Knapsack Packing - Vol II, Ep. 13

welcome to the civil war digital digest today we're going to be talking about how to pack a knapsack no we always enjoy providing a lot of research and primary accounts when we're putting together episodes for the digest so we went to do the same thing for how to pack a knapsack and we searched tirelessly to find primary counts of soldiers talking about how they packed everything before they went on a campaign and we could not find a single story so if you know of one we would love for you to put it down into the comments so lacking that the next thing we did was looked at some of the manuals during the time we looked through the regulations the 1865 quartermaster manual and also Army Navy journal that was published during the war and once again we didn't find anything talking about how to put a knapsack together what we did find were a couple of them that talked about what to do with the overcoat or the great Co some suggested folding it and putting it inside the pack others suggested rolling it and putting it on top and interestingly enough and two different issues of the Army Navy Journal both were talked about so we're gonna look at the experience that we've had over many years in the Living History hobby about we found works well and what seems to make sense what we're gonna do today is I'm going to pack a pack that's gonna be a very heavy pack maybe an early wore or someone that's just leaving their winter camp out on campaign when this is all said and done it's probably going to be quite heavy and I wouldn't necessarily recommend that this is what you carry on your back one last note I'm gonna use terms that come out of the quartermaster manual this is the trunk this is the sack this is the apron and these are the great coat straps so what are we going to put inside the trunk we're gonna start there with our issue blanket now this is where your back is actually going to be up against the pack so what you want to have in there is something flat and flexible for your comfort you're not gonna want to put things in there they gonna poke and prod at you as you're on the March and we actually still have a little bit of room left so I'm gonna throw some rope in there so we can build a shelter and I also have a shelter half here I comrade would have the other half and I'm gonna place that in there as well and we're gonna get that buckled down tight all right now we have the other side the sack portion I have an extra shirt and that's some various odds and ends I have my writing kit so I can write some letters home a hug towel so I can clean up one available a sleeping cap at least one pair of extra socks now again there's no wrong way so maybe you can put some extra socks in here whatever works for you let's have some other odds and ends like a pocket mirror a lantern a hard rubber comb and my sewing kit remember this is everything that you own on your back and I also have a testament we're gonna put that in between the shirt there to protect it we're gonna get the ties down with the apron so it stays closed all right no we have our rubber blanket or gum blanket where I would suggest and many others do as well did you place it here folded just a little bit longer than the actual pack so maybe when it starts raining you can get a hold of it to pull it out or maybe your comrade can get it out for you so you can stay dry on the March and a rain storm the other thing that this does is if you're actually lucky enough to have a frypan you can place the frypan on it and that protects your blanket and shelter half and other items from maybe getting the black from the fire or any grease last if you actually have a hatchet the little shelf here that's created from the full trunk it makes a nice place to put the hatchet and we're gonna fold it over in half and then get it buckled down alright last would be the overcoat or great coat as you said some say to put this on the inside and maybe the blanket go on the outside whoo I'm gonna place it on the top this is a lot of weight on top of the pack and it's gonna have a tendency to want to roll back on you one picture of a soldier talks about running a stick through the back through the straps to kind of hold the greatcoat up another way that works really well and again this doesn't come from a photo or from an actual primary account but seems to make sense he's just running the greatcoat straps up over the shoulder straps so they stay tight and it keeps this from rolling and these you want to cinch down nice and tight to keep that from bouncing around and rolling around on you all right and there you have a fully packed knapsack notice with the coat that I actually put the the folded part the cape back away from me that way it's not getting into my ears or my back of my neck and irritating me on the March now again this is a very full pack I would recommend dividing some of the stuff like the frypan and the hatchet with your comrade and you not carry it at all because this has got some pretty good huff to it and you probably would make that full 15 or 20 mile march a day with this type of pack on if you have any questions about what we did feel free to put them down in the comments and again if you know of a primary account that a soldier talks about packing his knapsack I would love for you to share it down there for all of the viewers and us so we can learn thank you for watching this episode of the Civil War digital digest hope you enjoyed it and if you did hit that like button and remember to subscribe so you can get notifications on all of our new times

Channel: Civil War Digital Digest

Views: 33,361

Keywords: Civil War Digital Digest, civil war, Living History, Re-enacting, Union, Infantry, Military, CWDD, Education, #CWDD, civil war knapsack, knapsack, History

Id: rwtM58-YCtM

Length: 6min 34sec (394 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 22 2016