#1 Bob's rigging
Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2020 11:38 pm
McClelland army saddle model 1904, bridle and halter used during WWI
As winter sets in and days grow short it gives me time to think back missing all my friends from the greatest generation. I spent a lot of years reenacting Civil War and that mixed in with spending a lot of time with this generation dedicating memorials and such over the years. I always enjoyed the time shared and actually fit in better than the people of my own age group. Many stories were shared over the years that will never be known by the families of these good ole boys.
This rig belonged to one of my best friends Denver Gandee who was a tank commander in Europe during WWII. Denver was a good speaker and he spent a lot of time with children at schools usually sharing local Civil War history but never spoke of his own war experience. Some of those stories were shared one on one with me over the years. Later in life he became a animal lover raising all sorts animals on his small farm. He would tell me about how the German army would use horses to move equipment and catching them in convoys on roads they would aim to kill the lead team of horses blocking the road and then kill everyone and everything down the line. He would brake into tears telling me those poor horses never did anything wrong and didn't deserve to die that way. He once told me about being run over at the Battle of the Bulge where he said they just they just came out of no where. Talking later on to a captured German soldier he was told they used large teams of horses to pull the equipment into place during the night. The soldier went on to tell the vocal chords were cut on the horses to keep the as quiet as possible.
My last visit to Denver's farm before he passed he walked me to the barn and asked me to take this rig home to keep along with a few other smaller items. Damn I miss him and several others so much....
As winter sets in and days grow short it gives me time to think back missing all my friends from the greatest generation. I spent a lot of years reenacting Civil War and that mixed in with spending a lot of time with this generation dedicating memorials and such over the years. I always enjoyed the time shared and actually fit in better than the people of my own age group. Many stories were shared over the years that will never be known by the families of these good ole boys.
This rig belonged to one of my best friends Denver Gandee who was a tank commander in Europe during WWII. Denver was a good speaker and he spent a lot of time with children at schools usually sharing local Civil War history but never spoke of his own war experience. Some of those stories were shared one on one with me over the years. Later in life he became a animal lover raising all sorts animals on his small farm. He would tell me about how the German army would use horses to move equipment and catching them in convoys on roads they would aim to kill the lead team of horses blocking the road and then kill everyone and everything down the line. He would brake into tears telling me those poor horses never did anything wrong and didn't deserve to die that way. He once told me about being run over at the Battle of the Bulge where he said they just they just came out of no where. Talking later on to a captured German soldier he was told they used large teams of horses to pull the equipment into place during the night. The soldier went on to tell the vocal chords were cut on the horses to keep the as quiet as possible.
My last visit to Denver's farm before he passed he walked me to the barn and asked me to take this rig home to keep along with a few other smaller items. Damn I miss him and several others so much....
