Chase Farm

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.

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.