[Kyro R. Lantsberger]

Over the weekend I had a few beers with some friends of mine and got to talking about weaponry and history. We are all veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2003-2004, and were part of the invasion and moving through the desert. We talked about how rough the environment is on your body and on your equipment.

The group of guys that I hang out with are all history buffs, and we were very curious how some of these same things affected the armies of the Crusade era. I have a seemingly permanant skin infection on my right forearm from insect bites, and everybody suffered some sort of malady or other going through the desert. We can only assume that these things were exponentially worse in the past.

What I am wondering is if there are any historians who have written about this, or if there are any translations of original documents in this area. The sieges and charges of this era are exciting, but I am far more interested in how you go from France to Jerusalem in chainmail with spears and swords without arriving at Jerusalem with blistered raw, larvae-filled skin, and a rusty backscratcher for a weapon. How did these massed forces maintain weapons and equipment throughout these campaigns?

Who are the best writers/What are the best works in this area?

[Allen Reed]

[Ken Rankin]

I know that the History Channel's series on the Crusades touched on that, as well as other unsavory facts about the Crusades, like cannibalism. I just looked up the "Baghdad Boil", and God Bless you if you had to suffer with infections like that! If I come up with any links I will be sure to post them as it is a very interesting subject.

Ken

[Carl Goff]

Well, once the Templars and Hospitalers (and later, Teutonics) became significant orders, they maintained their own local armories with Muslim slaves doing a lot of the work. This pretty much made shipping, and its associated damage potential, a moot point for them.

I'm sure they'd have been happy to provide weapons and armor to replace any damaged in transit to the Holy Land...for a suitable "gift," of course.

As for the health issues: Several kings, many nobles, and God only knows how many common soldiers, died of disease while on campaign. Plague, parasites, and other revolting health conditions were probably either just accepted with a fatalistic shrug or resulted in horribly ineffective cure attempts.

Edit: Great. Mentioning parasites has given me a psychosomatic itch.

[Kyro R. Lantsberger]

[Elling Polden]

Then as now, most of the "heavy equipment", like armour, would be carried on pack horses or carriages, if you had them.
however, roads where poor to no-existent, and progress was slow.
30 km a day wold be exceptional, and only achieved by highly organiced troops, like the roman legions.
Equipment was bulkier and heavier than today; Stuff like iron cooking pots, tents, and so on would be a bitch to carry.
The same goes for food and water.
This is one of the main arguments for "living of the land™" rather than supplying your troops from home; Logistics are just to poor for it to be posible.
renaissance armies where often accompanied by huge baggage trains, including camp followers ("generic support Personell", taking care of "virually all of the soldier's needs"). They also had a devastating effect on the areas they traveled through, since pillaging where considered a prime fringe benefit.

Ships would be the best way to cover long distances, by far. Not only are they faster, but they let you travel with less "wear and tear."
In scandinavia, campaigns where often carried out in the winter, because the advantages of moving the equipment on sleads outweighed the disadvantages of the cold weather.

A pre-20th century army could often sustain causalities of 20% without ever seeing combat, or even leaving their march up area. Sanitary conditions where poor, and effective medical treatment near non existent.

[Allen Reed]

[Jason Daub]

Kyro, I think that you might look for a copy of The Third Crusade: An Eye-witness Account of the Campaigns of Richard Coeur de Lion in Cyprus and the Holy Land, it is the Folio Societies translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi. I do not have a copy myself but David Miller used it as the primary source for his book Richard the Lionheart, the Mighty Crusader. Miller's book contains gems like "God, taking care lest the unbelieving should surprise His own champion while asleep, inclined the mind of a certain Genoese to go forth to the neighbouring plains at dawn." and this one also,"The horses and beasts of burden, affected by the cold and rain, were unable to proceed through the mud, but fell famished and knocked up beneath their loads. The drivers, in bitterness of spirit, raised their hands in anguish to heaven, and uttered imprecations approaching even to blasphemy."

I think that anyone who has had to deal with a "stuck" knows exactly what the second quote is about and the first one is one of the most interesting ways of implying "the call of nature" that I have seen.

[Margaret Lo]

[Caleb Hallgren]

[Phill Lappin]

More people died on crusade from illness, starvation and thirst than in battle. I don't have documenation for it now, but I think that's fairly accepted for most campaigning armies during the period, especially in foreign lands.

[Greyson Brown]