PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 13, 2018
COOK,
SANITARY: ‘This time period
was smelly to begin with’
(Continued From Page A1)
in the Smithsonian,” Makey
said. “She was surprised when I
said I wanted to learn the old-
est techniques she knew so I
could show people during re-
enactments.”
The Gullahs are descendants
of slaves brought to the U.S.
to grow and harvest rice. After
slavery was abolished, the men
turned to basketweaving as a
way to provide for their families
and, eventually, it morphed into
a family-wide activity.
Basket-making is almost a
sideshow to Makey’s main role
in the Union encampment. She
regularly portrays a member of
the U.S. Sanitary Commission.
She found her role after her
husband, Gary, decided to pur-
sue tinsmithing.
“Some of the wealthier ci-
vilians were reading the writ-
ing of Florence Nightengale
and they were sure that the
U.S. Government was going to
make the same mistakes that the
British government did during
the Crimean War. But, by golly,
they were going to straighten
out the government,” Makey
said.
Members of the group that
became the commission argued
with President Abraham Lin-
coln for recognition that fi nally
came on June 9, 1861.
“The men started inspect-
ing the camps and would write
long reports and submit them
to commanders. But, they
found that the camps that abid-
ed by the recommendations
were cleaner and the men were
healthier,” Makey said.
At the same time, the wom-
en in the group were making
bandages and lint to supply the
front lines while taking note of
other supplemental efforts.
“Communities would try
to send things to their soldiers.
They would pack railroad cars
full of supplies, including left-
overs from last night’s dinner.
All the glass containers broke
and the cars would get side-
tracked for two or three weeks.
They would open the cars and
they wrote that the smell was
overwhelming. This time pe-
riod was smelly to begin with,”
Makey said.
The Sanitary Commission
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Gary Makey works on a heat refl ector for cooking in the Union
camp’s tinsmith shop.
created a collection and distri-
bution system that started out
fi lling the needs of soldiers on
the battlefi eld and morphed
into supporting the hospitals
working with injured soldiers.
The sanitary commission
also turned the idea of fun-
draising on its ear. They held
Sanitary Fairs that started out
earning just shy of $100,000
and fi nished earning more than
$1 million when the last one
was held.
“By the end of the war, the
Sanitary Commission raised
more $4 million and collected
and distributed more than $60
million of goods and services,”
SURGEON,
continued from Page A1
with some surgeries during
non-presentations,” he said.
Wetter can speak in depth
about bone saws throughout
the ages. “One of the things I
had was four capital amputa-
tion saws from four different
periods in time. The quiz was
to put them in order, oldest to
newest. It was surprising how
many people couldn’t really
do it.”
The trick, he said, is to look
at the handle. Civil War-era
bone saws have wooden han-
dles, because they didn’t know
the importance of steriliza-
tion in medical practice and
didn’t realize that wood holds
bacteria. Later bone saws have
metal handles, which can be
sterilized.
Wetter emphasizes how
Odell takes great care to
make meals for his “pards” in
line with what would have
continued from Page A1 been served during the Civil
War, but it comes down to two
I think she already had it in her things: “If I have fi re and water,
mind to sign us up,” Odell said. I can make just about anything,
but I research
Five years
what it was
later, Odell’s
that they ate
daughters are
and combine it
in the process
with what we
of leaving the
know
about
nest, but he
germ theory.”
still
turned
One of the
out last week
mainstays
is
to cook for
Odell’s version
the 69th New
of
hardtack,
York Infantry
complete with
Regiment.
caraway seeds
O d e l l
to
represent
embraced the
the weevils that
re-enacting
— Doug Odell got into the
scene
with
recipe during
such gusto that
the Civil War
he has a two
personas he performs with era. Hardtack is biscuit made
some regularity. In Oregon, he’s of fl our and water with an
the camp cook. In Washington, extraordinarily long shelf-
where he travels to perform life. Some versions are barely
under a reciprocity agreement, edible while Odell’s is softer
he’s a newspaperman. As a on the tooth and more tasty.
“I love cooking for this
stay-at-home dad and author,
both roles are equally fi tting to group because it brings
some part of his modern-day us together as a club and
community,” Odell said.
persona.
Makey said. The U.S. Sanitary
Commission was disbanded in
1866.
The group also kept a me-
ticulous record of what worked
and didn’t during its brief exis-
tence, which came into play for
another organization about 15
years later.
“Clara Barton took what
she learned from the Interna-
tional Red Cross and the U.S.
Sanitary Commission and cre-
ated the American Red Cross,”
Makey said.
PAINTER,
continued from Page A1
Nathaniel Hawthorne.
But, it was the hand-paint-
ed fashion plates that make
each issue truly-unique.
“They were done with
watercolors and then bound
in the catalog and published.
It’s possible that no two are
exactly alike because each
woman would have had a dif-
ferent set of colors,” Smith
said.
The publisher, Louis A.
Godey, enlisted women who
worked from home to color
the plates at a cost of about
“I research
what it was
that they ate
and combine it
with what we
know about
germ theory.”
$8,000 per issue. At it’s peak,
the magazine had 150,000
subscribers – subscriptions
were $3 per year – but lost
about a third of its readership
during the Civil War because
Godey refused to acknowl-
edge the unrest between the
Union and Confederacy in
the pages of The Lady’s Book.
Smith said her interest
in the process by which the
book was published arose out
of a conversation among fel-
low re-enactors about the
trades and activities that got
less notice during living his-
tory events.
“I can’t sketch, but I can
color,” said Smith.
KEIZERTIMES/Random Pendragon
Bob Wetter demonstrates surgery techniques from the 1860s.
few Civil War deaths were the
result of battlefi eld casualties.
“Of the 750,000-plus soldiers,
sailors and marines who died
during the Civil War, two-
thirds of them died from dis-
ease,” Wetter said.
Even though interest is
waning in the era, Wetter
said it’s still important to un-
derstand our nation’s history.
“We’re here to remind people
of what it was like to be in the
1860s,” he said.
crossword
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