Excuses

October 31/November 1, 2008

Yes, I know I cheated. I finished posting my Chamberlain Days memoirs under the guise of September. Things have just been so crazy lately! "George Banks" ("Father of the Bride" movie) was right, getting married is one thing, a wedding is something else entirely!


(Photo stolen from my friend/sister, Alli on HER blog "Alli's Adventures". Yes Alli, that is an awesome photo you took.)

The rest of the 15th Alabama's season will soon follow.

Chamberlain Days: Part 2

August 22-24, 2008

Now, you need to understand the layout of the downtown area of Brunswick that we were confined to. There was practically no room for an actual reenactment so we did not put one on our schedule. Well, then (young) Keith had to go down to the 20th Maine's camp and steal some things (they were actually his that he took out of his father's tent because technically Keith is a member of the 20th Maine). The 20th was not going to stand for some whippersnapper stealing things from their tents! Hell no! Especially a Confederate! So, they attacked. They were pretty darn sneaky about it, too. They came up the hill & went around a church to hide their precense.

Dave & Captain Pratt reloading.

Captain Pratt was wounded (once again) in battle and carried back to camp to be treated by the Major Nulle.

Dave shoots at some Yankees.

Here are some members of the 20th Maine who were kind enough to pose with Joshua Chamberlain's statue after the fight.

On Sunday we held a Memorial service at the grave of Joshua Chamberlain. It was very nicely done and actually one person wondered what Chamberlain would think of re-enactors from both the 20th Maine and the 15th Alabama coming to honor his continued effect upon American History.

Chamberlain Days, Brunswick, ME

August 22-24, 2008

This was an "interesting" event. It was an encampment, but it was in a peculiar place...more on that later.

This was a fun event with the 20th Maine. Apparently, unbeknowst to me (not a Maine native), Joshua Chamberlain who was entangled with the 20th Maine at Gettysburg especially, lived in Brunswick, ME and every year the town has a weekend celebration. It was very nice and an exceptional way to get in touch with the public. The best times for us to talk to people seem to be Ft. Knox and now this event. They seem less afraid of us if we are not either robbing them of their fine jewelry (their fine women, too) or shooting at the Yankee's in traditional encampment which requires people to be walking distance over a contorted field, that is definitely not handicapped accessible.

Well, what struck me about the site was that it was on this median strip between the road and it was literally in the center of town. The street lights took a little out of the camping experience, but hey, we had access to a real bathroom. Which leads me to another conundrum, we were camped across the street from Joshua Chamberlain's house...and behind the statue... Now logically one would think the 20th Maine would want to camp there, but after seeing the foot traffic, I think they had more visitors than us, and they had more of the larger tents so they would not have fit where we were, we barely fit!
Our camp. Do you see?!?! We had very little room to work with!!

Joshua Chamberlain's house. I highly recommend the tour. The house is an amazing piece of architecture!

The locals were a scream! All weekend we had people shrieking out the car windows, one person shouted "The British are coming!" as he went by, another made a pirate sounding "Arrgh." I guess the 20th Maine had some teenage kids walk into their camp on Saturday night & they very loudly wondered if there were people in the tents. Well, the one who opened a tent and found a Union soldier staring back at him was more than a little surprised. Brings new meaning to the words, "Restless Natives."


Here is our darling young Miss Kate spinning wool thanks to Sandy's Spinning Wheel. I could not do half the things this girl can do at her age.

Here is the 15th at Chamberlain's statue. We behaved.

This was fun, the 15th and the 20th Maine had a Prisoner exchange on Saturday. You know people just have such a good time at these small events. The Captain's of the companies were socializing a little as the prisoners were exchanged (our soldier was a little more beat up than their man...) and making some jokes about things.

Well, once we got our badly beaten comrade back to camp, Surgeon Nulle treated him/her. Methinks Deb(2) needs to work on her acting because she was trying really hard not to laugh throughout the experience and kept saying this funny little "ow. ow, ow, ow. ow" It was the cutest thing!

Practice on the lawn.

On to the next Post!

Fort Knox

July 25-26, 2008

I love Fort Knox. I think all of us do. Well think about it, we get to camp in a state park that is also a FORT, how cool is that?! And we did not have to camp right outside the main entrance of the fort which has cast an unsavory appearance upon us (& our pride). Something I did not know until I went this time was that the Fort was built to fend off attackers during the War of 1812. Apparently, the area had been attacked before so the need for a fort was on the edge of everyone's minds. Well, they started it, and then the war ended. Well, sometime later, the Civil War began and the state decided to re-continue building Fort Knox in case of an attack. To this day the fort remains unfinished. Despite being unfinished (the only thing I see missing are the cannons) this is an impressive place in a strategically favorable spot along the river.

On to the photos!

See!? This is where we camped this time. It was still along the road, but it was much better than where we camped last year. And thank goodness we got to camp somewhere else, not all of our tents would have fit!

The 20th Maine gets to camp inside the fort. I have to admit, I am kind of jealous. I think it is really neat that they get to camp in there, but the 20th Maine was stationed there breifly before being sent down South to fight the war.

We had a pretty sizable group this year. Not only were we in full force, but we had three gentlemen from the First Maryland come all the way up from Connecticut! I cannot thank Elvis (John), Rocky and Chris enough for coming and we had such fun! It is always nice to have semi-even numbers at any event. Also, Marc from the 29th Georgia (I did not know there was one up here...) came, our newest member, Martin and we had our turncoat, Keith.

"The Rebs are comin'! The Rebs are comin'!" No seriously, he shouted that as he ran past.

Here is a lovely photo of Deb as we ladies watched our men die honorable deaths at the Saturday battle (we won on Sunday).

The 20th Maine lines up after their victory on Saturday!

The Confederates also line up.

This would have been an excellent group photo if everyone had been there, but for some reason, certain people just disappear after a gathering (battle) and you do not see them again until later and then someone else has disappeared! I need a nail gun.

As the evening waned, Tom and Ashley went out to pick wild blueberries. Deb, in her quest to track down her child also joined them. I, being the lazy thing I am, chose to participate marginally in the picking and then resumed my duties as historian to document the memories being created by these three. Which is all code for, LAZY. Can you tell I feel guilty about it? It is something like branding yourself a traitor...you save everyone the trouble of accusing you.

And this is a lovely photo of our group before Elvis, Rocky & Chris left. We are missing Keith & Mark, too. Mark left Saturday night and I do not know where Keith went. Those young men nowadays! Always running off!

Here is the end of the event on Sunday where we finished the battle and said our good-byes to the 20th Maine. At least until next time...

...and next time is Chamberlain Days! See you then!

North New Portland Bicentennial

July 12-13, 2008

I liked this event. We marched in a parade, got to socialize with some locals (to the group, recruiting!), and ended up with 6 or 7 pies. The area where we were camped was really nice, too, flat, even and fenced in by trees. The mosquitos were brutal though, you would think they would be well fed with all the wildlife in Maine...

Here was our campsite, tucked into a little corner of the fair grounds. It was great because no one was set up next to us & the only traffic we had to worry about was foot traffic, which is what we wanted!

This was our group for the Parade on Saturday. It was pretty good and we got a woman from some newspaper (the Sugarloaf irregular, I think) to take a photo of all of us!

Here are the troops on the march with the ladies following.

As a salute to all the veteran's of New Portland, past and present, the gentlemen fired a round on the bridge.

Here is a lovely photo of Lindsey. This was the first time I saw her dressed as a civilian, she had started as a soldier but as of Gettysburg she is now a proper lady. She did a really good job with her dress and the hat goes so well with it!

Chris treats our scout, Tom, who was wounded on one of his scouting missions. The surgeons tent really draws people in, mostly because Chris knows so much about it and is so good at lecture.

I liked this event, mostly because, while it was small, there was a lot of interest by the locals and they made it interesting...Davey Crockett...

>blink<

Did July really happen? Or did I miss it? Well, I should be up to date soon. A quick breakdown of the events of July were;
July 3-5: Gettysburg
July 12-13: North New Portland Bicentennial
July 26-27: Ft. Knox

The only one I will not be reporting on is Gettysburg because I was not there. Instead, I will refer you to Deb's blog Lady of the Blue and Gray, for detailed (and witty) narration's of the whole Gettysburg experience, from both sides of the war!

I know what you are thinking, "what has she been doing?!" the 2x4 of life has just been whacking me in the head for the past month. But I will catch up...I have to, I was voted Historian and I do not want to get voted off the island!

Train Robbery

June 21, 2008

Ah, once again, we take the train from Manasses Junction to Harper's Ferry, Virginia. On this event, I determined that we need a rough plan on what each ride is going to be like. Sometimes things get a little confusing because so many things are happening all at once, not always a good thing when dealing with black powder...

...On to some photos!

Why do we only get three Union soldiers at a time?!? We're not scary! The train robbery is fun and if you insist on someone being the "bad guy" both sides are! Geez, the Union commandeers the train & the Confederates steal Union money then sends the civilians on their merry way. Well, usually it is the 3rd Maine who helps us out, this time, we had two from the 20th Maine! Chelly (nickname spelling?) and Deb (Squared)'s husband. And our only gentleman from the 3rd Maine was Dick (Deb's "Uncle").

Just to clarify, we have two ladies in our group named "Deb" so since I knew Deb Bergeron (3rd Maine) first, she will be Deb. The other Deb (20th Maine) will be Deb Squared, as Mike called her. Like I need more confusion in my life!

Here is Deb (Mrs. Bergeron) our Union Lady from the 3rd Maine who camps with us when the 3rd Maine is not doing anything. She is definitely an asset to our company, we might have to have an ULTIMATE SHOWDOWN if our events ever conflict with the 3rd Maine. Tickets will be sold at the door...

One of our newest members is Amanda. She actually got involved because Mike talked her into it & she in turn talked her husband Martin into doing it. This was technically their first event. The train robbery seems to be a really good first timer event because you have little exposure to multiple people yelling commands you do not understand while you try to shoot the darn gun. It gives you that chance to learn the procedure and the showmanship.

Martin has a lot of promise, but he needs to work on it. He came on to the train on the first ride they were on and whispered to Amanda "Do you want to be kidnapped?" when her response was in the "um, sure" nature, he grabbed her and Marsha saw him 'dragging' her off the train & said "Where are you taking that woman?!" He stopped, looked at Marsha, then side to side and said "Nowhere..." then took off out the back. Amanda did pretty good, she struggled as he ran with her, but then we pose the problem of getting her back ON the train...

On one of our final runs, we civilians decided that one of us should take a hit and either die or become wounded. Well, I asked Kate or Meadow to do it, they both wanted to. It ended up being Kate taking a bullet and Meadow catching her, then fainting. Well, unfortunately for Meadow, she fainted, but was half under the bench. Kate meanwhile was causing quite the commotion due to her "wound." The both of them put on a magnificent show. Better than I had hoped for....thank goodness there were no little children present on that car, I am sure there would have been some life-long emotional scarring.

And our Captain was killed. He seems to enjoy taking injuries...as for this one, I will not divulge anymore information as to how he was killed except for the fact that Chelly pulled a pistol, took Mike hostage and well, let's just say friendly fire did him in & leave it at that.

Once again, we had another stellar performance by all. We have to continuously thank our friends from the 3rd and 20th Maine who come down to this event, we just wish we did not outnumber them so badly! I know, you are probably thinking, "Wait, isn't that what they want for once? They are always outnumbered!" No, we do not want to outnumber or be outnumbered, we want a fairly balanced group so that the show we put on is spectacular! Keep your eyes peeled for our next train robbery at the end of August!

Update

Okay, here it is. I will admit it, I am a wimp and opted out of Gettysburg this year even though the 15th is going, but, it's just so hot!!!! >Caution, whining in progress< I do not have a problem with the clothes, nor the camping, nor the fabulous stench of re-enactors on Sunday morning (authentic, no?). I just have no desire to wear a full length dress at Gettysburg. Have you people been there?!?! That place is gets really hot! I can handle by the water hot, but Gettysburg is a little too far away to catch an ocean breeze. So, best wishes to everyone who goes, I expect photos, and just so everyone is on the same page, any photos I post of Gettysburg will not be mine, but I give credit where credit is due. Deb's blog, Lady of the Blue & Gray will give you an idea of both sides of the re-enactment.

I love Gettysburg, I want to go, but there are only so many layers of clothes you can get away with taking off before you are called either a harlot or arrested (only one leads to jail, though). Let me know how it goes!

Memorial Day Parade

May 26, 2008

For the 15th Alabama, honoring the veterans and sacrifice comes twice in one day. We actually participate in two parades, New Gloucester and Gray, ME.

New Gloucester, Maine
From left to right; Charlene (Charly that day), Mike, Chris, Tom, Ben, Dave.

Our ladies, from left to right; Sandy (as the widow), Kate and Sara.

And here is our Memorial Day salute.

Now, on to...
Gray, Maine.


Now what we really find interesting in Gray, ME is, there is a Confederate soldier buried there. A family up there had the money to send for the body of their fallen son in order to give him a burial in Gray. Well, the casket arrived, but it was the body of an unknown Confederate soldier. The mother was horrified (what mother would not be?) but she decided that she would give this young man a proper burial in the hopes that some mother in the South would do the same for her son.

In the end, the correct body was located and the son of Gray was returned to his family. However, the unknown Confederate remained and a few years later, a group of ladies erected a proper headstone for the boy because after all, it was not a war of good verses evil, it was, a war of brother fighting brother.

In any conflict or war, we must always remember the living, the wounded and the fallen because every one of those men and women who go out to fight or support the soldiers deserve so much more appreciation than we give most of the time. When I was younger, I thought of Memorial Day as a day to remember the fallen, but as I grew older, I realized that the ones who never returned home because they died, were not the only ones that stayed behind. Every single person who has seen war, will carry that through the rest of their lives. They all gave up a little piece of themselves, whether tangible or not, to protect us, to maintain our ideals. And that happens all over the world. So, do not forget the the deceased, but also remember the ones who came home, they are just as important, and the 15th Alabama as a company and individually is honored that we are able to participate in these parades. To all of those warriors, past, present, future, in person or in spirit...thank you.

Thank you so much for my freedom.

~

A Nation Divided, Waterford, CT

May 16-18, 2008


This was my first overnight event of the season (by the way, I am finished with school completely! No more homework, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks...or something like that). Me and Dave felt the real crunch of gas prices when we left Massachusetts and Connecticut prices were over $4. Luckily, the truck held out until we made it back to Massachusetts where gas was about $.20 less. Well, it was dark...and raining...and we did not know where our tent was because it rained at Camp Pratt last month & Dave left it with Mike to dry out. I went around in the dark calling out names, when someone from the 1st Maryland told me where people were. Then I found Tom! And Meadow! And Sandy! Unfortunately, they were wondering where Mike and Robbie were. This looks like the only event that me and Dave are going to see the 1st Maryland at (sorry guys) because the next oppertunity would be at Gettysburg. While I would love to go, I just cannot bring myself to wear the Civil war clothes in that heat. I am looking forward to some photos from our other members which I may use to update my blog.

Now to some photos of this event!

Here is a cute photo of Tom & Sandy. Apparently, Mike makes some very good ribs that everyone loves (I brought the wet naps). Well, everyone except for the vegetarian...

Aside from the blue uniforms, you know which side of the war these guys are on. I love how this photo clashes with the next...

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!! The Confederates take the town!! It was funny because the captain said to everyone "No burning, no looting...wait >laughter<...no burning. Dismissed." So this was how the Confederates sacked the town of Unity, by milling about carelessly...

This was a pretty big place, nice field to run around on.

We actually had two small cannons (I think they were howitzers, but correct me if I am wrong) which were a big hit with the crowd.

This was a small enjoyment on the Confederate part, we actually outnumbered the Union. Not by many bodies I heard, but still, we are usually, grossly outnumbered.

Well, that is a fairly simple synopsis of that event. It was nice because it was quiet and right next to the beach. I was not about to go swimming, but I did go walking around out there with Dave and the beach was pretty nice.

The 3rd Maine's Spring Gala

First of all, thank you to the Third Maine, our kindred Yankees. Not only do they protect (>cough< commandeer >cough<) the Portland Narrow Gauge Railroad (and their strongbox), but they were nice enough to invite the Fifteenth Alabama to their annual Spring Gala in Brunswick, Maine. Well, Deb is our inside connection as she has become a double-agent...oops, did I say that out loud?

Here is a photo of the committee, I am pretty sure these are the ladies who were in charge of pulling the gala together. I am really sorry, but I am only sure of Deb's name (who is in the middle) so I am going to need some help here.

There was dancing and the man who was leading us in the dances (I had no idea what was going on so that was great!) he did a really good job. And oh my goodness! All the ladies had beautiful dresses!!! My goodness! I will post later with my favorites, but they were all so pretty!



So that is my (very) brief update on what is currently going on. Deb has updated the 15th Alabama's website (I do not know where you find the time Deb), so there should be a listing of our upcoming schedule, from what Dave told me (from the meeting last weekend) there are going to be a couple of train robberies! I cannot wait!! More to come soon!