Sunday, August 8, 2010

Battle for Brimfield

August 7-8, 2010

Another hot weekend. Seriously, the question to ask around all the camps is "is your canteen full?" because I can tell you, those guys come back and their canteens are low after just about an hour.

I had never been to this site, but it exceeded expectations! The event was nice, but the people were nicer! The thing about this event though, is that you have to go through Sturbridge, MA to get to Brimfield. Well for inquiring minds, Old Sturbridge Villiage is right off route 20 in Sturbridge. They were having a Revolutionary war re-enactment the same weekend. It seemed like it was all in good fun; both events advertised each other. We actually had to go to the store in Sturbridge on Saturday evening after the camps closed and we saw a lot of Rev war re-enactors. As we were walking out some Rev war guys going in said "Hey look! It's our grandchildren!"

The only snag I saw was how far the guys (& gals) had to walk in order to get to the battle site and how far away the site was from the spectators. It was across a whole pond, obscured by trees (you will see in a minute). But do not let that deter you from attending this event in the future. The organizers were doting on us and one of the women actually came around the Confederate camp on Sunday morning to thank the groups personally. I will definitely go to this even again. It was worth it.

Here is a wide shot of the battle site. You cannot see everything at the edges, but I am hoping to figure out how to post a panoramic once I sew that sucker together.


Here is a good shot of the Confederate forces. There was a good showing. And the Confederates caught the Yankees without a cavalry, that was a first for me. Notice the young man dashing across the field. It was hot that day, how did he get that job? That was not the only time he did that.


This was just a nice shot of bodies lying around and the lighting is very nice.


Now these are the two cannons the Yankees brought. I have no idea who these people are. I apologize, please help. This group was somewhat liberal with their powder over the weekend and the crowd loved it.


This horse drawn one is a crowd pleaser, trust me guys, I sit with the crowd and the spectators love to see the horses go across that field towing the cannon.


Now, the Confederates had cannons as well, three actually, but they were situated high on the hill behind the trees and I could not get a good shot of them. They impressed me with their coordinated shots, though. I do not recall much "fire at will" from the Confederate cannons.

Here is the Naval Landing Party. Interesting how that pops up again. I should have gone over to say "hi." See if they recognized me from Ft. Knox... They actually snuck up and took the Confederate artillery by surprise. One of the benefits of capture, though was the fact that captors and prisoners were able to watch the rest of the battle from the shade.


Dress parade. This was impressive, everyone did a good job. Even the commanders commented on that.


Finally, I finished a new dress (first one in four seasons). So I asked if Chris could take a photo of me and Dave. He looks kind of like crap because he just came back from battle.


Regardless, this was a good event where both camps were well-stocked with participants and there were a fair amount of spectators for both days, despite the Revolutionary War re-enactment 20 minutes away at Old Sturbridge village. We do think we had more visitors to the camps on Sunday then we did on Saturday. The battle on Sunday was much better, too.

Next? Gettysburg Alive, Baby!!!