Sunday, February 12, 2012

Praxis: Hauling cargo by human power alone.

On the first day of the battle of Stones River, Tennessee, 31 December 1862), Battery G, 1st Missouri Light artillery's two gun 10 pound Parrott section was sited on the left flank of Phil Sheridan's infantry division, drawn up along the Wilkinson Pike at a place later called The Slaughter Pen. Their right flank hanging in air, Sheridan's men fought until their ammunition was exhausted and then retired as the Confederates charged one more time. The artillery batteries down the line to the right of Battery G's two gun section were all overrun after hand-to-hand fighting with rammers and handspikes against bayonets and clubbed muskets. At the last moment, the Battery G artillerymen -- mostly made up of St. Louis Germans who had been in the war from the very beginning (they had fought as 90 day infantrymen at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri on 10 August 1861) -- with their Lieutenant dead with a bullet in the brain, their horses all slaughtered in the ditch behind them, attached ropes to their Parrots and dragged them by hand (a process called "prolonging") over the rocks through the cedars to their rear. They, and only they, saved their guns from Sheridan's line that day. I know this because my great-great grandfather, Cornelius Vanderboegh, was shot in the butt and captured at this spot while serving with Battery G. We like to think that he turned his back to the enemy because he was hauling on those ropes, but the historical record is unclear and Cornelius left no written account himself.
As modern Americans who have always lived in a society where literally everything is on wheels and powered by one means or another, hardly any of us are aware of the various ways that human power can be harnessed when such means are unavailable. The Army has even forgotten, although as recently as World War II and Korea, forbidding terrain demanded that soldiers and Marines hump the supplies themselves.
This was brought home to me the other day when I ran across this item for sale at Hayes Otoupalik's place: a WW2 US Army Green Web US GI Soldier's Trace harness for pulling equipment loads.
I have written before about Sustaining Light Infantry on "Shank's Mare," with the Packboard, the ALICE Cargo Frame and the Universal Load Carrying Sling.
Looking around for more examples of human powered cargo movement, I found this site on "Hauling Cargo by Bike" that looked interesting.
My point is that if everything you count on should fail you, it helps to have thought about how you would move things about in that worst-case scenario. I welcome comments from the peanut gallery.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Chinese wheelbarrow is interesting.

Anonymous said...

Take a look at the history of the Indochinese wars. The Vietnamese were adept at moving freight by bike over rough terrain. Five hundred pound loads were common. Over the last two decades I and my compatriots have used what we call Charlie Bikes to move literally tons of gear and materials on trail maintenance projects. An old bike, some pipe and canvas (or cordura) and you can easily move an incredible amount of gear to your mountain lair.

Muddyboots

Anonymous said...

So your antecedents were union men, eh?

Issuing trace harnesses to modern soliers? Maybe there is a place for women in combat!

Did I just type that out loud?

MamaLiberty said...

One way is to learn how to make a travois. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travois

These can assist with the transport of surprisingly large loads over rough terrain. Best if pulled by a horse or mule, of course, but can be successfully pulled by human beings as well.

...when wheels are not an option. :)

Jazz said...

Consider a hunter's game hauler...?

Anonymous said...

I seem to remember it was a ration of twenty men to six horse for hauling such a cannon. I do know it was one of the worst things an artillery unit could do was to have it gun or guns captured by an enemy in combat. One case I read about took place in Korea during that "Police" an 8"inch Artillery Battery retreated by the strength of the recoil of their guns, each cannister round would cause the gun to recoil rearward, they kept it firing until it was out of danger. Of course I could be wrong. Good article on the G-battery episode.

Anonymous said...

I remember pictures of Chinese peasant laborers building runways for 20th Air Force B-29's in northern China. The most striking ones were of teams of hundreds of them in harness pulling huge rollers preparing the runway surface.

Dedicated_Dad said...

I've always been enamored of a lightweight wheelbarrow. I think one should be built of fiberglass and lined with Kevlar so it can be used as cover, if necessary!

On the handle(s), one should mount a 10" Bbl AR in 22LR - which is the ULTIMATE survival weapon BTW, good out to 300 yards!

Lastly, a de-barked chihuahua is *THE* best portable security system one can have - if you think on that for a minute I'm sure you'll agree!

These things are the EPITOME of survival-tech, and anyone who doesn't agree is an idiot.

If I have to explain, there's just NO WAY you'd EVER understand!

Anonymous said...

The PFT (portable flamethrower) weighs in at 60lbs loaded, regular gear 50lbs +, now given proper motivation you can run with this load. All this for 10 seconds of burn time. Motivation and what causes it determines if the job will be done.

Jazz said...

@DD
How do you "debark" a chihuahua?

Female III said...

My thoughts were to use my aluminum garden cart with the huge wheels if I had to go it by foot. Would be good for rougher terrain and is narrow enough to go between most trees. That harnass you have would work real well.

Anonymous said...

I recall reading somewhere that hernias were extremely common among Civil War artillerymen on both sides.

Dedicated_Dad said...

Jazz: Justlike any other breed!

Since you obviously didn't get the gag, google "gunkid" ... the gun-world has never known a bigger maroon...