MUDSILL TROCITIES Part Deux

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Contents

Forward............................................................................3Thanks.............................................................................5About The Author...................................................................7Chapter One IN THE BEGINNING......................................................9Chapter Two CARTER'S INAUGURAL....................................................17Chapter Three CAMP CHASE GAZETTE..................................................25Chapter Four PAUL CRAIG...........................................................29Chapter Five HAPPENINGS...........................................................33Chapter Six THE TOP TEN...........................................................121Chapter Seven MUDSILL SONGS.......................................................123Chapter Eight REBUTTALS...........................................................133Chapter Nine MENTAL HEALTH........................................................135Chapter Ten EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT MUDSILLS.....................141Chapter Eleven THE LEGEND LIVES ON................................................147Chapter Twelve WHERE ARE THEY NOW?................................................149Chapter Thirteen IT'S MURPHY AGAIN................................................163Chapter Fourteen GREAT LOSSES.....................................................165Most Special Friends forever.......................................................187Mudsill Directory..................................................................189Mudsill Reunion Reminder!..........................................................195

Chapter One

Why is the origin of the Mudsills being written now and not in the first volume, you ask? It was after reading the first volume that Howard Popowski decided that this should be written so all will know how this incredible group of misfits came into existence. It seems that there was a mass escape from a mental hospital somewhere in Ohio and the escapees decided to band together...................... no, I'd better let Howard tell the story, although I'm probably pretty close. So here is Howard's version:

"The whole idea was to put a full size Civil War Company in the field. 60-80 men all of whom so knew what the hell they were doing-yeah, yeah, I know wishful thinking. In any case, George Derenburger, then erstwhile Captain of the 1st. Ohio, talked to a bunch of other little SVR Regiments about this idea. George being smarter than the average bear, chose those units with vastly more manpower than the average. He gathered together his own 1st. Ohio with about ten members, Christopher Craft's 41st. Ohio with about the same number, those of us in the 38th. Ohio - we were bloody huge with twenty members led by Jim Blue, Bill Combs 2nd. Ohio, John Zaharias and the 6th. Missouri, all the boys from the 17th. Michigan, and all those weird, really freaky fellows from the 44th. Indiana, the 16th. Iowa, 3rd. Wisconsin and the 37th. Illinois. All, in combination gave the requisite 60-80+ men in the line necessary to do company drill ala Colonel Casey. There were a few others, of course, independent perverts and geeks every one. They fit right in, as a rule, but maintained their misguided allegiances to other authentic groups of the day-that is the 100th. Ohio and "Sherman's Bummers."

This was essentially the founding crowd..... no, I think herd would be a more appropriate term, for even a mob has a leader, that put on the first events and took a mere two years to learn how to do "Company Right" and "Company Left" face and "Company Front" semi correctly.

We did some memorable and interesting events. The first two Park Service events were Fort Donelson and Shiloh in 1974. These were the first two events where armed civilians were allowed onto National Park Service property......... ever!

We did a couple of other events that stick to my mind like fresh peanut butter. Wayneburg, Pa. hilly ... sub-zero ... insane asylum. It was there that we first met John Eckhard's Redlegs. It was there that Max Rattay and Russ McClelland kept Charlie Fisk, Carlos Soto, Jerry Powers and me alive by tending a fire all night so that we wouldn't freeze to death. There was Mill Springs, Kentucky, the first time we all had proper dogtents and made real honest-to-God Company streets ... and the local looney who the cops fortunately stopped before he could fulfill his lifetime wish to shoot him a goddamned Yankee.

We grew geometrically. If you count heads in the picture of us making the turn off of Pennsylvania Avenue in the Jimmah Carter Inaugural Parade, you'll see two companies.

By July 4 of 1976 we had enough members to be a mid-war size battalion. We even made the centerfold of a National Geographic Book. It shows us just to one side of the Irish Brigade flag, crouched along a rail fence beside John Eckhard's gun. It was here we learned about a "John Eckhard's Pound." This was a cannon round consisting of a pound of black powder and a pound of flour. The effect was impressive. I was picking dust and splinters from that freaking rail fence out of my uniform for months after the event. Every time John fired, the blast would rain bits and pieces from the fence rails onto and into us. Makes you appreciate the real difference between .577" and 3.000". The tall drink of water with the round hat was our First Sergeant, Rick Davis, who lasted until a little after the Grenada, Mississippi event, where Mike Grant kept the Mississippi State Troopers entertained at the gate with a four hour presentation of Rufus, the Dancing Darkey Puppet. He did it so they would not come into the site and bust all of us for having and consuming alcoholic beverages on State Park property. That was also the event where my original pard, Charlie Fisk, ran full tilt off the parapet.... not a wise move under the best of circumstances, the parapet being twenty to twenty-five feet high. Fortunately Charlie didn't break anything important. Charlie and the rest of the old 38th. Ohio gang, the Powers brothers, Jack and Jerry, Jim Blue, Mike Fronk and Carlos Soto lasted until the SVR National Encampment at Gahanna, Ohio in 1977. By that date Thomas's Mudsills had pretty much solidified into the nucleus that would last throughout its history.

We did take on other elements, for instance some of John Eckhard's Redlegs galvanized to Infantry. Karl Luthin attached as the mounted arm and Brian Baird, Jim Turza and Tom Baker filled out a full size battery. We could field a solid three or four company battalion, a four gun battery and a troop of cavalry, with adjunct impressions to fit- laundresses, hospital, chaplain, brothel, engineers and signal corps.

But the most important thing was that the small local affiliations dropped way down in importance. We started to think of ourselves as PRIMARILY Thomas's Mudsills and we began to develop, without even thinking about it, a group persona. (end Popowski entry).

As the Mudsills began to crawl out of the primoral ooze and learn to stand upright so they could drill (I think I recall...