Sid PigsFoot

A little excursion into nearby Richmond with Kim ended up at the Museum of the Confederacy, where we met Sid "Pigsfoot," a Civil War living historian of 26 years experience.  He got his nickname from an incident in a tent on a rainy night where he flung an unwanted pig's foot he had just pulled from his haversack against the canvas, whereupon it bounced right back into his haversack, and the top promptly closed on it, to the great and everlasting amusement of the men in his unit.

Seems quite in keeping with the humor and tenor of men everywhere, including the Civil War.

He mentioned that he is a descendant of Sidney Lanier, a musician and poet well known in the Civil War South, who also served in the Virginia Tidewater area.  You can see him in the picture above with his mother, a born and bred in Richmond southern lady, who also serves as a living historian.
His equipment is styled for the year 1861, using a Georgia state rifle, of which he knew all sorts of details, but I can't remember them all, as I am still learning all the particulars of such things, currently being focused on artillery, and not the infantry arms.  But all in due time.
You can see here his backpack, canteen, haversack under the canteen, cartridge case on the right, and the bayonet on the left.  He forgoes the often seen bedroll you associate so often with Confederate soldiers for the backpack, because he found the bedroll overheated him, and in 1861 the backpack is quite consistent with the gear a soldier would have carried at that time.
Special thanks to Kim for taking the lower two pictures while I was engaged in a lengthy conversation about sutlers and period reproduction gear, something she is most assuredly NOT interested in.  (As she pointed out to me afterwards!)
 

Posted by Indiana Reb on: Saturday 11th November 2006, 10:24 PM

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