Confessions of a New England Confederate

Battle for Brimfield

2010-08-08T22:07:00.005-04:00

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!!!

Ft. Knox

2010-07-26T22:05:00.004-04:00

July 23-25, 2010

As promised, this was the biggest Ft. Knox event in years! We got some Canadians to come! They were really nice, too. Thank you so much for coming, Natalie and Guy. Before I really get into this, please, please, please, if you know who these people or companies are in the photos, I would really like to know. I am going to change the captions as I learn faces.

This was a really good event. Not only did we have a lot more Yankees (and a few extra Confederates), but the Yankees did not have to bring all of their stuff! Cots were provided for Yankees so they did not need to bring tents. Also, Miss Rose (really, the spearhead) got the ovens up and working! Can you believe that? And they were making bread all weekend. It was really good.

The Confederates had a ship! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

And the Yankees had a couple of cannons...above the water...

Both days had some really good battles, however, I had a really bad vantage point on Saturday, so most of my photos are from Sunday when I had an even better one.

Darn you kids! Stop dying!!! It makes us look bad!!!

And Captain Pratt appears out of nowhere and attacks the unsuspecting Yankees. With Tom right at his side.

Then, to raise money for a Domestic Abuse Shelter, myself, Kate and Sara accepted donations for shoulder rubs from, "lonely young men." In case you did not already guess, we played "soiled doves" or just plain prostitutes, doing something a little more mundane then history suggests. The irony. However, we found out that we are not the first to come up with this. According to Becky, Todd's wife, there have been several groups of women who do this kind of role play for fund raising. It was really a laugh. We had three yankee boys stop by on their way out to dinner. Really, some people just wanted our photos, it was a lot of fun. We walked around the fort, went to the community dinner inside the fort and just sat around our camp in our undergarments. One little boy came up to us at dinner and asked Sara for a kiss. It was so cute! She had lipstick and gave him a kiss on the cheek! That was our mark for those who had been at the 'establishment' a kiss on the cheek. Oh and the Naval Landing Party (I had never even heard of their group) HAD to get their photos taken with us. I mean, honestly, they're sailors! But everyone had a really good time with it and they were very generous with their donations. Thank you all!

Here is a photo with some gentlemen who had that sign up there before they even knew that we were going to portray a brothel! When we got there, we asked if we could have our photo taken with their sign. They said 'sure' 'of course' and we posed, then I looked at them, "Do you guys want to pose with us?" I never saw them move so fast.

We had our photos taken with so many people so many times, I think we're going to have to do it again. If not next year, but the year after which will be another large Ft. Knox event. Plan on a big Ft. Knox event in 2012, if the world does not explode first. >Wink<.

4th of July

2010-07-04T22:04:00.002-04:00

July 4, 2010

Okay, this summer is making up for last season. Jeez, it is so hot!!!! Oh my gosh, it was so hot at this event that I swear if I had leg hair, it would have been singed under my dress from the heat of the road.

This is a huge parade, we had to wait an hour to be called. We just kind of sat in the shade of the school and waited. At least we got to see the parade because we were at the end. A lot of really nice cars, antique and custom. But man it was hot.

I only took a few photos because I had to carry our ID sign. Freaking huge poster board that someone handed us just before we were up to start walking. I guess we did not win a trophy this year. Oh well.

We made it to the end of the parade and just collapsed in the shade. It was so nice and to be honest, me and Sandy were hot, but we were worried about the guys most. And our worries were justified because as soon as we made it to our rendezvous site, they all stripped down to their shirts and pants and just lay there for a while. Dave came over to me ("Come here, Baby.") and gave me a big, wet, sweaty hug. Yep, that's my man. But we did get food from the event coordinators. I have to admit, they were very good to us. And luckily, there are buses that take us back to where our cars are parked.

Next event Ft. Knox!

Train Robbery

2010-06-19T22:03:00.005-04:00

June 19, 2010

First robbery of the year. Geez these people!

Okay, if I were a guy, how old would I be? Mrs. Bergeron (Deb) thinks I look about 15. If I were a guy, I would take offense to that, correct?

We wait patiently while Sgt. Henry gives the passengers fair warning as to their travel on this train through hostile territory.

Denny keeps a close eye on the Yankees.

COULD I LOAD THAT GUN ANY SLOWER?!?!?!?

Okay, I have no idea what was in that bottle that Chris gave me but it was not water and it was not alcohol, it was just plain gross. Ugh! Someone told me later that they think it's flat coca cola. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't asked.

What was disappointing about this train robbery, and probably for the summer, is that the steam engine will probably not be running at all this year. The Narrow Gauge Railroad has either two or three steam engines and only one is really ready for use all year round. Well, this past Winter, a fire set by vagrants got out of hand and severely damaged the good steam engine. It is a huge setback for the railroad. If anyone wants to help, they can either volunteer or donate to the restoration. I believe the goal is for the organization to get the steam engine running for their annual Polar Express runs. We do not receive any money for the robberies, we do these to benefit the railroad and to just have fun. If anymore Yankees, Confederates or ladies would like to come over, our next train robberies are September 4th, 2010 and October 9th, 2010. The train rides are every hour on the hour from 10:00am to 4:00pm. If you would like to come give us a heads up at the Maine Rebels website or talk to Captain Pratt on the Maine Militia website: there are links to both of those sites on the main page of my blog.

You can also check the official Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad website at http://www.mngrr.org for updates as to repairs.

Norlands

2010-06-14T22:01:00.004-04:00

June 11-13, 2010

Norlands!! This is a nice event. We did not have as much of a Confederate showing as we did last year, but this is a decent site and the people are definitely grateful for our help in raising money for the barn. We saw that they have started purchasing the lumber for the structure and someone mentioned that they are going to start raising the barn later this summer. I hope so, I cannot wait to see it finished.

Here is Al and his advance team going for the Federals.

Here are the Federals firing back.

Okay, is it just me or is someone pushing the kid bearing the flag out in front?! I did not notice that until I downloaded the photos to my computer. WTH?!

Here is the fashion show presented by some of the civilian ladies. Sara was in it!

Oh, that's right. My friend Sara joined the 15th Alabama not last summer, but the summer before, went to a Camp Pratt (where she nearly got hypothermia, typical), and then left to teach English in a foreign country. This was her first spectator encampment. I am so glad she liked it, too. She has made dresses and purchased equipment so it was a good thing she had fun.

The Norlands committee has already announced the dates for next year's re-enactment, however, I have misplaced them, it will be in June of next year, most likely the second weekend. I cannot wait to see them again.

Memorial Day Parade

2010-05-31T21:59:00.002-04:00

May 31, 2010

The Memorial Day Parades in Grey and New Gloucester, Maine.

As in past years, we pay tribute to those who have served and those who have fallen. Sandy is our usual widow and she does a lovely job of it.

Well, they lined us up for the parade (we are almost always in a different spot) and when we started out, I just happened to see the sign of the group behind us...

...awkward much?

Either someone was not paying attention or a republican when they put the Confederates (most pro-state's rights) in front of the "New Gloucester Democrats." I like to think of myself as an independent...What? I have to keep some of my liberal hippie roots!

And after a good parade in New Gloucester, we went to Gray, where someone made the mistake of giving the Confederates technology.

In our defense, it was a fancy walkie talkie and we were afraid to break it. It also did not help that no one told us who it belonged to and where it needed to go after the parade. I do not think we will be receiving one of those next year, we did not need it once and no one yelled at us while we had it.

Excuses...

2010-01-01T22:14:00.000-05:00

I have been VERY neglectful. I just need to upload photos, I swear!!! Everything is typed out!!!

Stay posted for the 2010 season.

End of Season

2009-10-16T09:02:00.002-04:00

Well, another season comes to a close. It is always sad, but at the same time, relaxing. This has been a lousy summer, it rained 90% of June and then it was intermittent throughout the rest of the months and we had pretty much only one heat wave this entire summer (90+ degree weather for 3 days in a row...). Me and Dave's tent got wet at some point and we never had a chance to dry it out (another one of the drawbacks to living in a condo) so it got moldy. The good thing about that is we do not quite look like noobs at this (dirty tent). We just look like dopes who put their wet canvas away and never dried it out properly.

Okay, so on the schedule we have a Veteran's Day but that is so frickin' freezing, I do not know if I am going to be able to bring myself to go to that. All except one event this summer has been in Maine. Not that I am complaining, I love going up there and the events are always oodles of fun (Ft. Knox), but let's face it, the farther north you go, the colder it is. When Me and Dave went to Chase Farm in September I was packing extra clothes, long johns, coats, blankets, etc. On Saturday night I was sleeping in just my long-johns and pj's. I thought to myself, 'you dope, of course you do not need all this, you went SOUTH for a change.' Granted it was not that hot, (70 maybe), but it was probably the warmest night I have spent out this summer. I think our nights this summer have been on average in the 60 degree range.

Well, another season behind us and once again me and Dave suffer from post-encampment depression. We like to reminisce, but we always miss the people.

Train Robbery

2009-10-11T09:00:00.001-04:00

October 10, 2009
You would think the citizens of Portland would be sick of us by now...

I actually do not have any photos of this event (that I can find right now) because I was busy defending the money on the train from the Confederates.

Todd galvanized, too (dammit). And we found out that I am REALLY slow at loading a gun. I would have been dead ten times over if this was real.

Chase Farm

2009-09-17T08:59:00.007-04:00

September 12-13, 2009

The quote for this weekend: "NEVER tell your wife anything!"

Me and Dave went down separately because I had a class and he was a half hour away from Lincoln, RI at work. There was no point in him going back home and then turning around again. He got down there and the guys from the 1st Maryland (the only ones we really knew down there) helped him put our tent up in the rain (cracked a tent pole dammit).

Well, I called as I was heading down there & he told me his truck was dead. A slight problem since it was parked right outside camp. He spoke to me on the phone and told me about it then I heard in the background one of the guys shout "Never tell your wife anything!" So he tried to deny it.

Next morning things went from bad (the night before) to worse as he got a call from work and his battery needed replacing, there was no mistake, it had to be replaced. So he left and headed back home and called me a little while later & told me his electronics were flipping out. Which upgraded the problem from battery, to alternator. To make a long story short, the new battery that he got on Saturday, lasted him until Tuesday night.

By Saturday night, the small access road was soup. I looked at the mud and said to myself, 'there is no way my little front wheel drive Volvo wagon is going to make it out of here this way,' which is why the people in charge of the event shut the worst part of the road down. Yeti did show me another way that I could get up to the camp site which would not cause me to get stuck or slide down the hill backwards. He had scouted the area on Thursday and found a little used access road.

There was night firing at the Confederate camp on Saturday night, that was really cool. A Federal cannon actually fired back a couple of times, we had the better location though.

Captain Henry was court martialed for supporting Miss Joy's brothel and his punishment was to ride a stick horse throughout the Confederate camp. It made horse noises, too.

I actually got my union pants and kepi on the Friday before the event (for when I galvanize at Train Robberies). I had them with me because I did not go home after work on Friday. It all worked out because I got to help with an artillery crew. Obviously, I did not do anything much because I had no experience, but it was really neat to stand behind those cannons as they went off.

I have to thank Chris and Pam for taking my camera and catching these photos for me. Thank you so much guys! You did a great job!

And those are just two out of several they took.

Train robbery

2009-09-05T08:59:00.005-04:00

September 5, 2009
Labor Day weekend!

Like the bad penny, we return to terrorize the hapless citizens of Portland, ME.

This time, instead of the huge bus (like we usually end up having at the end of the day) there was a huge cruise ship docked at the harbor! Me and Dave saw it as soon as we crested the hill to head down to the waterfront! It was huge...meaning there would be a lot of people...

Our observations did not disappoint.

I had the little dog with me, so I was planning on setting up a table like I did last time, unfortunately I forgot to tell Mike I was going to do that & he did not bring the table. Instead me and the little dog rode the train and I kept up dialog with passengers during the day as we had a packed train almost every ride.

Todd, unfortunately, was asked to galvanize again. He comes from Florida to go gray (well, he has family up here, too, but that's besides the point!). I am going to have to do something about that. I learned how to use the rifle for just this kind of situation when we are short of hands.

The number of people who came to ride the train was great. They did not have the steam engine going because they could not get the guy who stokes the coals to come up and spend the day. I do not blame him, it was labor day weekend and he probably had to choose between driving up from Mass. or going to a family picnic... personally, I would drive up from Mass. to stoke the coals, but that is just me. The part I disliked the most was that everything smelled like diesel and it kind of took away from the ambiance. Oh, well, the spectators enjoyed it & that is all that matters.

The little dog loves Kate. She was here when we picked him up at Logan Airport at 11:30pm...ask her about the FedEx trucks...

Fort Knox, part deux

2009-08-31T08:58:00.005-04:00

August 29-30, 2009

This was probably the worst Fort Knox event me and Dave have ever been to. The wind started around 10pm, then ended around 3am but the rain...oh the rain! It rained until at least 4am on Sunday morning and it went from a drizzle to a steady rain the whole weekend! It was cold, wet and windy... But as usual, we end up having some fun.

Sgt. Dudley came over on Friday night to tell us the story of Alphonse the Moose (we were just looking for a new place to send out that second moose call Sgt. Dudley, don't you think I will forget next season). Which was pretty funny. I guess it's whole purpose was to basically see how many people it can make crazy because it takes so long. I thought it was hilarious, I want to learn it, but I do not think I could make a very good french accent to star as Pierre, the hunter who has been looking for Alphonse over twenty years.

Todd got royally boned. He had to play Yankee because some of the 20th left on Saturday because the forecast for Sunday was not supposed to be any better. Well it was & we had run out of Yankees...

I did not even change out of my regular clothes on Saturday, those dresses are horrible when wet and cotton, I would be soaked and cold in probably ten minutes. I ended up stealing Dave's overcoat and made sure my legs looked like they were in uniform. But then the rain started to pick up after noon (not that we could tell from the sun) so I went to my car and got my umbrella. I just sat, huddled around the fire, along with the rest of the group trying to dry out and keep warm. It is sort of a double-edged sword, you cannot do both unless you have a propane heater (which Todd has, he knows how to camp).

We went into the Fort Saturday evening to have some sweets with the soldiers there. Miss Rose wore a lovely dress that she recently made. Quite lovely in the firelight, I was glad to see it in the daylight on Sunday, though. The guys on the other hand, they were soaked & readily took up the area around the 20th's fireplace in the fort. If not for going in and drying out like that, I think everyone would have been sick the following week.

Sunday, thankfully, the sun broke through and dried just about everything out. Thank goodness, I did not know what I would do if I had to air out that canvas at home.

We had a little battle, unfortunately Todd had to galvanize because the rest of the Yankees left on Saturday night. He is an especially sharp dresser, I wish I had got a photo of him in his civilian clothes. They are very nice.

We also got a quick lesson in dismounted cavalry drills from Al, one of our newest members. I wish I had brought a change of clothes (soldier's) so I could have participated in the drill.

Although, Miss Rose and Todd did complement each other.

Next event!

Wilton Battle

2009-08-10T10:41:00.001-04:00

August 8, 2009

Here is a narration of the battle between Captain Pratt & Captain Lawson. Please understand that these men are professionals and they utilize the utmost in safety and none of this should be tried by amateurs.

You can stop laughing now...

...seriously...

Captain Lawson charges Captain Pratt!

The Captains stab and beat each other.

"Captain Lawson, do you need some help?"

"Yeah, whatever. You two seem to be having a good time without me."

"Ooooo! What's this? A nifty hat!"

"I got the old geezer!"

"Well, that was fun, let's do that again sometime."

Wilton Blueberry Fesitval

2009-08-09T08:57:00.009-04:00

August 8, 2009

I had heard stories about this event, apparently the 15th had not done it in a while. It is mostly just a parade and we come back to our little row of tents and wonder if anyone is going to come over after the parade and see us. Which they actually did! It was not like we were right in the downtown area like Chamberlain days last year.

This is a town event and it is an adorable little town. The parade was perfect and the weather was very nice. The "Funky Monkey" was a little disturbing. A man in a gorilla suit riding a golf cart around passing out bananas.

Note our tasty, period correct lunch...riiiight, nice try and good pose though.

What was great was that the 3rd Maine was camped out on the hill across from us and they actually had a little battle with us! Two members of the 3rd thwarted our sneaky attack when they came down the hill to socialize. We ignored their attempts to run (waved white flag) and took them prisoner.

We sent a messenger up to tell the commanding officer that we had two captives to which he replied that they want the flutist back...I would have to agree, band members are hard to find. So an agreed upon time was set in order for the 3rd to drill some new recruits and we waited with our prisoners.

At the appointed time, our stealthy confederates spread out and headed for the hill. The commander saw us, as a good officer should, raised his hand and cried "10 more minutes!"

.....

Imagine our surprise. But the battle did get under way, with a fair amount of spectators for us being in a field so far away from town. It was pretty good, with escaped prisoners and all. Captain Pratt, as usual, took a hit and was locked into battle with the commander of the 3rd in short order.

What was great about this little battle was that everyone seemed to just have a good time. It was very relaxed with everyone just "winging it". Sometimes those are the best events.

Robbing the Train

2009-06-21T08:56:00.004-04:00

June 20, 2009

Once again, we rob the passengers of the Narrow Guage Railroad of their valuables and small children. You think they would catch on...

Miss Rose was there that day. She always has such lovely dresses.

It was a lovely day and we had a fair amount of people come. I stayed at the station most of the day with Meadow in order to lure people in. We set up a little table with our company scrapbook and photo album, along with some propaganda from both the 15th and the 3rd Maine. It drew a lot of attention. I have determined that I want to try to make this event a little more interesting for people just walking along the waterfront.

We actually got a local television station to come down and film a robbery down at the end of the track! The report only lasted like 5 seconds on the news that night (expected), but word is out!

Aaannnd, we brought the little dog out. He is such a wuss that we are hoping that being around so many people would help his confidence. It worked a little bit. And he had no problem with the train by the end of the day! He also cuddled right up to Meadow. They were best friends by the second run. Of course, he needed all the protection he could get, they guys wanted to eat him! I said he was too stringy.

Norlands

2009-06-10T11:46:00.005-04:00

June 5-7, 2009

This was a fun event. It was at the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center in Livermore, Maine. The site was very nice, hilly, made the guys (& gal's) do a lot of work, but a little exercise never hurt but a few...

The purpose of this event was to raise money for the Norlands Center to rebuild their barn. It burned down to the ground (literally, I saw the hole) a year ago and they want to re-build in the most authentic way possible. Unfortunately, that takes a little more money then just slapping together a modern barn that looks old. From what I heard, they raised a decent amount to start the building which is great. I still cannot believe that the barn did not take the house with it. They were attached! Good job to everyone who saved the house! That would have been a true disaster and even more difficult to replace.

We pretty much did living history all weekend. Of course, that also means we got certain people just walking through the camp, staring at us, slowly walking by, snapping photos the whole way...That part still creeps me out. It kind of makes me feel like I am being stalked sometimes. But as long as everyone has fun, what does it matter!

It smells like a good day for battle gentlemen!

Come and get it you rebel scum! (Star Wars...hey, the rebels won in that movie.)

The nights were pretty cold, that was kind of a bummer, but the days were fairly temperate. It is always nice when you do not have to worry, too much, about heat exhaustion. The farm was large and if you wanted to go somewhere, it was a fair walk, I think I walked all over that farm! I barely saw Dave! Even at night when he crawled into his cot.

The notorious 1st Maryland guys were there (the usual suspects), they are always fun. And we also made friends with the 3rd Arkansas. They were nice, sort of campaigners, but I liked them. Cookies bring about friendship to all people.

In addition to the battles on both days, there was also a medical scenario on both days after the battles (I thought the one on Sunday was best, mainly because of the gentlemen who came up wounded), as well as numerous civilian activities which included a tea party and a fashion show.

Medicine knows no bounds...they all asked for laudanum...Chris' treatments aren't that bad! Are they? Hmmmm....

Mrs. Bergeron got herself in trouble by asking around about her brother. They accused her of being a spy. Geez Deb! Always making trouble you shifty lady you! >wink<

The amount of spectators was surprising, because of the remotness of the site (just about everything in Maine is remote, no offense, I would love to live there) I did not think that so many people would come, but they did!

Next year should be bigger and better so stay tuned to the Washburn-Norlands web site!

Memorial Day Parade

2009-06-05T11:32:00.005-04:00

May 25, 2009

Once again we have the privilege to march in the Memorial Day parades for New Gloucester and Gray, Maine. On one hand, Memorial Day is a wonderful celebration where the public is able to salute our troops (both retired and active) properly, yet, on the other hand it is a mournful event to remember those who have fallen, both on and off the battle fields.

We then went to the Stranger's Grave in Gray. I am sure you have heard of it if you have read the past two Memorial Day blogs, but just as a refresher: A family in Gray had the money to bring their fallen son back from fighting in the south where he was killed. When the casket came, it was a young man in confederate grey. While the family was devastated, they still decided that the young man should still have a proper burial. Eventually the body of the correct young man was returned to Gray, however, the unknown Confederate remains in the cemetery and each Memorial Day we remember this young man who found himself wrapped up in a bloody war that cost him his life.

As always, remember Memorial Day is just one day, but a day that should span the other 364 of a year. Never forget the retired, the active, the young, the old, the fallen, or the past, they protect our ideals and to them, it is more then just a job.

Next: Norlands.

Camp Pratt

2009-06-05T11:15:00.007-04:00

May 1-3, 2009

For the first time, in a long time, it did not rain all weekend. Despite the wind of death and the freezing weather at night, it was actually pretty nice.

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You learn the value of wearing a hat at night when it gets down into the 20s.

Unfortunately me and Dave did not get there until midnight for reasons I will not go in to detail about... Our employers do not quite understand our hobbies, and we should make a habit of packing the Friday morning before we leave.

One exciting new note, Kate has turned to soldier! She did pretty well, too! From what I understand she has been biding her time until she turned 16 so she could carry a rifle on the field. Very clever, Kate, very clever. It is nice when she is a civilian, however, it looks better when we have more soldiers in our ranks.

It was pretty much a weekend of learning and practicing. Everyone got out in the air and refreshed themselves with the re-enactor spirit!

And I realized that I have to go through mine and Dave's things to see why we have so much stuff... I do not know where half of it came from. When you rummage through the box and pull out something that causes you to ask yourself "What the heck is this doing here?" that is when you need to re-organize.

Another note, I have added a new level to my farby-ness; I bought a cot. And I am going to tell you right now, I cannot believe I wasted two seasons on an air mattress! I simply cannot go back. Besides, it keeps me off the ground from biting bugs in the middle of the night. It also makes it easier to store things.

Next event, Memorial Day Parade & Strangers Grave.

More Excuses...

2009-06-05T11:11:00.001-04:00

...All moved in, stuff is (pretty much) where it belongs, I am having trouble typing, Norlands this weekend! I will post Camp Pratt & Memorial Day when I get back and hopefully Norlands on the same day! A three for one deal. See you there!

News?! I may have some....

2009-03-17T16:56:00.003-04:00

...but how fresh it is varies. So, hopefully, just about everyone in Maine has heard about the Norlands event in June. I am going to take this moment to express my excitement.

WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Granted, I have never been to this place, but everyone has been building it up so much that I am really looking forward to it! I really like the scenario that is coming out, too. You can find some more in-depth updates on the Maine Militia board.

I eagerly look forward to my company's next meeting because we get updates on what is happening with the planning from our members who are "consulting."

Excuses

2008-12-31T16:29:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-06T04:14:00.006-04:00

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

2008-09-06T02:59:00.011-04:00

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

2008-08-03T03:00:00.008-04:00

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

2008-08-02T02:55:00.003-04:00

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<

2008-07-31T02:38:00.002-04:00

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

2008-06-29T20:49:00.005-04:00

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

2008-06-28T00:25:00.005-04:00

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

2008-06-25T23:46:00.010-04:00

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

2008-06-24T00:32:00.007-04:00

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

2008-04-15T22:40:00.004-04:00

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!

Wow..

2008-01-15T22:19:00.001-05:00

....it has been a long time since I have picked up the proverbial blogging pen! Amazing how life can just come at you like a 2x4 that flew off of that over-loaded truck in front of you on the interstate! I guess a little update is in order..

...well, tentatively, the 15th will start it's season at the beginning of May with "Camp Pratt." That glorious camp where apparently it rains every year it is held (that held true for last year, and no Charlene, we still do not have Ghirardelli chocolate).

What is really exciting is that we have rounded up a few new bodies! Deb now has to choose which side of the train she wants to be on; Sara went up to her first meeting already inducted (she made the dress before she even met these people...I raised an eyebrow & told her she should have waited), but she still joined; and it looks like we might get a few more here and there. What is really interesting is that the 15th's civilian base is growing faster than it's military strength. It actually left us looking for a civilian liaison at the last meeting (Mike was eyeing Sara, but it WAS her first meeting so we need to go easy on her, wait until the third). I am now wondering what we can do with this new civilian might. I will be doing some homework on that (between work, regular homework, and my newly minted Historian's duties).

That is another thing, are there any other Company Historians out there who can maybe give me an idea on how to document my company's glorious activities? I mean, any dope can handle a camera (that's why I do it), I was just wondering about registers and the like. I plan on starting a "15th Alabama Family Tree" because once I obtained possession of the 15th's records, I realized as I was going through the photos I kept saying to myself "who is this?" "Where did this guy come from?" and "Wow, where did these people go?" Any tips for the newbie Historian would be great. Historian is really code for "Propaganda Minister," I thought that was what Dave was going to be, Mike. What happened?

So...now what?

2007-10-24T23:09:00.000-04:00

I know what you are all thinking...the 15th Alabama's season of fun and excitment is almost over (the Veteran's Day parade in Waterville, ME is technically our last official event), so now what am I going to gab about?

Oh, I have plenty in store for the winter months. Some of my plans involve some research because I am going to try to entice some people I know into the hobby...I'm thinking of maybe baiting them with....marshmallows. Yes, that sounds good. I'll go with that.

Remember, if you see someone you know (or should know) e-mail me with some names if you want and I will gladly post correctly!

Ft. Knox, Maine; Take Two!

2007-10-05T18:06:00.000-04:00

September 22-23

While I was not there, my super-secret-undercover-roving reporter (the dope I love) was there and brought his camera! Let's see what happened!

~*********************************************************************~
It looks like Saturday dawned (or rather, didn't) the same as it did last time, foggy. Chris must be wondering what Mike is wearing...I'm wondering, why is he wearing that?

Camp looks like it was set up in the same place as last time and from the look of Vicky's hair, it was rather windy.

Here are some of our compatriots from the 20th Maine. I am guessing Vicky was taking the photos, but Dave was not to clear on that and I am not certain when Peg and Kate got there. So it could have been any one of them!

Ah, the glory of the 15th Alabama! Wait...four of them are loading their guns...at the same time... I think I know what is going to go on at Camp Pratt next year.

Looks like our on-sight photographer got pretty close to the action this time! I had to stand pretty far away from them when I was there. This is a good shot of the Union line, not as big a group this time, states my source, but still, they make it look good.

And once again, Ben plays the bloodied victim. He's pretty good at that, and it looks like Chris not only has a bloodied apron (that's new), but he has two very pretty nurses to help him care for the wounded! Lucky Ben!

It looks like everyone had a good time, I also heard (from a reliable source) that the ladies of the 20th Maine invited the ladies of the 15th Alabama to tea! I am so jealous! Unfortunately, as of yet I have no photographic evidence of that soiree, but hopefully I will get to participate in something like that next season!

Well, it sounds like things went over pretty well, and everyone came back alive. I was sorry to have missed it, but I hope to see everyone in the near future or at the latest, next season!

Okay, who spilled the beans?

2007-09-28T00:38:00.000-04:00

**

I blame Mike.

Sorry Vicky. Well, I guess word is out and apparently catching on! I am just glad to see other people blogging! I love Deb's blog on the 3rd Maine's activities! If anyone else has felt inspired to blog, please send me an e-mail and let me know so I can link to your blog and see where you and/or your company has been. Also, I would really like to get some names on the people in certain events. If you can describe yourself, friends, family members, etc. I will gladly post their names under the photos. It will also help me remember names & faces the next time I see everyone!

~Kylah

Robbin' a Train...again!

2007-09-24T13:30:00.000-04:00

September 1, 2007

We just can't get enough! This event seems to be the only one where we have outnumbered the Union troops. We only had three this time, too, but we had some new civilians and one of the soldiers from the 3rd Maine was new! It was a fun affair! I actually missed the first couple of runs, but I made up for it!

Here's Ashley, a daughter of the 3rd Maine, Deb's child. She's sweet and the same age as Charlene...two ten year old girls on a train doing basically the same thing over and over again all day...they were talking about killer ninja rabbits stopping the train by the end of the day. The vivid imaginations on these girls!

Here's a photo of Deb and a new civillian, Brenda. It's always nice to meet new people. I did not get a real chance to sit down and talk with Brenda, but she seemed nice and all the 3rd Maine women I have met like to get into the act of accusing 'our boys' (the Confederates) of being traitors. Something me and Vicky take offense to! To think of those dashing men of the 15th Alabama as criminals is just horrible! And they're not robbing the train, they are "liberating" goods for the benefit of the country as a whole.

Here's a photo of Rick and Private Cylik. I had never met him before, he was our replacement for Matt. I hope he comes back next year, it is so great that more Union people come to protect the train! It makes the whole robbery more plausible in the defense of the train part (two Union soldiers shooting down six Confederates...I don't think that would have happened during the Civil War unless someone was REALLY lucky).

Here's another photo of Deb and the other new (to me) civillian, Marsha! Once again, I came late so I did not get to say hello to the two new ladies of the 3rd Maine, but I cannot wait to see them again! Hopefully sooner rather than later! I have to say, I loved all their hats! I need to get into hat making! As if I had free time! >rolls eyes, snorts<

Here's Ben's valiant charge at the Union troops!

Unfortunately, as brave as Ben is, he was brought to a halt by the musket fire of the 3rd Maine. Here, our surgeon, Chris administers something to assage his misery (no, not whisky).

Here's another elusive member of the 15th Alabama, Mr. Joe! I have actually only had the pleasure of meeting him once, at the Stranger's grave in Gray, ME on Memorial Day.

This was great. As mention above, I arrived late for this day's events. Well, on my way up to Maine, I stopped and picked up Dave and a few others, some provisions which did not fit in my basket! Kate was gracious enough to loan me hers. Well, once I got the food covered, I had to figure out a way to get it to the guys. So, I called Dave on his cell phone (I know...real authentic >eye roll<) and said that I was going to figure this out and ask the 3rd Maine to help me out. I was thinking, I'll just put it on the end of the last car and someone can sneak it off. Well, I went to Rick to ask for his assistance. Well, told me that it shouldn't be a problem passing off the basket to the Confederates because some of the ladies (Vicky) had been flirting and consorting with the men in some manner all day. Basically, it was Vicky flirting her heart out. >smacks forehead< That's what I did. Someone burst out laughing as I lowered my face into my hand and then looked back at Vicky sharply. Honestly, what are we going to do with that woman?! Well, she did pass off the food rather well, and Mike made it seem part of the plan when he asked if anyone had found provisions on the train with the dispatch case and coin box.

This was a good scene. Chris came over to his daughter, Kate and started calling her "Maggie." He asked her where her mother was (Peg, who was back at the station). Peg was there to pick Kate up and she wasn't supposed to be on this ride, which could be why Chris came up to her and asked (in a southern-like accent why she was on the train). Anyway, Kate, with her own southern-like accent, said that the Yankee's had captured Peg. Then the conversation went downhill and Chris said something about how Kate should know how much of a troublemaker her mother is. His parting words to Kate were something along the lines of, 'your mother should be out of prison, soon.' It was so hard not to spend the entire event laughing hysterically.

There were enough of us to seperate the Union sympathizers from the Confederates. Here's a good shot of the Union, Steve is wearing the straw hat. And you can see a young boy in suspenders peeking out from between the railings on your left...that's Deb's son, Benjamin. I actually did not get many photos of him.

Well, finally, the Union got to take the Confederates out in the last run. Fair enough seeing as how our boys took them out all day in June.

It was a good day. The weather was nice, there was a good breeze for those of us wearing layers, and we had a great turnout! The best part was the last run, we were sitting there for a while when all of the sudden, about fifteen asian tourists came around the boatyard. We thought, "okay! tourists! And foreigners, this'll be great for them!" well, next thing we know, a huge bus comes into the parking lot and we end up taking on about fifty asian tourists. My big question of the day was, why are they in New England? >shrug< but they seemed to enjoy themselves, and as always the 15th Alabama and the 3rd Maine do not disappoint when it comes to drama!

Finally!!!

2007-09-18T09:59:00.000-04:00

I finally figured out how to get the comments link to show up. I just clicked the wrong thing. >smacks forehead< Anyway, the train robbery post will be up soon (for some reason the people of the Portland Maine area LIKE being robbed...) and once again, Ft. Knox this weekend! I will not be there, but I cannot wait to hear about it from my fellows going up!

Ft. Knox, Maine: Part III: Revenge of the Confederacy

2007-09-02T12:29:00.000-04:00

July 28-29 (Sunday's Battle)

I just couldn't resist the title, we won this day, and it didn't look as bad as it did in Groton! Can you really blame me? It's such a shameless pun.

Here's Mike serenading Chris and Steve with a little song (story) after breakfast.

I think this is a really good photo of Sandy. She's amazing! She went to one event, the train robbery in June, and she's gone into re-enacting full ahead! She also spins wool into yarn! It's pretty neat. If ever there is an event the 15th Alabama attends, look for her spinning because it is really neat to watch.

Well, here are the Union scouts. I guess the one on the right was brand new, like that day brand new! Good for him, young people getting into the re-enacting is nice to see because they could be out doing worse things.

Here is an excellent death scene. The 15th's soldier's took out the scouts first so they wouldn't alert the rest of the 20th Maine. You know, it looks like the Confederates shot a lot of young people at Ft. Knox...stop dying! You're making us look bad!

Here's a good photo of Dave and Ben. Well, it's not that good because you can barely see Dave's face through the smoke, but you get the general idea.

This was a good scenario. Chelli, against the Captain's orders, charged the 20th Maine (from a rediculous distance). Well, big surprise they "shot" him. However,...

...they only wounded him. He's really part of the 20th Maine, so they treated him like a traitor. Here's a photo of one of the guys running up to steal Chelli's hat, as a souvenier?

Then, when the hat-thief was "shot" the Captain of the 20th went up and stabbed Chelli to finish him off. It was pretty comical and the spectators around me thought that it was not only good drama, but pretty funny, too. I mean seriously, the guys couldn't help but laugh.

Steve's another one of those people who are hard to take a photo of. I was/am really happy that I got this shot of him because it's a good action pose, too.

And finally, we finish off our battles with watermelon because it really makes you feel better after running around in the heat. It's the original fruit/sports drink!

Well, we packed everything up and headed out. It was a little cramped to get the cars in because the 20th Maine couldn't bring their vehicles into the Fort and we were right there, so it created a little congestion problem. But all in all, it was a fun event and hopefully we'll be able to go again!

Update: There will be another Ft. Knox event September 22-23, 2007. I cannot go but I strongly encourage everyone who can to go!

Ft. Knox, Maine: Part II

2007-08-07T22:21:00.000-04:00

July 28-29 (Saturday's Battle)

Mike and Vicky really are a couple of teenagers at heart. Here's the Confederate wife hugging her husband good-bye with a smooch for good luck (he "died" in battle, but that's later!)

We actually got two volunteers and drafted someone from the 20th Maine so that it would not look like we were severely outnumbered.

One of our volunteers was "Chelli" the surgeon that we had captured a few hours earlier, I guess there were no hard feelings there. I found out later that he's actually from Texas! I noticed that he had a heavy Southern accent and I wondered why he was part of the Union...but he has his reasons.

Here's a good photo of Tom in the midst of battle.

Well, here's the Captain giving his last orders to Tom (Corporal). There was only three of them left by that time.

For the record, the 15th did not shoot the kids playing the drum or other musical instruments. They were tending the wounded. They were actually quite good.

And there, amidst the crumpled forms of Confederate gray stands Private Lindsay, a pillar of strength and oblivious-ness. She didn't realize she was the last one standing until she realized that no one else was shooting.

Well, we finished up our evening (accompanied by quite a few mosquitos) by watching fireworks through a heavy fog. It was interesting because they launched the fireworks from the Fort, down near the water where the battle had taken place earlier. We just watched these bright flashes of light through the fog and it was kind of neat.

Now on to Sunday!

Ft. Knox, Maine

2007-07-31T23:59:00.000-04:00

July 28-29

So, here's the story; I went to Ft. Knox knowing I was going to post photos of the event on this blog and talk about it. However, I did not plan on taking so many good photos nor experiencing so many fun events! I loved this event! It was wonderful, definitely worth the (8 hour round)trip! The park had real restrooms!!!! It was not just port-a- um...chamberpot, they had real restrooms! I nearly cried. Nah, it wasn't that dramatic, but it was really nice to go and wash your hands for real and not just with hand sanitizer. But the event was fun and there were quite a few spectators on both days. Also, the 20th Maine, they're a good bunch of people.

Anyway, it looks like I'm going to have to post Ft. Knox three times because of the sheer number of photos

"Here, Dave, shake my hand." That arm actually belongs to our surgeon's collection of Civil War props. I was kind of surprised that they sold fake limbs, but then, why should it?

Here's a good shot of Peg and Chris watching the rest of the company get ready to take the fort! I know what you're thinking...

On Saturday, the Federals went to march in the Bucksport parade. Well, they left a few soldiers behind because they either 1. didn't want to walk all that way, and/or 2. so that there were some Union troops left at the camp. Anyway, the Union surgeon, "Chelly" I believe his nickname was, came over to our encampment (kind of hard to miss since we were just outside the only entrance to the fort). He said to Mike "How 'bout 11:00 you guys come over and take the Fort and tie me and --- up. Just to see what the rest of them do?" Well, they expected the Union to come back around that time. So a little after 11:00 Mike got everyone lined up and we went for a "stroll".

Here's the checkpoint, he asked where we were going and Mike told him that the Union surgeon invited us in. I don't think he believed us, but he was smiling as he let us pass.

Here is the 15th storming the fort and taking the two prisoners.

We tied up the two prisoners in the surgeon's quarters. It was funny because Lindsey tied up the gentleman in the white shirt, a lot. She kept wrapping the rope around him until finally Mike said "Having fun there Lindsey? I think that's enough."

Well, after the prisoners were left (foolishly) unguarded one got away, but we kept the surgeon. Miss Vicky came to see that we (the 15th) were treating the prisoner(s) decently. Dave had been left to guard them after we lost the one prisoner.

So, eventually we gave the fort back to the Union because the rest of the 20th Maine were MIA at that parade, lunch was served, and "Chelly" had a surgeon's lecture to do. Of course, just as we sat down to eat, the 20th comes around the corner and we all just started laughing. I heard somewhere that the gentleman who escaped had gone to warn them or something. Well, after they heard that we had taken the fort they posted a guard at the gate for the rest of the weekend. He stopped anyone who looked suspicious.

The face of the 15th? We get our photos taken by a lot of newspapers at these events, this was the first television station that interviewed anyone. It's too bad it happened on Saturday and there was no way we would have been able to see it.

Groton, Mass.

2007-07-31T23:52:00.000-04:00

July 14-15, 2007

Wow! This has probably been one of the best events I have been to this season! What made it so great was that the Groton Historical Society (or Hysterical Society, as Chris likes to call it) was so involved in the event and really pulled things together! They even linked the town to the Civil War through historic buildings, discussions and cemetary tours of soldier's graves (all Union, obviously).

This was Lindsay's first re-enactment where she actually participated, as a soldier no less!

I don't personally know these boys, but they were watching the Confederates line up for the Saturday battle. Future soldiers?

Well, not only did the Union have seven cannons (at least six were full size, too!), but on Saturday they had the high ground. Here are some of the 15th's and the 1st Maryland soldiers running across the field away from enemy fire.

This was our (the Confederates) cannon...yes, I know, not that impressive to look at, but dang! That thing can make some noise! I like how the "bodies" of the artillery crew that manned it are strewn about.

Later that evening we noticed the Confederate Cavalry saddling up and I thought, "oh, they're going out to ride, scope the hills, or practice." Well, in reality, they were headed over to Unity to raid the town. When they started shooting and yelling, Mike looked up and said "Oh, it looks like Unity is being sacked again."

As I was watching the raid and the large tent on the right was that of the largest sutler (shop) for the weekend, well all of the sudden, as the horses were slowed down and things seemed to calm I saw these three figures go running out of the tent and take off down the field back to our camp. I'd forgotten that Kate, Charlene and Amelia (Charlene's new friend) had gone down to buy some rock candy. They came back with the news that a man had been "shot" during the raid because as the cavalry raider said "that suit is unacceptable!" I thought that was pretty funny and the girls told the story quite well.

Charlene is just so pretty in this photo. Her father has plenty of reasons to worry!

On Sunday, me, Vicky, Peg, and Kate went on a cemetary tour. When we arrived a Union group, the 13th Massachussetts I believe, were leaving after holding a memorial service for the Civil War soldiers buried there. I was sorry to have missed it, but the ladies giving the tour were excellent and they really knew their history! Two of the three were dressed as Civil War era widows and they described the three (recommended) stages of mourning for the time period.

A year and a day after her husband's death the widow barely went out or socialized and she wore black dresses with a veil and gloves and little to no adornment.

After that time had elapsed, for the following nine months she was allowed to incorporate a little color into her attire (i.e. putting little purple rose buds in the folds of her bonnet, a dark red hat covered with thick black lace, etc) and she was allowed to send out letters to friends informing them she was allowed to have visitors, the stationary was usually had a black border of some kind. As for jewelry if she wore any it was black, usually made of jet, and not fancy.

After those nine months she went through the final stage which was three months long and she only had to wear the black dress and hat, she could accent it with some of her family jewelry, white lace collars, etc., but she still had to keep it subdued.

Back to the battle!
Here's some of the Union artillery. They were supposed to lose on Sunday, but it didn't look like the Confederates won...I don't really know what happened except that the company nearest me took some hits (guys fell down as though dead) and their captain started shouting "Get up! get up!" They kind of looked at him like 'huh? But I'm dead." So not that many fell in the onslaught of our Volkswagon Beetle-sized cannon.

Here was one of the last Confederates standing on the left flank. He made the Union company nearest him charge and take him, they were actually laughing with him after that and I think they and him just watched the rest of the debacle unfold.

So that was the afternoon. As we were folding up though, the skies darkened and despite Mike's attempt to keep the rain away (he was blowing at the clouds as he was tying things up >eye roll<) as we were halfway through packing up the sky opened up and it poured! Lightening, thunder, the whole shebang! Everyone who was there to help ended up soaked through! It was pretty amazing through when the re-enactors around us saw we were still trying to get stuff stowed and they just came over and took stuff down. Before I knew what was going on the fly and wall tent were down and they were folding the canvas. There are some really nice people involved in the re-enacting hobby.

4th of July: Update

2007-07-26T23:32:00.000-04:00

This just in! The 15th Alabama wins Best Marching Group at the Winslow, ME Independence Day Parade! There was no compeititon (just the U.S. Army...wait), we just blew them all away. To tell the truth, I didn't even know there were catagories or prizes. Apparently we also get a trophy! I wonder if the 15th has any other tropies...? There's something I'm going to have to ask. And if yes, then what does the Company do with them...? Hmmm.

Well, I will put a photo in this post when I get to see the trophy! Yay for the 15th! "Any fate but submission!"

Evil? Me?

2007-07-24T21:42:00.000-04:00

.

Now, is this the face of Evil?
So, Dave finally sees this blog, well, he saw the truck post and said to me "That's it! I'm getting the Jetta!" I asked him if that was the great test of our relationship. When he replied "yes" I told him I'd have to think about it. >grin< Isn't the truck the incentive?

Nah, I torment him, but I'm not in it ONLY for the truck (oh don't get me wrong, it's a very nice truck=a pretty good lure), Dave's a good guy who has nothing but respect for me. And where else am I going to find a guy who opens doors for me on his own accord, still when we've been dating for over a year now? I count myself pretty lucky to find a guy like him. His type are rare, I know because I've looked.

4th of July

2007-07-17T23:24:00.000-04:00

July 4, 2007

Do you know where Winslow, Maine is? It's one of those places where if you drive to the middle of nowhere and take a left, you'd find it. Actually, since joining the 15th Alabama, I've noticed a lot of that in Maine...hmmm. Anyway, it was quite the drive for me and Dave, especially since we couldn't leave until we got out of work. We had Mike (Captain), Steve (1st Sergeant), Chris (Surgeon), Tom (Corporal), Dave and Ben for soldiers while me and Kate represented the civilians.

So let me show you how I spent my 4th of July holiday!
I got to meet another one of our younger members, Kate. She's a real sweetheart and she walked the parade route with me which really put me at ease. I was worried that I was going to be the only one. We actually turned into the company's propaganda scouts. Tom turned to us after our first "tourist-y" encounter (a parade watcher coming over to take a photo with Tom) and told us to hand out cards with the Company's contact information on them. I mostly held the stuff and sent Kate over to pass the cards out, which she did very well.

Here's a great photo of the guys firing their muskets. I actually had to ask the Captain to wave me forward so I could get this shot (no pun intended). When he did I had to trot out in front of them, which was farther than I would have had time for if I didn't have the signal from the Captain.

This photo gives you a better look at Mike and Tom with the flag.

Here are the guys standing next to this blockhouse which is all that is left of Ft. Halifax which was built by the English to ward off enemies during the French and Indian war.

Ft. Halifax: National Park Service

Finally, here's another photo of Kate except at the end of a fairly warm day at the end of the parade, which turned out to be almost two miles long. Thank goodness they had a "VIP" bus service to take us back to our cars.

Well, it wasn't as warm as years past, according to the veterans of the parade, but almost everyone finished their canteens full of water (no, there's no whisky in them...this time >wink<). I don't blame them though, it was warm. What was nice though, was that Mike kind of tried steering us into the shade when ever it looked like we were going to have to stop for a while. We might have mutinied if he hadn't, and Vicky would have been mad at him, too. But it was nice, me and Kate really were not looking forward to having to play nurse to the surgeon, I kept having flashbacks to the Train Robbery a few days previously where Deb was pretending to dig bullets out of soldier's arms. >shudder<

On to the next event! Groton!

Train robbery

2007-07-16T09:52:00.000-04:00

June 30, 2007

This event was a lot of fun and it was the first time we actually got to socialize with some Union people. We had Matt, Rick and Steve from the 3rd Maine come down to "protect" a strongbox on the train. Then, a civilian and her daughter from the 3rd Maine came as well, Deb and Ashley! I love Deb, she's nice and Ashley's pretty cute.

Here's an altered photo of Ashley, Deb, Vicky, Meadow and Me. I wanted to take a photo of us Civilians before all the action began because I knew as the day wore on we would get tired and I might have forgotten. You can also kind of see the steam engine behind us.

Here's a photo of Matt (I think) from the 3rd Maine during one of our robberies.

Here's Deb giving first aid to Rick (I think) of the 3rd Maine who has been "shot" by one of the 15th Alabama. She was the impromptu surgeon for the day and pretended to dig out bullets with one of her knitting needles. Rick did a good job pretending that he was in pain from her not-so-gentle ministrations.

Here's Tom breaking into the payroll box. Apparently (as I found out later that evening as we were packing up) the box was full of two-year old beans. Ugh.

I like this photo of Ashley and Meadow a lot.

This was the last battle and Steve (the third gentleman from the 3rd Maine) had to leave before the last robbery. Well, that left two against six...But Rick and Matt went out with a bang. They apparently charged the three privates, Dave, Lindsey and Robbie who apparently were just shocked to see Rick coming at them. From the photo it looks like one landed on the other...ouch. That ground wasn't soft either.

This was funny. The last two robberies of the day were livened up by Vicky flirting with her husband Mike. On the second to last run he was supposed to say something about a cavalry coming down on them to signal the conductor to leave. Well he was busy flirting with Vicky and Tom had to remind him, "Captain, the Cavalry." To which Mike replied, "In a minute!" It was pretty hard to keep from not laughing hysterically until the tourists had left the train. Me and Meadow especially thought it was great. They did such a good job of it too!

Here's another altered photo, this time of the three newest privates to the Company: Robbie, Dave and Lindsay.

This was a group photo of the 15th Alabama and the 3rd Maine. We also had tourists pose with us, I felt kind of like an attraction at a theme park.

All in all, it was a great day and everyone had a lot of fun. However, I must say, thank goodness it was on a Saturday because we needed Sunday to recover!

Borderland

2007-07-15T09:51:00.000-04:00

June 16-17, 2007

"Borderland" is a state park in the Easton, MA area (I believe the park is actually in three towns, Sharon, North Easton and Mansfield, MA). Well, it was a very nice place to have an encampment and the parking was great! You don't think about parking too much until you have to carry things that weigh you down. I don't need to go to the gym to "pump up" I just need to carry Dave's musket around. Well, the parking was great for us, this was our first encampment with Union soldiers sharing the field. They were actually down behind some trees, we were closer to the road and the House that is sort of the icon of the park. When we got there that night to set up it was probably the first time we got there to actually help the group set up >eye roll<

As we were setting up Friday night, someone came over to us and said "In about ten minutes there's going to be a big wind!" We all just kind of looked at each other. Well, it was the Mass. Life flight helicopter creating the wind. We know it was not a re-enactor who was hurt, otherwise we would have heard the gossip at some point of the weekend, so we're thinking the ambulance (with an escort of fire trucks) carted someone in there because it's an open place for the helicopter to land. Well, the big wind came all right! It's a good thing we got the tent stakes down so well, even then we had to hold them, just in case.

So after that, we settled down around the campfire for our traditional evening of laughter and drink. I found out that a group of guys from Connecticut (mostly) calling themselves the 1st Maryland had fallen in with our company because, from what I understood, none of their officers had been able to make it. They were a fun group of guys. I cannot wait to see them again.

Well, here are some photos...
These guys are crazy, they get up at like 5:30 in the morning after a night of carousing and drinking! No wonder they need coffee! I think one of the gentlemen from the 1st Maryland said something about that. It's really Mike and Tom who are the early birds, and a few other people in camp & everyone else just wakes up shortly thereafter.

Here are "our boys" as Miss Vicky likes to call them (she's a delicate Georgia girl >wink<) on the battlefield.
As you can see, the Confederate forces were slightly outnumbered (you cannot see the two or three cannons with support crew or the cavalry in this photo). But those Rebel soldiers died with all the drama they could muster.

When we went over for this battle, this skirmish, me, Vicky and Charlene went over. It was so funny because we were watching them for a minute then all of the sudden Charlene asks Vicky "Is Daddy dead?" The spectators around us (we were dressed in our Civil War garb) had to laugh. It was a great question, especially when Vicky seriously looked over the bodies and made sure Mike wasn't on the ground before saying, "No, he's not dead, sweetie." It was just one of those "Priceless" moments.

Later that evening, the soldiers went off for a tactical battle where the spectators are STRONGLY discouraged from attending because basically everyone ends up running through the woods as though they were actually being pursued. Tom and Mike (from the 1st Maryland, they call him "geezer" and even though I don't want to, I'm going to call him that because we already have a Mike) had apparently broken away from the Confederate forces when all hell broke loose and escaped into the woods, they showed up for dinner at least a half hour after everyone else. But the important thing was, they didn't get caught or surrender!

One scary thing that happened was, we were preparing dinner and all of the sudden we heard hoof beats and a man calling out "whoa, whoa". Everyone in the Confederate camp looked and saw one of the cavalry horses come cantering across the field right back to it's hitching post with it's saddle twisted to the side. The first thing everyone thought was, "I hope the rider's okay!" She was, I guess she just bruised her ego, better an ego than being trampled. Luckily, no one else got hurt in the horses' path of fury. From what I heard from the soldiers who witnessed it, she somehow fell off and the next thing they knew the horse was charging for the camp. Smart animal, the tactical wasn't that close, but he remembered where he felt safe.

After the soldiers had left, we women didn't have a whole lot left to do. It was a good thing that there was a wedding! It was pretty neat, a couple, who are technically sutlers and when they go to the encampments they stay in "Unity" the civilian camp. Unity is like an entity itself, there's the Federal Camp, the Confederate Camp and Unity (otherwise called the town). Well, congratulations to Heather and Dave! They actually researched and made their outfits and Dave's daughter, Samantha was so adorable in her flower girl dress! They had a wonderful idea and I really appreciate the fact that they did it at a re-enactment so they could show off their outfits to the rest of us!

Well, things wound down and we actually left early on Sunday. Apparently that tactical on Saturday night took a toll on just about our entire company. I think half of us were down with injuries (it seemed like it took us an extra hour to pack the company stuff). But once again, we made it through another encampment! I love the experience more and more!

Borderland State Park

Memorial Day

2007-07-13T00:07:00.000-04:00

May 28th, 2007

Unfortunately, this being my first parade, I didn't take any photos. It was very nice, though, we actually did two parades.

New Gloucester, Maine started bright and early (not some people's favorite time of the day). It was my first opportunity to wear a hoop skirt. I must say, hoop skirts are not as annoying as one would think. I did have to learn to maneuver it a little, but once I did that I actually like wearing it! Besides, I got to wear my pretty blue dress instead of my, rather plain, camp dress. Well, it was a fun parade (I felt a little strange about being in the parade, theater was never my best class). Then our group fired a salute after the speech at the end of the parade. Thank goodness for parasols! Thank you to Dave's mother for getting me one! I almost didn't bring it, but it was a lifesaver on the walk back to the cars! Also, Dave and Mike looked rather fetching strolling along, each holding a parasol! I really wish I had had a camera then.

Gray, Maine: Now, it was getting hot. It was about noon and the sun was rising in the sky like a flaming ball of death (wait...). As the parade wore on, I experienced the interesting sensation of feeling the heat from the road coming up under the hoop. As we were lining up, we noticed that there were people from the New Gloucester parade lining up, too. We waved. We then wound our way to a town building in the center of Gray where we stood nearest the Civil War memorial and also saluted with gunfire during this ceremony.

After the parade(s) and the ceremony we all went as a group to the stranger's grave in the Gray, Maine cemetary. Apparently, during the Civil War a young local man was killed in action. His family paid the fee to have his body returned to them for a proper burial, but when they opened the casket, it was a Confederate soldier with no name. Well, the mother of the deceased Union soldier decided to give this young man, so far from home, a decent burial in the hopes that someone would do the same for her son, also so far away from home. Eventually, the Union solder's remains were returned to his mother and she properly buried him, however some local ladies erected a headstone for the Confederate's grave intoning the belief that despite the fact that war is begun and fought for principle's, death is sure to follow.

Stranger's Grave on google

Re-enactorland

2007-07-12T10:54:00.000-04:00

April 19-20, 2007

Also known as "Camp Pratt." This was another school of instruction that is primarily for the 15th Alabama. It's literally run in the backyard of Mike's Mother's house. This was where we found out Mike's plans to create "Re-enactorland" a theme park portraying the Civil War. Vicky must be so proud.

Here are the guys all lined up for drills. Steve is our 1st Sargent which means he calls out some of the orders. Tom is our Corporal, Dave and Robbie are infantrymen (bodyshields for the officers), and Chris is the surgeon who is there to "patch" the guys up in battle, and he has the equipment to prove it!

Here they are shooting on command. Can you hear how squeaky clean Dave's is (The shame!)?

So what do Civil War re-enactors do after they realize they cannot drill in the rain? They test their math skills on a game of civil war era playing cards. There are no numbers which tells you how much we've come to rely on the roman numerals, and the digital era. It was funny because they had to look at the cards for a minute to figure out what they actually had.

Well, Camp Pratt was pretty good, it rained, but not as badly as it had in past years (so I'm told). It was a good chance for me and Dave to set up our tent for the first time (after waiting about a month to get it). I will say that good canvas tents (and I learned this in Lincoln, RI) are the best tents you could ever own! They are moderately waterproof (I'm sure they'd have trouble with a monsoon, but what tent wouldn't?), keep most of the bugs out, and they are fairly cool at night. And most importantly, you don't need an engineering degree from MIT in order to put it up! That was awesome!

What's up with the truck?

2007-07-08T01:37:00.000-04:00

You're probably wondering that, right? Well, shortly after we started dating, I told Dave that I really liked his truck. In fact, I jokingly said that I was only dating him for his truck. Well, we were on spring break in '06 and he made out this holographic will bequeathing the truck to me upon his demise. For those who don't know, a holographic will is a document, dispersing your estate post-mortem (essentially a will). You have to keep in mind not all states recognize a holographic will unless it is created in a jurisdiction that does recognize them. They also have to be almost entirely written in the hand of the testator (the dead person). There are all sorts of requirements, but Dave did it anyway. Unfortunately, I can't "accidentally" bump him off because he put a clause in there that says I forfeit the bequest if I had anything to do with his death. Can you believe that?!

Anyway, when people ask me why I'm dating him (because he does get a little crazy sometimes), I just tell them "It's for the truck." He's a good guy to put up with me.

Lincoln, RI

2007-07-07T08:20:00.000-04:00

April 4th - 5th, 2007

After months of meetings, this was mine and Dave's first event. We were excited, we were pumped, we had to sleep on the ground. Yeah, that didn't go over well with Dave. Come to find out that camping is not exactly his thing. The lack of shower bothered him, it was very cold, and the ground was pretty hard (it was frozen, no joke, it was 30 degrees that night). It didn't bother me much, but we were unprepared to tell the truth. So we ended up driving around who-knows-where Rhode Island (it doesn't seem that big until you're lost at 4am) to find a Wal-Mart to buy an extra blanket and an air mattress. We managed to find one (thanks to a pretty cute, and very nice, Woonsockett police officer) but it did not open until 7am, so we did the unthinkable; we waited for it to open.

Now armed with our "Farb" we headed back to the campground. This event was one of the first in the season and it was actually a school of instruction. There were classes that the men and the women could attend to help them be better re-enactors. It also gave me a glimpse of how to interact with the tourists. It was fun to hear some of the stories about dealing with tourists (can't call them civilians because that's what we call the re-enactors who are not soldiers). Apparently, many tourists just walk around the campsite and kind of look at you like you're a living diorama or not even real. They kind of just walk around or through your camp and stare, but don't say anything. I witnessed it, and it was kinda disturbing.

Now you're probably wondering what a re-enactment is like? Well if you've been to Plimouth Plantation in Massachusetts, that's basically a re-enactment, just a different era and less exciting.

So, the guys practiced drilling, we met the cavalry, and I realized that, there was no Union camp. When I asked about that, Miss Vicky said, "Oh, they're >insert place here< this weekend for their school of instruction." Oh, okay.

Our group was fairly small for this event; me, Dave, Mike, Vicky, Charlene ("The Child"), and Tom (who is REALLY hard to photograph because he moves so much!)

Well, now for some photos:
Here are Mike and Vicky at the camp, despite their look it was actually quite cold.

Here is one of the few photos I have of Tom (who is a corporal in the group). He's an awesome guy who, as I have learned after a few events, is really quick and hard to track with the camera. But I have the rest of the season!

At this event they did a payroll re-enactment which was pretty neat, but at the same time kind of humiliating because Dave (my boyfriend) was docked a dollar (from a private's pay of $11) for excessive cleanliness. >hangs head in shame< However, Mike got docked I think it was $10 from his pay (not sure how much it is for a captain) for excessive drunkeness last season. He tried to defend himself, but I guess it didn't go over well. He also owed Tom money from a card game they played.

As I later found out, they passed forms around the camp to find out who was there, how much each was getting and what he was going to be docked for. So it was really Mike and Tom who had Dave docked for excessive cleanliness. I guess it was also Tom who put in excessive drunkeness for Mike. Tom was the only one who didn't get docked for anything. What did they use for money, you ask? Someone took some confederate bills and photocopied the crap out of them to make a suitable payroll box. They even staged (or maybe they didn't do it intentionally) a payroll robbery by two privates. Also, I learned that the enlisted men got paid first (probably so they wouldn't see how much the officers got).

Well, a few hours after the payroll, we packed it up and left. I can tell you now, there were a lot of sore bodies for the next couple of days.
But it was a lot of fun.

Showers?

2007-07-06T08:43:00.000-04:00

Our first meeting with the 15th Alabama was memorable just for that. We met one of them in Augusta, Maine and this kid rode with us while we followed his step-father. Dave looked back and asked, "So what do y'all do for showers?" To which the kid replied, "Showers?" I nearly ran off the road I was laughing so hard. He continued, "Well, if we're lucky we'll camp near a lake or a stream..." Dave looked at me and just said "Oh." If only we had known then what we know now.

Dave is not a New England person, he grew up swimming in the Gulf of Mexico or warmer waters, he's not used to the frigid Atlantic, I took him to Salisbury, MA last summer and he nearly collapsed of hypothermia (so he says). So him swimming in any body of water in New England is only going to be out of desperation or coercion, and let's just say, he's not that desperate for a shower.

So we met the group. We were not the only new ones, thankfully. There were two new recruits from the Farmington area. It was funny because the meeting was held at the Captain and President's house (Captain Mike Pratt & President Vicky Pratt, both elected positions) and apparently Dave had been communicating with the Captain who was not so good at communicating with his wife because she greeted us at the door and said "These are the people from the Massachusetts area?! I wish I would have known, I would have had better snacks!" all the while giving her husband a look of disapproval.

Well, after a mild, in company melodrama to which Dave, myself, Lyndsey and Alison were not privy to the specifics at the time, we got along quite famously. The rest of the meeting, after taking care of the political stuff, was spent trying to give the newcomers an idea of what happens at re-enactments. It was fun and they commented that it was probably one of the longest meetings they had had in a while. Dave and I ended up staying an extra hour or so after the meeting just to talk to Mike and Miss Vicky. It was great fun and we really liked them, and well, we're still with them.

How it all began...

2007-07-05T23:58:00.000-04:00

So, I met this guy. He seemed harmless enough. We met at school, we started talking and the real ice breaker came when I saw the license plate on his truck and said "Oh, so you're the moron from Louisiana! Why the hell did you come up to New England?!" I thought I was going to have to perform CPR (scary prospect). Well, to make a long story short, we flirted in near zero temperatures for a while then went on a date. Over a year later and I'm still dating him, so there must be something good there, oh yeah, the truck.

Well, last October (2006) he asks me if I would be interested in Civil War re-enacting. I said, "Sure!" It makes sense, I already dress up for Anime conventions so it's right up my ally. I then asked him the ever so important question - "Which side are we going to be on?" Without even missing a beat he looked at me and said "I love you, but not enough to put on a blue uniform." I just shrugged and replied, "Okay, the Southern women had better dresses." Now, you may be wondering, what self-respecting Northern born woman would agree to that? Love? Stupidity? Racism? No, it was for the history (and the fashion), besides the Union troops need someone to shoot at when everyone gets together at the re-enactments. Oh, and it was for the truck, too.

Going off the whole, "what self-respecting northerner..." idea, I thought to myself, where are we going to find a Confederate group in New England? Well, the one we found and like happened to be in the Farmington, Maine area (figures)...about three hours from our residence...I was not going to be happy if we didn't like these people. A six hour round trip in a car that gets less than ideal gas milage and is WAAAY over it's alloted miles, they had BETTER be worth it! And they are. We met, and fell in love, with the 15th Alabama Company G. We enjoy these people more than some people we have known for much longer, and they are worth the six hour round trip. Thank goodness I have such wonderful people in my life.

I guess it all worked out in the end, and I still get the truck.