Brigade Structure:

Army of N. Virginia

Longstreet’s Corp.

Alexander’s Battalion

Colonel Phill Matteson

Lt. Col. Craig McCann

Captain Mike Karnitz

NCOs:

1 First Sergeant

3 Sergeants

2 Corporals

Ordinance:

3 – 3" Light Artillery with Limbers

Phone Numbers:

Col. Phill Matteson-

(716) 694-0947

Lt. Col. Craig McCann

(585) 225-8984

Capt. Mike Karnitz

(585) 637-9069

$50.00 Family

5 guns this year. We need everyone possible at every event. Try to plan your vacation or time off so we can win the war this year.

Greetings ladies and gentlemen of the Bedford Light:

I’ve been a bit remiss in submitting articles to the newsletter this past year but I’ve had a full schedule and the constant rush has temporarily curtailed the creative wordsmith ability. As this past season comes to a close, with Remembrance Day as the final event of the year, I have most of the re-enactment equipment piled in the garage waiting to get put away. At least I got the pots and pans scrubbed and ready for storage. I scraped the Cedar Creek mud off the boots and brogans and cleaned, polished, and rubbed them with mink oil so now they’re ready for the next time of need. There was no free time to touch up the paint on "Hoss" this fall but he’s reasonably clean so I’ll simply put on the winter cover and the touch up will have to wait until spring.

Reminiscing over the past season, I had a great time and I surely hope everyone else did, also. In hindsight even a few "disasters" can cause a slow shake of the head, roll of the eyes, a grin, or an outright laugh.

I’ll never forget the night at Letchworth when we were all huddled under the pavilion, marveling at the thunder, lightning, near hurricane winds, and driving rain when somebody said "Mike, I can’t see your tent anymore". Sure enough, the Captains cathedral had had enough of the weather and decided to lie down and turn in for the night. I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach but we pulled together and got through it. This years Letchworth event made me proud to be part of the Bedford Light and delighted to have all you as friends. Everyone maintained a positive, even cheerful, attitude through a rough time and the camaraderie at teardown will be remembered as one of the best moments of our unit. We moved on to face the Federals at Gettysburg, Liberty, Hamlin and Cedar Creek, all of which have contributed memories of their own.

Perhaps the most surprising element of this past season is the fact we have now grown to a five-gun unit! The debut of Paul Shearer’s new 10-pound Parrot rifle (yet to be named) at Cedar Creek and the return of Dave "Robie" Robillard and his mountain howitzer, "Nick", gives us the possibility of being the largest Confederate artillery re-enactment unit to take the field. Let’s make it happen in 2005!

One more item before I close: It takes a lot of powder and primers to allow us to take the field and do what we enjoy doing so much, which of course has an associated cost. Bob Henry has taken the initiative to acquire a pair of black powder hunting rifles for us to raffle off in order to add some "coin of the realm" to our treasury to help defray that cost. He has also printed the needed raffle tickets. Please contact him to receive tickets and sell as many as you can. Every dollar gained will keep our guns on the field and our dues to a minimum.

Again, I am proud to have served with all of you this past season!

Your obedient servant,

Lt. Col. Craig McCann

Bedford Light Artillery,

Alexander’s Battalion,

Longstreet’s Corps, CSA.

The year has come to a close. All in all we had a good year. We had members attend 14 events; 7 Reenactments, 3 Living Histories, two schools (School of the Piece and School of Instruction), Fort Meiers and Longstreet’s Corps Annual meeting. We now have 5 guns; 3 three-inch Ordinance rifles, a 10 lb. Parrott and a mountain Howitzer. We added 8 new people to our ranks. With a full compliment of guns we need to grow. We need crewmen. With five guns we are going to need full attendance for certain events. Gettysburg, Cedar Creek, Hamlin Beach, Mumford could be events that we need everyone to attend. To field a full battery, we are going to need 27 officers, NCOs, and crewmen. At present we have about 22 military members. Three of our members are staff officers on Alexander’s Battalion and a fourth is on Alexander’s Battalion Provost. These people cannot and should not have to step down to work a gun at a Corps event. We need, at the minimum, 9 more dedicated members. We have a good core of people. We need to expand. With expansion comes extra cost. Our insurance will probably go up and we will need more powder and primers. At Gettysburg this year we fielded a section, participated in six battles and fired 96 rounds total. If we field a battery and fire 188 total rounds we would need 118 pounds of powder and 188 primers at the minimum. Powder cost averaged $7.18 per pound and primers cost $0.85 each. To field our battery at an event like Gettysburg would cost about $1007. Don’t panic. Most events only have two battles and we average 20 rounds per gun for a two-battle event. It costs around $110 per gun per event. If we can continue to get the German mix from Virginia and keep our rounds to 10 oz. we should be in good shape.

At the School of the Piece at Old Fort Niagara we were approached by a gentleman that wanted to reenact and wanted information on how to join. Lt. Col. McCann and I talked with him and found out he was in the process of buying a 10 lb Parrott. This was how Sgt. Paul Sheerer joined our unit. He and a friend went to Paulson’s Brothers and picked up the gun in late August. We tried to get together early in September to test fire his gun but couldn’t coordinate everyone’s schedule. Sgt. Sheer e-mailed me that he had a crew to train and wanted to test fire his 10 lb Parrott. I went down on a Monday and Tuesday evening in September and met the crew he had assembled. They were Chris Connelly, Shawn Connelly, Jeff Newman, and Dave Schultz. I let Paul do the training and I monitored and clarified the techniques and answered any and all questions. Hopefully they will join us, as they would be an asset to our unit. I know they would all fit in with our band of merry misfits. The test firing and inspection of the gun afterwards went well. No problems were noticed. I welcome Paul, his piece, and his friends to our unit. Sgt. Sheerer did a great job at Cedar Creek, his first event as gunner on his own gun.

This past October was the 140^th anniversary of the Battle of Cedar Creek. This event closes out our year. I enjoyed the event this year. The battlefield was expanded; we had a new place to camp, we had a new location to place our batteries. The weather was chilly and it rained off and on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was clear, cool and windy. The port-o-pots were a distance from most of the artillery camp, until they were moved closer. Wood was lacking, we had to ‘borrow’ some from the Federal camp. The Sutlers were in the next county, or so it felt if one walked over to them. There was a bus shuttle that went to the different camps and the sutler area. I rode one Saturday after dinner just to warm up. Our unit did a fine job on the field and all should be commended. There was an incident with another unit and that is being addressed. Everyone had a safe trip home.

Our Corps meeting will be held January 29^th, which means we will be having a unit meeting in February. If anyone has a place we can hold the meeting at, please let me know. I will be sending out a questionnaire to all members. Please take the time to fill them out and return them to me. As always I will supply a self addressed stamped envelope. Thank you all for a good year.

Your Obedient Servant,

Captain Mike Karnitz

OK, it’s that nasty time of year again, when the last event is gone. I have a few things to talk about.

The first is Cedar Creek -

Myself, I had a great time and hope everyone else did too. First, I want to apologize to the members of the battery for not being where I should have been. I felt bad about not working with our group, but the greater good had to be done. Everyone did a fine job, despite the cold windy wet weekend.

I want to extend special thanks to the following: pvt. Gordon Clifford, who came to the event, even with being in the terrible pain he was in and could not work on the gun because of this. He acted as the Lt. Col.'s aide and made it through the weekend.

Sgt. Mel Karnitz: at Sunday's battle she got her ears whacked by the gun next to ours (who were caught double charging the gun), but she changed positions and continued on.

My hat is off to both of you.

Next item:

Raffle tickets, as many of you know, we now have raffle tickets for sale. Please contact Cpl. Bob Henry if you want to get some to sell. I am also working on trying to get us in to some gun shows to sell tickets and recruit. I will have the info put in the newsletter as I get it. My hope is that all the members take their turn and spend at least 1 day at a show selling tickets. A schedule can be made out to help plan this.

Last item:

I have done the 1st. Sgt.'s job all this year with very little feedback. I want to hear from you!!!! I am looking for suggestions on what could or should be done different. Just let me know what you think so I can change if need be.

I'm getting long winded so I better stop.

Your Obedient Servant;

1st. Sgt. Roland Meiers

GET

Your

Raffle

Tickets-

Contact

Bob or LuAnn

(585) 659-2240

bvhenry@rochester.rr.com

bvhenry@rochester.rr.com