated by the 1st USV as lilting “We’re in trouble now.”  Randy Valle of Vincent’s ran out to the registration area several times to echo the calls sounded by headquarters, and Ray Gromis of the 1st USV repeated them in the Mixed camp.  Wayne’s son Peter shared in the musical duties at HQ and in the field.

We could have done more.  We had a few other buglers and musicians in the Federal army who we didn’t connect with.  We could have relied more on the bugles in battle.  On the whole though, the buglers served a key role and laid the groundwork for greater involvement in the future.

Readers may note an unusual confluence of Brady Sharp Shooters on staff.  In addition to three of the buglers, they included Bill and myself, as well as the provosts Mark Maranto and Kevin Kelley.  We also had Brady’s Captain, Josh Mordin, serving as Bill Watson’s 1st sergeant in the “provisional battalion,” which ended up as a company due to its size, and included, among others, Brady’s Jonathan Burnham, “Andy” Scanlan, and Jason Usher serving as line infantry.  Although our first love is sniping, we have over the years gained experience performing staff work at every Anders-Air event from “Gates of Washington” on, as well as at the last two McDowells.  In part it’s because not every event needs scoped rifles, but it also probably has to do with working in the D.C. area and having jobs tied to systems, logistics, and administration.  Or maybe we’re just all nuts.

It’s certainly not because of a lack of similar talent elsewhere in the Federal ranks.  Daniel Schoun of the Western Brigade, Kim Perlotto of the 3rd USV, Mike Naliborski of the 1st USV, and Mike Chambers of the 2nd USV, as well as several others, all performed their difficult duties as adjutants with distinction.  I think it especially worth noting that although we moved the deadline for morning reports to 7 a.m. on Sunday, every unit completed them, some with no more equipment than a flat piece of firewood and a pencil.

But even among this group Kim Perlotto stood out.  He masterminded and oversaw a muster for payroll for the whole of the 3rd USV.  This included filling out in advance seven full scale pay rolls (the largest form in the Army’s inventory, known to break the heart of less stalwart clerks), coming up with thousands of reproduction dollars and fractional currency certificates, then on Saturday morning parading the battalion for inspection, and having each man come up to the pay table and sign for a individualized amount, with the sutler and laundress standing by to take their cut.  All of this had to take place between 8 and 10 a.m. to allow time for drill and preparation for the first battle.

For many in the ranks this was the highlight of the event.  For those involved in reenacting army administration it set a record that will be hard to match.

Conclusion

A tremendous amount of work went into this event, and it paid off.  We pushed the envelope though, and a careful study of lessons learned will be necessary in preparing for the next big one.   That said, as I look back on the whole of the “Valley Trilogy” I see an even greater accomplishment.  Between “September Storm”, “Down the Valley”, and McDowell, hundreds of reenactors have served through a full campaign, and many others in part of it.  The events matched their historical counterparts in relative scale, building from a mid-sized McDowell in May for the opening of the Valley campaign, to a slightly larger event for First Kernstown and First Winchester in June, and ending in a fairly large encounter for South Mountain and Antietam at “September Storm.”  A significant cadre of hobby leadership has participated over the course of this campaign,  grown used to the standards, and come to work as a team that crossed organizational boundaries and encompassed both blue and gray, without any commercial intermediary.  There was nothing like this happening anywhere else this year, and probably nothing quite like it in previous years.  

The more I look back on this summer, the more amazed I am.

Mr. Shaffner,
You have compiled an EXCELLENT report and are to be congratulated.
And I know if for a fact because I was there throughout the entire September Storm.
Good... no, GREAT job!
You have my admiration, Sir.
Julio