Federal Troops

[Hondo]

Mark,

The event at Laurel Hill (JEB Stuart Birthplace) needs the boys in blue. This year the numbers were pretty even, guessing about 65. We need to doulbe that. The event is small and now wants to be better with improvements as needed.


Hondo

[Mark Wadsworth]

I have attended that a few times in the years past. Since then I have a better event that is always held on that weekend. They need to find someone who is willing to actively push the event and to make it to all the larger groups when they have there business meetings to give your event a plug.
Also Contact more then one of the larger groups. That way if one group gets mad and goes home, there may be a chance that the others will stay. In other words "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."
Many events that I went to in blue, I didn't have the feeling that we were there for the reenactment, rather we were only there to provide targets to the 10-1 Confederates. We called those events "Reb Fests". I stopped going to them as a soldier.

[Hondo]

Mark,
that is one our main problems. We have to have some sort of cap or limit on Confederates. I personally would love to see at least 3 to 1 ratios blue over gray. Anyway the problems didnt happen over it nor can they be fixed the same way. It is a work in progress.



thanks,

Hondo

[Mark Wadsworth]

One of the hardest things is to get folks to wear blue.

[Mark Wadsworth]

Originally Posted by Hondo

Mark,
that is one our main problems. We have to have some sort of cap or limit on Confederates. I personally would love to see at least 3 to 1 ratios blue over gray. Anyway the problems didnt happen over it nor can they be fixed the same way. It is a work in progress.

thanks,

Hondo

If you can salve that problem they it would make every event host in the Southeast very happy. As a reenactor that is one thing I have been trying to figure out for years.
I know of a man who at one time was in command of the Confederate forces at and event and the script called for the union troops to win. It was a normal case of the Rebs out numbering the Blue coats by many fold. After the battle a little kid came up to the commander and asked him why he was beaten when he had so many more troops then the other side. The real question ends up being " How do you explain to a little one about a script and numbers at a reenactment?" In plain text, you can't. After that the man changed colors and started up a group that only does blue at events. That group is known as the "18th Corps".
Now after all I have said in this thread about trying to get folks to wear blue, I am a hypocrite. As a uniform maker the only uniforms I make are Confederate. From the looks of it, I am rather one sided. I think I need to put some real thought in to making blue.

[larry_cockerham]

Seems to me that much of the challenge in "balancing" the numbers of uniformed re-enactors lies in the disparity of SCV and SUV memberships, roughly 32,000 to 7,000. More gray and butternut floating around than blue. I've also noticed that blue folks tend to want to play with big guns while the gray boys use small arms and horses. Must be something in the grass? After all, it was a civil war. No dishonor in changes colors for a presentation?

[ole]

No dishonor in changes colors for a presentation?

Now that's food for thought. I'm not a re-enactor, but I do attend re-enactions and there seems to be no shortage of northern men and boys who switch-hit just because. (No snickering allowed. You know what I mean.) Is it not the same for southern men and boys? I know scone can go both ways. (What did I just say about snickering?) I think I read sometime back about some Alabama boys who would wear blue for the sake of evening things out.

Just curious.
Ole

[rin1]

IMHO, each man should have a generic kit for both Union and Confederate. We honor the men who fought, they were all Americans. Why not be able to do so as realistically as possible. It saddens me to see a reenactment with 50 feds and 150 rebs. You won't itch.

[texascavcadet]

I was patercipating in a reenactment this past weekend at Crocket Texas.
And of course there were 12 confederate cannons with only one federal cannon and mortar with the yanks. And the mounted cav there were 16 confederate and 6 federal. The didmounted there were 0 federals and 33 confederate. The infantry- there were about 50 cs infantry and 40 federal infantry.

This makes the event unreal, they should make most go blue and less grey. That was they way most historical engagements took place!

[Mark Wadsworth]

I know of few of the more progressive groups with duel impressions require that recruits acquire their Federal kit's first. This way they are able to have a bigger force in blue.