Western Reserve Volunteer
Sergeant
- Joined
- May 12, 2018
A special thanks to Duwane Rezac & Kevin Harris who helped make this all possible; and also to everyone else in the unit who made this experience awesome!
So, I managed to link up with members of the Statehouse Battery this fourth, participating in the 125th Anniversary of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument in Cleveland.
I arrived... a bit late around 9:15 in the morning just in time to help get the 12 lb Field Howitzer out of the truck. At the time I was expecting a smaller Mountain Howitzer would be what we were working on so I sutibly impressed!
We man handled the gun across the square, though getting through a rather narrow point between a bus stop was quite a task. We managed to get into position after some careful maneuvering, and then ran some unloaded drill in preparation of other demonstrations later in the day.
I was ably trained in the No 3 man position, which I took on because I had thumbstalled many years ago as part of a visitor participation portion of a presentation at Fort Mackinaw, so I was familiar with at least part of the job. Incidentally this brought up an interesting discussion among my battery mates about different regions practices in what positions people start out on. So, where do you start your fresh, green, fish?
Anyhow by the end of the day I thought I got the hang of it and overall I think I did well though prehaps my long suffering battery mates may disagree! Whatever the case, we ran two very good demonstrations, prior to the dedication ceremony and afterward respectively and also formed part of the as hoc color guard detachment in the ceremony (I believe that the actual flag was born by the 8th Ohio, we were part of the extra bodies representing the artillery, Navy ect. there.). I really enjoyed myself and the opportunity to work with Mr. Harris’ Model of 1841, 12 pdr Feild Howitzer (such a cool piece of ordnance!). It definitely ranks as one of my personal favorite moments in reenacting and general cool stuff I’ve done thus far!
So, I managed to link up with members of the Statehouse Battery this fourth, participating in the 125th Anniversary of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ & Sailors’ Monument in Cleveland.
I arrived... a bit late around 9:15 in the morning just in time to help get the 12 lb Field Howitzer out of the truck. At the time I was expecting a smaller Mountain Howitzer would be what we were working on so I sutibly impressed!
We man handled the gun across the square, though getting through a rather narrow point between a bus stop was quite a task. We managed to get into position after some careful maneuvering, and then ran some unloaded drill in preparation of other demonstrations later in the day.
I was ably trained in the No 3 man position, which I took on because I had thumbstalled many years ago as part of a visitor participation portion of a presentation at Fort Mackinaw, so I was familiar with at least part of the job. Incidentally this brought up an interesting discussion among my battery mates about different regions practices in what positions people start out on. So, where do you start your fresh, green, fish?
Anyhow by the end of the day I thought I got the hang of it and overall I think I did well though prehaps my long suffering battery mates may disagree! Whatever the case, we ran two very good demonstrations, prior to the dedication ceremony and afterward respectively and also formed part of the as hoc color guard detachment in the ceremony (I believe that the actual flag was born by the 8th Ohio, we were part of the extra bodies representing the artillery, Navy ect. there.). I really enjoyed myself and the opportunity to work with Mr. Harris’ Model of 1841, 12 pdr Feild Howitzer (such a cool piece of ordnance!). It definitely ranks as one of my personal favorite moments in reenacting and general cool stuff I’ve done thus far!
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