Fort Knox, part deux

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!

Norlands

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!

Fort Knox

July 25-26, 2008

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

On to the photos!

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Confederates also line up.

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

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

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

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

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

Ft. Knox, Maine

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.