Indiana Spirit Quest # 274: Civil War Windjammer Traditional Cache

The Indiana Spirit Quest series of geocaches will take you to a number of historic cemeteries built by Hoosier Pioneers. In just a year and a half, the quest has grown to over two hundred eighty caches hidden in twenty-seven Indiana counties, and two Ohio counties, and the hiders have grown to ten cacher teams, nine of which of which are comprised of Dogs and their Humans. Over 520 cacher teams have logged over 5,800 finds. One cache machine found 102 ISQ caches in a single day (daylight hours only).

(Photos by SHADOW)

Welcome to Old Angola Cemetery, Pleasant Township, Steuben County.

Listen to what the Shadow says:

This little cemetery is now in town. It's surrounded by the industrial area. In it's beginning, it would have been at the edge of town. Now, the edge of town is much farther north, encompassing yet another once-rural cemetery.

This area has a few surprises in it. There are a lot of "hidden" markers. It seems as if every bush here has markers hiding inside. Along the old perimeter fence you can find numerous ones as well. It appears like trees and bushes have been allowed to grow outward from the fence line. There is a diagonal strip across the area where the ground level changes abruptly, about six feet. Along there, it is the same as the north perimeter, trees & bushes.

The cemetery hasn't been used for many years, so no veterans of "modern" wars are here. I located graves of veterans of the Civil War and the Spanish American War. Along with others, some are quite interesting. The oldest legible marker I saw was dated 1846. –THE SHADOW

One of the Civil War markers you will find here is for John H. Stealy, who died at age 22 in 1862. He was a Regimental Buler of the 44th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Bugle calls told troops when to go to bed, when to wake up, when to eat, when to attack and when to retreat. There were stable calls, water calls, drill calls, sick calls and church calls on Sunday.

The sound of the bugle made it possible to convey commands over a great distance. The sound could usually be heard above the roar of battle.

The bugle was essential to all military communication until its displacement by electronics. The primary bugler was assigned to the headquarters staff, and kept close to the commander at the front. Soldiers were quick to learn the calls of the bugle, and on a routine day at least four, and as many as ten, were made. The bugle was first used as a signal instrument in the American Army during the Revolutionary War. The bugle calls evolved from Continental Army contacts with the French and English armies during the Revolutionary War. In the early years of our nation's independence, each arm and branch of the Army developed its own set of "sound signals" - drum beats in the Infantry; bugle calls in the Cavalry and Artillery.

Life in Civil War camps included many common experiences for the almost 3,000,000 soldiers who served in the Union and Confederate armies. Their daily activities, from the time they awoke in the morning until they went to sleep at night, were signaled and regulated by bugle calls. The calls used by the two sides were practically identical.

The first of 19 or more bugle calls a soldier heard each day was called the "Assembly of Buglers" and sounded at 5:00am in the summer and 6:00am in the winter. The sound of "Reveille" told the men to crawl out from under their blankets and prepare for the day and was followed by "Assembly", signaling them to form ranks for the first of three roll calls held throughout the day. "Stable Call" sent men to tend to the horses; after the animals were cared for, the soldiers heard "Breakfast Call", which was immediately followed by the aroma of coffee boiling on dozens of campfires. After breakfast, "Sick Call" summoned those with ailments to report to the camp doctor, "Water Call" sent details to fetch water for men and horses, and "Fatigue Call" directed the men to clean up the camp. Assignments for guard duty followed the 9:00am call of "Guard Mount".

"Drill Call", "Recall", "Dinner Call", "Assembly for Regimental Drill", "Assembly for Dress Parade", another "Stable Call", and "Water Call" regimented the rest of the soldiers' day until it was time to return to their tents and prepare the evening meal, which was signaled by the "Supper Call". After another "Roll Call", the soldiers were free to tend to their own needs until 10:00pm. “Tatoo” or "Taps" sent them to bed with all lights out.

Another set of bugle calls and drum beats regulated the soldiers on the battlefield. More than 25 bugle calls regulated the different activities of the cavalry and artillery. These included Call To Arms, Charge, Boots & Saddles, To Horse, Rally, Retreat, to name a few of the more familiar.

The cache container is a small loc-n-loc. BYOP. .The cache is not located near a grave... If you find a fallen US flag, please stick it back in the ground. As always, please be respectful, and cache in, trash out. XXXX XXXXXXXXXX

"Indiana Spirit Quest" is brought to you by the following fellows of GEOISQ*: The SixDogTeam (Earthdog Patrick, Lead Dog, Wheel Dog) Kodiak Kid, THE SHADOW, Team Shydog, Rupert2, Torry, ~Mystery Dog~, Team Tigger International, Cache Commando, bbSurveyors and Dover Duo. If you are interested in spreading the Quest to your neck of the woods AND WOULD LIKE TO JOIN US, email SixDogTeam.

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** THIS IS A GENUINE INDIANA SPIRIT QUEST CACHE** XXXXXX