Welcome to Company I, September Storm edition. Mike Mantini, caught in a photograph two years ago when the 5th NHVI stopped for a moment during the Port Republic/Cross Keyes event, shows you how you should look -- basics. Plain, everyday, common federal infantry, well equipped and prepared to set camp in 15 minutes and strike it in five.  A blanket roll is a perfectly acceptable substitute for a knapsack.

As these extremely focused (hungry) fellows show at the McDowell 2007 event, the 1862 army specialized in Meals, (Not) Ready to Eat.  Food prep takes time, and puts you in the zone. Figuring out how to make rations taste and feel different was a major activity for the average soldier.

Can your unit:

1. Issue and prepare period rations quickly and without fuss, using period equipment, containers and tools?

2. Create a grand guard force that can then be deployed realistically in terms of terrain and avenues of approach and whatnot? That can effectively screen your main force rather than stand out in the woods and shout?

3. Train in drill correctly, that is, properly instructed and supervised noncommissioned officers handle the training of skills to the individual soldiers and small groups?

4. Pick itself up Saturday morning, strike camp in 15 minutes, move out and create a comfortable and even defensible bivouac somewhere else?

5. Back up the activity with period paperwork, to overlay a nice patina of bureaucratic realism over everthing? (No rations without the morning reports, for instance.)

There are units out there that can do all that. Is yours among them?