Moved from Arkansas in the CW Message Board
I know that there are several re-enactors who read this board so I have a question.
Other than in the cases of photographs of field Hospitals and the field use of the individual soldiers "dog tent" can anyone cite a photograph were field expedient tent poles were use to erect their tents?
The only field expedients used to erect a tent that I can remember is a field hospital at Gettysburg where various items including rifles and bayonets were used the hang tents from to shade the wounded.
I can not remember seeing any picture of obvious field expediant tent pole being used on any tents other than the dog tent. All other tents seem to have manufactured or production tent poles. While I know that most of these pictures were taken while soldiers were in camps, even the pictures taken while the army was in the field, such as Grant spring of 1864 campaign, the tents seem to have manufactured poles.
I realize that those picture of Grant were Headquarters tents but they still had to carry the poles. And in many of the pictures of camps, they seem to be in vast open areas with trees a good distance away, making it very difficult to make field expident poles.