Heat Your Tent (or other large space) with No Chance of CO Poisoning

[EJR914]

Use this information at your own risk.  DO NOT TRY THIS.  You have to do this just as stated and perfectly to make sure that you do not get CO Poisoning and die from it.  I am not liable for it if you do this and you are injured, you die, or you kill or injure someone else.  THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

There are actual earth pictures of them as well, not just the diagrams, click on the link for much more.

Civil War Style!

Civil War Crimean Ovens







Two intriguing discoveries were made in Alexandria in 2003 and 2004. These were underground heating structures built by Union troops during the Civil War to heat hospital tents. It is believed that these are the first features of this exact type to be excavated. These structures were called Crimean Ovens and may have been somewhat experimental in nature.

The First Discovery ? The Firebox End

The land where the first Crimean Oven was uncovered was on a residential lot on Quaker Lane which was once part of the plantation, "Cameron," owned by General Samuel Cooper. General Cooper was the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army (the second highest officer in the army) before the Civil War. When Virginia seceded, he resigned and became the Adjutant General of the C. S. A. Army. Because of his action, his property was confiscated by the federal government and one of the forts in the Defenses of Washington was built on his land. The Cooper house was torn down and the bricks used to construct the large powder magazine of the fort. The fortification was referred to as "Traitor's Hill" until 1863, when it was officially named Fort Williams. Federal army units camped in the vicinity of the fort and in many places throughout Alexandria.
Prior to development, the City, in accordance with the Archaeological Preservation Ordinance, required an archaeological investigation of the lot on Quaker Lane. It was likely that the remains of a Union camp were present because the property was just to the southeast of the site of Ft. Williams. Wally Owen, Assistant Director of Fort Ward Museum and a local authority on the Civil War, examined the area and observed how the property adjacent to the lot to be developed shows evidence in its undulating lawn of the raised regimental company "streets" with drainage ditches on either side, that are typical of long-term Civil War period encampments.

The developer hired Thunderbird Archeological Associates and the fieldwork was conducted during the summer of 2003 by archaeologists directed by Tammy Bryant. The owner had given permission for a local relic hunter to use a metal detector on the property and he found various Civil War period artifacts in addition to an area with bricks. He claimed to have removed ?at least a hundred? bricks before the archaeologists began their work. The archaeologists uncovered a channel about 50 feet long, a foot wide, and about a foot below the ground surface edged on both sides by three courses of bricks. In three or four places thin sheets of metal, possible covers, were found crushed down into the bottom of the channel. The parallel lines of bricks descended down a slope and ended in a two course-wide brick rectangular structure about eight feet long, three feet wide and two feet deep. There was a partial dividing wall near the center of this box which might be the wall of the original box which was then expanded to double its size. The earth in the bottom of the box was reddened and baked almost as hard as a brick as was the dirt floor of the flue channel extending from the box. A layer of charred wood lay on the floor of the structure and was covered with a layer of fine sand about three inches thick. This probably was an ash pit that would have been below a fire where wood was burned. The fill soil of the entire feature contained artifacts dating to the Civil War and earlier, including Minie balls, a brass button from a New York Regiment, plus a brass and lead eagle breast plate. The end of the brick channel opposite the fire box was totally disturbed where the relic hunter had removed the bricks. The soil was scraped on each side of the flue to try to identify any remains of tent locations. The idea was that tents or huts could have been heated by hot air diverted from the flue channel. No evidence of structures was observed.

http://alexandriava.gov/historic/archaeology/default.aspx?id=39470

Quite an interesting way of heating a large space, like a big tent, without the worry of CO Poisoning. 

Use this information at your own risk.  DO NOT TRY THIS.  You have to do this just as stated and perfectly to make sure that you do not get CO Poisoning and die from it.  I am not liable for it if you do this and you are injured, you die, or you kill or injure someone else.  THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

[JohnyMac]

Interesting.

When I use to backpack in the winter we used a four man tent. There was the tent and then there was a fly over the tent it's self.

Believe it or not we lit a collapsible candle lantern and along with the temps of our bodies kept the temps in the tent OK as long as the wind wasn't blowing to hard. We never had the candle on if we were not awake.

When it was in the single digit range we packed snow or leaves up along the base of the tent and a small ways between the fly and tent.