Okay, who spilled the beans?

**


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

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

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

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!

Groton, Mass.

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

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!"

4th of July

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

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

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

Lincoln, RI

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.