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.

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!

Wilton Blueberry Fesitval

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.

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!

Camp Pratt

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.

Chamberlain Days: Part 2

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

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

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

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...