Over The Shoulder And Through The Woods-Blankets and Canteens

Dressed Like A Johnny: Using a tumpline to secure your bedroll has the advantage of providing a way to store your food, extra clothing, and other relatively compact items. This certainly works if you're traveling very light as you would if you were scouting some area away from base camp and probably wouldn't make it back to base camp before nightfall. Some venison jerky or pemmican, plus some water from your canteen will get you through the night without having to make arrangements to cook. If you don't plan on storing your victuals in your blanket, you can create a compact bedroll just as they did during the Civil War. When a soldier couldn't get or refused to be bothered with a haversack, he simply rolled his blanket into a long tube, tied the two ends together, and carried it over one shoulder.

In this colorized image made after the Battle of Gettysburg, you see three captured Confederate soldiers. The one in the middle is wearing his blanket roll across his shoulder with his canteen at his side and what appears to be some sort of haversack for the rest of his kit. There is certainly something to be said about the simplicity of the arrangement. This happens to be how I prepared for the trek, traveling with a blanket roll, a haversack for everything survival related, along with my possibles bag, a canteen, powder horn, and my rifle. For the record, a  list of the items in my haversack would be almost identical to what you'd find in the "Bugout Bag" I discussed in an earlier post.

Rolling Your Own: This video doesn't have the quality of those from Townsend, but it's short and sweet, and correct for the period. You may like this better than the tumpline because of its simplicity. It's a little slower to get off if you encounter hostiles on the trek, but you can make a bedroll faster than you can assemble a tumpline. 

Canteens: Speaking of canteens, the round canteen shown in the photo didn't become popular until the mid nineteenth century. Prior to that canteens were kidney shaped, perhaps to better fit the contours of the body. Wooden canteens were available, as were miniature "barrels" (think St. Bernard). Again, look to Townsends to secure a period correct canteen for your next trek. The one I use is stainless steel and is indistinguishable from one made of traditional tin. I did replace the rope (pictured) with a strap made from a 1" cotton webbing to minimize the discomfort of carrying a full canteen. Water is surprisingly heavy.

Leather canteens are also period correct. Like the wooden canteen, they were made water tight by an  interior coating of brewer's pitch. I am reluctant to drink from such a concoction, but would surely do so if it meant not dying from thirst.

Another option is an old glass bottle sealed with a cork. Some reenactors have made leather pouches to carry and protect them. While heavy, this is period correct, and will past muster at any primitive event. Just remember to cork it.

Oh, I forgot. If you have a metal canteen, you could use it to boil water. Just remove the strap and cork, and place the filled canteen by the fire with the soldered seams facing away from the flame. Not in the fire, mind you, because you might melt the seams!