"Commission of Clean"

When one is a new recruit in reenacting, usually after seeing the elephant for the first time, that lowly private is subjected to an ancient ceremony of having black powder smeared all about your person . . . to get the "new re-enactor smell right off you."   

Of course, the 9th Ky has to do it in an entirely original way.  Much to the consternation of Dudeboy, we were wiped abundantly with mud, an act which the boys in the 9th call the "Commission of Clean."  Our gunsmith explained the logic of foregoing the black powder in favor of mud in these simple terms, "We like mud, and it gives Harry opportunity to pontificate about mud being our friend."