Greetings Cove,
I was thinking about your letter of the 1st inst. (thank you for your kind words) specifically those 67 fellows soldiering away their time at Fort Crawford. A successful deterrent is one that is never used. Reminds me of the Texas Insurance Commissioner, Jose O. Montemayor. Spent a lot of his Air Force time in a hole as nurse-maid to ICBMs that never flew. After that, said he, the state Mold Crisis never seemed like such a big deal. That was clearly a successful deterrent.
As for "not seeing action" consider Co. K, 2nd Texas Vol. Inf. That left Dallas in 1898 to fight the Spanish, but only got as far as the swamps of Florida. They saw action in roadhouses and bars as well as in malaria and yellowjack wards.
In peace or war, soldierin’ has always been a risky business. Not that that is a revelation to you, war-time service an’ all. Thank you very much.
Speaking of real-life service, Let me bounce a 19th century logistical question offen you:
A thousand rounds, elongated ball .58 cal. cartridges w/ caps in box weighs 95 lbs. With .69 round ball it’s 105 lbs. Let’s average that out to a hundredweight. Every 1,000 men (and/or women) blasting away as fast as they can, would use up 300 lbs. every 60 seconds. With "40 round in the box and 20 in the pantaloons" they could shoot for 20 minutes before they ran dry. How did they replace that three tons of ammo? Wagons to the Seat of Mars? Behind the line dumps? Hand carried to the firing line? This could work for static lines and maybe for a fighting withdrawal, but what about on the advance?
Getting beans and bullets where and when they need to be is a tricky art. I s’pect it always was.
Thanks for yer consideration o’ this matter.
Keep in touch an’ we’ll all do th’same
Hargis, G. 5 A-1, a.k.a Deacon, a.k.a. Amodeus Thurn, a.k.a. Ives Aargul’ch, a.k.a. Capt. Savage, a.k.a. … well all of us.
Re: john saporito is alive and well!!