.…….…"News From The Camp"…….….

Colonel Ben Caudill’s Camp #1629

2003 April Issue

The last Salute

An empty chair now and forevermore will sit at our table in remembrance of those that have gone before.

Commander’s Tent

Several events have transpired since last month’s meeting. Congratulations to all of you for a successful recruiting effort! We now have 88 members and growing! To date, we have set 534 stones, held 104 dedications, located a total of 634 grave sites, have 30 stones to be set and 11 stones on order! We have set stones in Floyd, Letcher, Greenup, Morgan, Wolfe and Knott counties this month. We traveled to Jonesville, Virginia to set a stone but could not due to the gate being locked. The Eastern Kentucky Brigade meeting will be held in Hazard on April 12,2003. Kentucky SCV Commander Bill Lyons will address the camp on April 26^th at Breedings. Time will be announced. Another educational service has been completed by our Living Historians. I wish to thank Kenny Cantrell and David Lucas for representing us at Fleming Neon Grade School and Matthew Chandler for holding down the fort at Cowan elementary with our Union cohorts. We will be meeting with the Mt. Festival Committee on April 14 at the Pine Mt. Grill to present our ideas on the Battle of Whitesburg. The time will be tentatively at 6:00.

We are canceling our subscription to Powerweb and have asked John Roark (webmaster) to find the best deal possible to accommodate posting all the information that we need. The test site and logo looks great and I commend John for the outstanding job of reorganizing our site. Progress has been slow but we are making gains. In the near future we will have a photo gallery, writings from the camp, updated listing of stones (I will be able to do that from home!) and educational news posted. I also want to thank Chaplain John P. Back for the outstanding presentation on Chaplains. This month our Secretary-Treasurer Danny Taylor will present the Battle of Chickamauga. I encourage any member to see the old general and ask to present about a topic dear to your heart. My thought is that we can compile a monthly article from the presentations and create our own book from the presentation. We need a representative from the camp to attend meetings held at the Leatherwood Fire Department and report back to the camp regarding the progress and status of the Battle of Leatherwood reenactment. Again I ask you to contact brother camps and inform them of our reenactment plans and to solicit their support. We also need to contact sutlers and begin planning our sales of our materials through the camp. Cresent City Sutlers has contacted us and is interested in setting up a spot. The dates have been changed to October 3-5 and will consist of a Confederate Victory on Saturday and the traditional historical battle on Sunday.

We have communicated with Mr. Taulbee and he stated that a lot has been approved and reserved for us to set up a camp during the Black Gold Festival. This would afford the camp a great public relations opportunity as well as having our own Sutler Tent to assist in raising funds. Also, we are exploring the possibility of having a friendly shooting match between "those people" and our camp. Richard Smith would be appointed in charge of the event.

We will be planning several dedications in the near future to honor those men that we have located but we not yet hallowed their memory. The Lee/Jackson Dinner was a success and I have posted an article on our website regarding the event.

Private Henry H. Caudill
The skit is ready to be presented. The Letcher High School, West Whitesburg Elementary are requesting a presentation as soon as possible. As a reminder, the skit portrays Pvt. Caudill (played by Richard Smith, a direct descendent of Henry Caudill) returning from the battle of Leatherwood and stops at an old farmers house (played by Danny Taylor) to ask for water and a bite to eat. While resting, the two men discuss the War of Northern Aggression from a unique eastern Kentucky prospective. Plans are being made to make a short film in the fall to be made available as an educational tool for schools across the state.
My Kepi & Me

My Kepi & Me is a series honoring camp members and their ancestors. The purpose is to share their ancestor’s history as well as the current son occupying the seat of honor. This month let us tip our Kepi to our commander and leader, Carlos Brock.
The Hunley Report
At the time of this publication, we are still deliberating on requesting to be honor guards over the remains of the eight-crew members of the Hunley in the year 2003. Adjutant Brown will report on the status of the honor guard.

Monthly Communications

Our official website’s address is still the same but we have obtained another server. Several changes have been made to better serve our camp. Please note the additions, especially the Commander’s Corner and stone set by county. John has almost completed the reformatting of our site. The picture gallery is very exciting. Whenever the site is opened, the host will randomly select a new picture from its archive and post it, creating a new look every time it is opened. Also, pictures can be submitted via the photo gallery for possible posting. All pictures would be routed through the Webmaster pending approval from the Commander and/or camp. The monthly newsletter will be added after each camp meeting to keep all members informed. Also, the discussion page has been revamped to make it user friendly. A counter is being added to assist in a detailed assessment of the number of hits we are getting. As of this week we have added music from Irish Dreams that honors our Scotts-Irish lineage. We will also link it to other War Between the States sites to enlarge our audience. This will be an excellent recruitment tool for our camp. Also it will offer other camps insightful glances into our organization and broaden our base of communication with the world. IF you are interested in REENACTING with us, please contact us at the addresses listed through out our website. If you are a member living away from our immediate area, feel free to email any information that you think we need to share with the camp. Email addresses are http://www.bencaudill.com or dchaltas@letcher.k12.ky.us or greyhame@setel.com.

We welcome our guests and give a Rebel Yell to the newest members of the proud decedents of the men who rode with the 13^th Kentucky Calvary!