Opening Comments: Hello again to everyone! Issue #7 helped me learn a very valuable lesson – newsletters over 5 pages long are almost impossible to email to everyone, to include our group’s webmaster, Max, over in the Ukraine! I think from now on, I will have to keep my creative juices and my enthusiasm under control for future issues so I don’t have to pack a lunch and a sleeping bag every time I want to send our newsletter to someone! What does

this all mean? It means our newsletter issues will probably become more frequent than ever before! The pictures above show, on the left, our brave and resourceful eyes and ears of the company, Lester and Ron; on the right, is one of our more «gentile» members, my daughter Megan, riding on a float in the Cheyenne Frontier Days Parade. If what I tried comes out okay, above the pictures will be a letterhead with our regiment and company on it, done by our good friend and campaign partner, Lou Janack. Oh well, all that said, on with the Herald!

Comrades in Arms: Rummaging through my ever growing pile of photographs sent from far and wide, I came across one of Russ Doudt out in California. I’ve written back and forth to Russ for quite some time now and for the life of me, I don’t think I ever put a picture of him in our newsletter! Russ is a member of the 7th US Memorial Cavalry, our friends just south of the Wyoming-Colorado border. He enjoys going with his faithful mount on weekends for a relaxing ride in the country. This picture shows Russ and his friend enjoying some of the sunny California countryside. Russ, who is a member of the US Marine Corp, will be heading off on temporary duty to the far reaches of Africa in the near future. We wish him all the best during his stay there and pray for a safe return for him and his unit.

Ongoing Projects: I am about ¾ of the way through my latest reenactment wood project – a «kitchen box» for Betty’s encampment items. The box is rather large and measures about 16» tall by 16-18» wide. It will have a closeable lid, and the lid will have a smaller box on the top to hold small items such as matches, oil lamp wicks, and candles. Inside the box there will be enough room for three lanterns, plates, silverware, a coffee pot, and a few pans and a pot. I will include a picture of it once it’s completed.

The other project I’ve been thinking of doing for a bit now is to build a full size mock up of an army wagon. I’ve had a hard time obtaining a photo or picture of one till today, when I went rampaging through the internet and found a company (I believe they’re in the Dakoras) that builds full scale wagons and wagon/artillery wheels. I printed out the picture of the army wagon they advertise and I’ve sent off numerous questions about it. Someday, I hope to be a rich man and be able to buy one already built. Till then, I will have to settle on building one for static display at events. For those of us who don’t know what the army wagons looked like back in the 1870s, here is the picture showing it in all of it’s glory! Enjoy!

The picture below is of an «up close and personal» encounter I had with a member of the Lakota Sioux War Party and Historical Society while at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. The plucky warrior had ridden up behind me and tapped me with his coup stick, then rode off yelling at the top of his lungs before I could get my pistol out of it’s holster. At least I was left with my hair!

Comrades in Arms: As quite a few of you know, I’ve been in contact with Norm Johnson, who does an excellent portrayal of General George Crook, who was the campaign commander of the Big Horn/Yellowstone Expedition. Company G, C and H of the 9th US Infantry were a part of the infantry battalion in the column. Norm will be present at the Territorial Park event in August, and has sent me some pictures of him and his wife which I just received. Here are a few of the pictures.

In the picture on the top left, is a «reproduction» of a famous picture of the General, in the same pose and clothing; on the upper right, is a picture showing General and Mrs Crook in camp; the one on the bottom left has some people we already know, Bill Hutchinson -–the surgeon who will accompany the column to Laramie in August, and our very own Hank Miller – in his infantry private outfit. General Crook is to Hank’s left, and I believe the fourth individual is a portrayal of Ike Stanton. The last picture on the bottom right is of four very famous people in history – Bill Cody, General Crook, Ike Stanton, and Wild Bill Hickock!

After Action Reports: On April 15th, I went to volunteer at the base museum’s store to give Paula Taylor (curator) a helping hand for a few hours. Feeling the urge, I went with all of my infantry kit on. When I arrived and opened up the store, I found out that there would be three tours coming through the museum that day and Paula asked if I’d be willing to help out. When the 1st tour arrived, Paula surprised me by telling the people I would give a short talk on the IWP infantry! Being caught off guard, I think I still did myself proud and received numerous comments of appreciation. The next two groups arrived almost together. While Paula led the larger group through the displays, I met with several teenagers from one of the local high schools and talked for about 15 minutes on my uniform and equipment. They seemed very interested, asked for one of my business cards on the company, and said they will ask the history department to request reenactors to visit their school. It should prove to be an interesting visit! Once the third and largest group was seated, I once again went through my talk about the exciting infantry world (grin)! Wearing the wool and equipment in the very warm upper floor of the museum made for a long, but enjoyable day. I only wish I took pictures.

On April 28th, we did a presentation for Kathy Hill’s 4th Grade class at Jessup Elementary school here in Cheyenne. Lou Janack, Rick Souza, Hank Miller and I had various items set out on display and talked with the students about the history of Wyoming during the 1860s and 1870s, to include the various battles and skirmishes in this area. I was very surprised to hear there were so many actions between the military and the Indians during this time frame. Hank Miller came dressed and equipped as an infantry private and Rick Souza came dressed as a cavalry private so we had two troopers and two walk-a-heaps present. Hank did an excellent job in his presentation of what a soldier had to go through to get ready for campaign. It was pretty funny when he knocked over some of the display on the table by accident and I started charging him money out of his $13 per month to pay for it! Hank played it to the hilt and the kids really enjoyed his play acting. Lou and Rick did themselves and the 5th Cav proud as usual with their talks about the weapons, equipment, and history of the cavalry in Wyoming. All in all, it was an enjoyable day and the students asked a lot of quality questions. It was apparent Mrs Hill takes an active hand in the teaching of her charges and encouraged them to ask questions to help with their learning. The students really appreciated the chance to come up and look at and handle the displays. Here are a couple of pictures from the school visit.

On the left is a picture of (from left to right) Lou Janack, Hank Miller, and Rick Souza in the classroom just before the students came in. On the right is a picture of me, standing behind the displays we had set up on various tables.

After much frustration and grinding of teeth, I finally found the music and lyrics to the song Robin Adair. This was a song the men of the 9th US Infantry enjoyed while posted to Fort Russell, Fort Laramie, and various posts in Nebraska. I obtained it from the internet, which is a very useful tool. The site was a great one to look at for «old» period music and I plan to make much use of it in the future. I actually played this song for the students at our Jessup presentation on my tin whistle. I have already memorized the music, now if I could only remember the lyrics!

In Closing: Attempting to keep with my overall plan, the newsletters will be restricted to only five pages each. This will help Max post them on our web site, and also help me send them out as emailings. Instead of having to pack a lunch and a sleeping bag to upload or download them, the shorter versions will pass over the internet quicker! Topics that weren’t covered in this issue (A Woman’s View, School of the Soldier, etc), will be covered in the next issue. If anyone would like to write an article or send pictures for our newsletter, please feel free to do so. Articles and newsletters from other groups are also encouraged. As always, take care, keep your hair and keep up the fire!

Manchu,

Roy D. Varga, Corporal
Co. G, 9th US Infantry
Wyoming Territory
Newsletter Editor
BVARGA1@JUNO.COM