Now, we have a thread for food, kit, sutlers and all the like, but I suddenly found out we have no thread for how we sleep!
So, here it is! Share your stories, show pictures, explain preferences, and tell how you and group usually take their night rest! Tents, blankets, dog shelters, or is maybe nature your best friend? Tell tell!
I'll start with an explanation how stuff goes around here;
- For some reason the level of historical accurateness concerning sleeping is low, very low. I'm talking (modern) camp beds, sleeping bags, and in the worst case, some guy even has bungolawtents (of historical material, but that doesn't excuse it).
Especially a lot of people use camp beds. Now, there are cases where that's more then understandable, like with elder people, or those with bad backs. But there are plenty of people who are completely healthy but just don't feel like sleeping on straw. There are of course plenty of people who do use straw bags and woolen blankets.
- Historically, we didn't have tents. People either slept in the field around a campfire, rolled in a greatcoat and blanket, or quartered in a house. Officers of course had tents, and some armies did have them for the private soldiers, but the majority simply didn't. This may sound weird, but remember that military campaigns were not intended to carry on trough the winter - of course it happened, but it was not intended. I heard a few times that tents weren't issued in the French army unless the campaign was planned to be longer then 3 months and wouldn't end before summer did. People slept with about six to eight people in one tent - We usually do with 2 or three, and even then people complain it's so packed.
And how does your beloved Duuring take his nights? Well, for a long time I used a modern sleeping bag in the straw, but I've gone a little bit fed up with that - I want to get the real historically feeling. One event we made shelters in the wood, which was pretty fun. But I still had my modern sleeping bag...So last event, I only took a woolen blanket with me.
The weather dropped to just below freezing point during the night. I slept in a tent, in the straw, with everything on (that includes greatcoat, bonnet de police and shoes) and the woolen blanket. The first night I woke up because of the cold (I slept about 4 hours that night), but the 2nd one I tucked myself better in, and had better night. Still, it was cold, but I discovered there's some sort of advantage to that - When you wake up around 7 o'clock, the time to get moving, you're quite glad to get up and warm up.
So, it was cold, but knowing that I slept those nights almost the same as the real guys did, made it all worth it. These soldiers really had to, and could, get up in 10 minutes, ready to march.
