Hi guys & gals. Just got back from upstate NY and my first Re-enactors event. Well let me say first that it was a load of fun and somewhat humbling. I got a little taste of what a day in the life of a Union soldier wasl like. its not quite as hardcore as the real life of a soldier in the 1860's but even then it was still quite exhausting. I slept on the ground with nothing but a poncho & a blanket and got soaked to the bone when the man upstairs decided we needed a bath. When we weren't eating hardtack or drinking coffee we were drilling marching or fighting. Worste of all I didn't shower all weekend.
As far as the battles go they were incredible. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when your marching up to battle and you here the cannons going off while a line of rifles are swaying to and fro in a long column ahead of you. Then you have to get into a battle line which cant get pretty confusing if your new to it like I am. While this is happening the enemy is sending volley after volley in your direction. Guys are dropping like flies on the field and the roar of canons in front and in back of you is deafening. To make matters worse your company commanders are yelling at ya to do this do that. It's complete chaos.
During the last battle one of our cannons shot what we call a double load (Insert joke here) and man I thought my heart was gonna hammer right out of my chest. Every guy on the line jumped. Even the guys who have done it for years.
I don't know how anyone made it through the war between the states. I spent only a weekend doing it and was physicaly & mentally exhausted. These guys marched & marched & marched and fought & fought & fought as well as dealing with the elements every day for 2 to 3 years.
This re-enactment had maybe 1000 troops involved. A relativley small number of men. In two weeks the 140th anniversary of Gettysburgh will be taking place and should boast about 20,000 men & woman (Would have been 30,000 but it was postponed this year because of all the rain.) This is stilll a drop in the bucket considering there were roughly 150,000 men in the area at the time. It should be a site to see.
If any of you have never seen one of these events you should. It really is incredible to see and even more incredble to experience from inside the event.
Anyway I just thought I'd share my experience with all of you and say I'm happy to be back to civilization as we know it and loook forward to fraggingyou all soon.

Hey Max!!!...you came back alive eehh??? it 's aint easy I know ...those shoes are hard as bricks to march in!!....at least you did'nt lay on top of a Yellowjacket nest like I did at the Battle of Rome! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


Ex-confederate re-enactor Tri 8)

sounds fun max we have to go see one of these our boys would like something like this glad you had fun and welcome back

hotts

welcome back max just watch out for the P.T.S.D :roll: :oops:
but i thought you were used to big bangs anyway :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Last summer I went down to Ft. Eire on the bike, and while I was at the old fort there, a demonstration was put on for some guests. Only one man had a musket, which he only fired once. I was quite surpised by the sonic power of the blast, and the amount of smoke from one just one shot. Real battles must have been total sonic chaos, with a fog of smoke to deal with too. :shock: At old Ft. Louisbourg in '89 I was allowed to hold a musket briefly. Damn thing weighed a ton. No wonder all soldiers did most of the time was camp out and rest. Marching and lugging that kind of weight around, phew!
Two years ago I was unable to attend a recreation of the 1812-14 battles around old Ft. Eire. After reading you post I wish I could have been a spectator even more. If they hold one again, I'll try harder to attend. Thanks for sharing Max, will you be doing this kind of work, er, fun.... again? 8)

(Oh and roger that on the yellow jackets Trigon. When I was in my high school's cadet corps we went up to Camp Borden for some field exercises on a long weekend. Camped out on the ground in tents made of ponchos, and played soldier. On one training exercise my buddies and I found a good hiding place. We plopped down right beside a nest of yellow jackets in the ground. We weren't stung though. How did you fare? :!: :lol: )

I hope ypu have fum Max.Those old muskets take two minutes to load.

Gone are the days when hiding behind boxes = cowardly guerilla-style fighting.

Bring back the honorable times when we all stood in long lines facing the enemy and took turns killing each other!

Caught you hiding in a box just yesterday Mah!! :!:

Come out and take it like a ........... uh.......... um, man?!! :?

Yes Tri those brogans can be a killer. I went out and got myself some gel inserts. Considering a good many Rebs went without shoes I don't think I'll complain about my feet hurting. As far as Yellow jackets I wasn't unfortunate enough to sit on a nest but i was eaten alive by every other insect under the sun.

BH you shoulod definitely take the kids to one. Boy love the sounds of explosions. It's a lot like 4th of july except the explosions are 30 40 feet away rather then a couple hundred feet above your head.

No need to worry about PTSD here DM. After years of Redeemer arena i'm completely numb to death & dismemberment.

Nameless I will be doing this on a pretty regular basis. Something like 18 events a year. I doubt I'll make them all but I'm gonna try to hit as many as possible. They consist of re-enactments, Living History events & parades.

Scify it's not really the loading that takes so long, it's the fishing around in your cartridge & cap boxes that takes the bulk of the time.

Yes mah it is kinda scarey that people feel the needto kill each other not to mention the ways they've gone about it over the centuries. Whats even stranger is the need to recreate it.