OPENING COMMENTS: Welcome to one and all! This is a new record for the newsletter – two issues in the same month! In order to keep these issues to within reasonable lengths, I had to end issue 14 so I could keep it to the 5 page limit, and I also had several people write articles so I had more «stuff» to put in. So here we go with the next issue!

FORT HARTSUFF, NEBRASKA: Sgt Jerry Davenport, of Company C, 9th US Infantry at Fort Hartsuff has written an article about the fort and the garrison’s activities. Here it is in it’s entirety:

Hello to our sister company in Wyoming from Company "C" Ninth US Infantry in Nebraska!
Roy Varga recently asked me to write an article on Fort Hartsuff and our living history program. Given that I like to talk and that Fort Hartsuff and living history are two of my favorite subjects, I said I'd give it a try. As I have only had the opportunity to meet Cprl. Varga from your company, please allow me to introduce myself first. I am Sgt. Jerry Davenport. My family and I volunteered for 6 years as living historians at Fort Hartsuff until about 1 1/2 years ago when I was hired part-time by the Game and Parks Commission to work at Fort Hartsuff. One of my responsibilities at the fort is that of the coordinator for living history and volunteers. Besides working at Fort Hartsuff I farm and run a hog buying company. My interest in the Indian Wars dates to 1976 and my interest in reenacting started in the early '80s with a Buckskinning impression. Some of you might have seen my cyberspace impression of Capt. (Brevet. Col.) Coppinger. Let me reassure you that my impression of Coppinger is based on historical accounts of his personality and not on my own. The picture below is that of my wife Cathy and I at the Fort Hartsuff mid-winter ball that was held on the 6th of January this year.

Fort Hartsuff is located near the center of Nebraska in the beautiful North Loup River Valley between the present day towns of Ord and Burwell. Fort Hartsuff was established in 1874 on the site chosen for it by General E.O.C. Ord, the Department of the Platte Commander. Members of Co."C" 9th infantry started construction in early September, but were transferred to Fort Laramie in April 1875 before they could complete the fort. CO."A" 23rd Infantry completed the construction by early 1876. As was the official Army policy in the mid-70's, Fort Hartsuff was built from materials that were available locally. With a generous supply of gravel and lime in the area, concrete walls were called for. Trees from a cedar filled canyon 6 miles up river provided the lumber and shingles. Originally the plans called for a 2 company fort, with a company of infantry and a troop of cavalry manning the garrison. However, before the construction could be completed the fort was down-sized to a single company of infantry. During its life, Fort Hartsuff housed men from Co."C" 9th Infantry, Co. "A" 23rd Infantry, and Co.'s "I" an "K" 14th Infantry. The primary duties of the men of Fort Hartsuff were to stop the miners using the Grand Island (Nebraska) to Deadwood (South Dakota) road and to check the flow of war parties between the Sioux reservation and the Pawnee reservation and back. Company "C" of the 9th was again posted here when the fort was abandoned in 1881. Following its abandonment the Union Pacific Railroad was given title to Fort Hartsuff but sold it when it was decided to build the tracks on the south side of the river. From that time until 1962, the buildings of Fort Hartsuff served as a farm headquarters. In 1962 Dr. Glen Auble donated the 20 acres that the fort sits on to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to be used as a state historical park. 13 years later Roy Lindsay was appointed Park Superintendent and the major restoration of the buildings began. Restoration continues at Fort Hartsuff SHP and is currently about 95% complete. "Captain" Lindsay officially started the living history program at Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park in the early 80's with himself and a couple of other men and a handful of hand-me-down Civil War look-alike uniforms. In the mid 80's Fort Hartsuff hosted a couple of the General Miles Marching and Chowder Society encampments. The exchange of information sparked a decided improvement in the living history program at the fort and many M1874 uniforms were purchased from the Quartermaster Shop. This is where I came in

Through the 90's we have continually striven to improve our impressions as well as the entire program. Recent recruitment of volunteers has expanded our company to where we have a base of about 20 soldiers. Our Volunteers can currently animate nearly every building on the post with skilled craftsmen such as wagoners, carpenters, bakers, saddlers and the like. The year 2000 witnessed probably our best year (so far) for living history at the fort. We held several special events to celebrate the summer holidays and hosted our first encampment in September.

Our recent Mid-Winter Ball was attended by approximately 60 volunteers. The large number of women and children made this possible in spite of the fact that nearly half of our soldiers were absent. Our feminine volunteers take great pride in the historical accuracy of their dresses and a local seamstress has recently started production of even more accurate uniforms for our soldiers. We hope to continue to improve our impressions through mini-seminars for our volunteers and contact with other living history groups. We feel that contact with other living history groups is one of the most important tools we have for improvement in our program. Because of this 3 of our men are presently planning to come the Montana event that Russ is planning in June (Lord willing and the creek don't rise). I'd also like to take a moment to invite all of you to our event which presently looks like we may have to switch to Labor Day weekend. Roy, Lou (5th Cav.), and Bill(Dr. Earhart) attended last it last fall and we really enjoyed having them. If any of you would like to contact me my e-address is: cnp@nctc.net
Take care to keep your hair!

Jerry M. Davenport, Sgt. Co. "C" 9th U.S. Infantry Regiment (1876)

Thanks to Sgt Davenport for the article about his company and Fort Hartsuff! I look forward to working with you and Company C in the months ahead!

A Woman’s View: This issue’s article comes from Marla Matkin, who portrays Libbie Custer , and addresses an area that interests most of us – the dance. Enjoy!

SCHOOL OF THE SOLDIER: This is the continuation of an article written by Lt Col Charles Reed, Department of the Platte, which we had started in our last issue (#14). This will pick up with Rule #4 of his article, A Private’s Guide to Drill.

Thank you for the wise words of wisdom concerning drill basics! I’m sure we can all benefit from the information in our efforts to improve our impressions.

PROJECT UPDATE: Believe it or not, I have FINALLY finished my first officer’s field desk! It’s a little larger than they actually were, but I intend to use it for my own «stuff» so I needed storage room. All in all, it came out well and I am happy with it. I am now building a very scaled down version of another field desk for Lt Col Charles Reed, BECAUSE IT WAS HIS BIRTHDAY RECENTLY and to thank him for all the help he has given me in researching Captain Burrowes, who I have started portraying at living history events. Here are two pictures of the finished desk. I look forward to receiving comments about it, constructive and otherwise!

IN CLOSING: That’s about it for now. I hope this newsletter issue finds everyone healthy future, and I encourage people to write articles or send pictures or both to add to this humble rag. If you didn’t see your article in this issue, fear not! The next issue will be out before you can sing the first three verses of Bonnie Blue Flag! Take care, keep your hair and keep up the fire!

Your most humble servant,

Roy D.Varga, Corporal
Co. G, 9th US Infantry
Ft Russell