Impressions Cavalry reenactors.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
What percentage of cavalry reenactors bring horses to events? I do not see many artillery companies with teams of horses as well. Do events discourage the use of horses?
 
I am assuming that the cost of having a horse and the proper Civil War style saddles and such would add to the cost of reenacting and limit the number of cavalry reenactor.
 
You are right . I talked to members of the 2nd US cavalry at Gettysburg a few years back and they sometimes had trouble getting enough members . You have to be a horse person and spend a lot on uniform and equipment and then you have to transport and care for the horse . Feed , vet bills , training the horse to remain calm during weapons firing, etc. They had several women in their unit .

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Events encourage horses but there's just not that many of them. Only at the big events do you see good numbers of them. At our smaller events down here there's a handful of cavalry in one group that switches sides to whichever side is going to win that day to tip the scales in that side's favor.
Lol good tactic.
 
As previously stated horses or rather legitimate horse mounted cavalry are very encouraged at reenactments. But the sad fact is many reenactors simply ain't able to do it. As mentioned the correct tack is a costly part of the essentials, but cavalry reenactors also have to have their Coggins papers at almost every I've been too, which is a given for anything horse related, but they also have to care for their horses. They have feed them, water them, picket them with a bunch of other horses and consequently make sure throughout the night that they don't fight, and they have to have the horse trailers to transport them over what is most of the time hundreds of miles.

The simple fact is, a lot of reenactors ain't able to do it, much less afford it. It's costly and turns a reenactment into work. I know if I could I would get a horse and do it, but some other time perhaps.

On another note, legitimate cavalrymen on horses are sought and always welcome. But the clowns who run around in yellow trimmed uniforms, carrying ten revolvers per man, wearing Indian/western style fringed leather, and carrying the cheapest muzzleloader hunting carbines that don't even resemble any gun made back in the day? Yeah they are hated with a passion by even the most basic reenactor who's doesn't know anything of the war and are usually not welcome but come anyway where they are tolerated, or are outright banned from events. They call themselves "dismounted cavalry" but look more like a troupe of "b-western" extras.
 
Oh and on yet another note, at most events with enough property, (some places are too small for it), artillery actually drawn by horses are always welcome and dreamed of, but just one gun gets even more expensive and have more horses than some cavalry units in a region. More tack, several horses per gun, and if there's three of them there will be more horses there than with most cavalry units, at the reenactment.

I'd love to do horse-drawn artillery...
 
It's also dangerous. I participated in a training weekend years ago and came close to being killed as the horse reared up, flipped over on me, the saddle hit me in the chest, with horse still attached, and the horse's steel shod hoof ground my left inner thigh to mush as it stood up, and was only an inch or so away from the family jewels with that hoof. It took seven years for my thigh to heal, and that thigh is still larger than the other one. ..... From talking to members, apparently accidents were fairly common, but none were considered to count against their "perfect safety record". .... Buyer beware.
 
It's also dangerous. I participated in a training weekend years ago and came close to being killed as the horse reared up, flipped over on me, the saddle hit me in the chest, and the horse's steel shod hoof ground my left inner thigh to mush as it stood up, and was only an inch or so away from the family jewels with that hoof. It took seven years for my thigh to heal, and that thigh is larger than the other one. ..... From talking to members, apparently accidents were fairly common.

That reminds me of a local event last year, one of the cavalry officers had a big accident...

From what I can recall, and I didn't see it, the horse reared up and fell back on him and crushed his pelvis along with some other serious injuries. It took him out of events for a while, and a month ago at this years event he was back, (I can't recall if he made it back to events before then), with the hole that caused the fall named after him now with a sign to let him know everyone remembers.

Cavalry can be dangerous, but we all look out for one another, this year for back-in-the-saddle officer a collection was taken up to help him, where almost every reenactor donated to help him.
 
Oh and on yet another note,...... artillery actually drawn by horses are always welcome and dreamed of, but just one gun gets even more expensive.......I'd love to do horse-drawn artillery...

If I remember correctly someone some years ago calculated the cost of a single horse drawn cannon. With the number of *trucks*, trailers, horses, tack, etc. ... if memory is accurate, I believe it came to about $200,000.00 for a single horse drawn cannon. And at least the trucks are a lot more expensive now, if not everything else.
 
That reminds me of a local event last year.......
Cavalry can be dangerous, but we all look out for one another........

Two gentlemen were kind enough to take me to the emergency room. But rather than lay all night in the cold March water seeping through my ground cloth, I had to risk driving myself home. The only person with a trailer rejected any suggestion that his friend made that I sleep in his trailer. No one was willing to help me get home, until possibly the next day. I'm lucky the four hour trip home didn't kill me,possibly by passing out, especially since the doctors had no clue what to do about my leg so left it completely untreated mush..... But hey, it gave me a taste of what it would have been laying in wet bedding, wounded, with frost in the air, and only a half of a pup tent to provide a wind break.
 
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If I remember correctly someone some years ago calculated the cost of a single horse drawn cannon. With the number of *trucks*, trailers, horses, tack, etc. ... if memory is accurate, I believe it came to about $200,000.00 for a single horse drawn cannon. And at least the trucks are a lot more expensive now, if not everything else.

I don't know if its that expensive.

The gun, carriage, limber, horses, tack, and trailers, I think $200k is a bit over estimated. I mean if feed, fuel, and wear an tear is considered over a ten year period, its more than possible, but getting it all together, probably not. Right now me and some friends are looking into doing it, and right now we're probably gonna go buy some molds for the barrels of a good gentleman soon, and we'll probably cast the barrel, buy the wheels, and use the original plans and good carpentry skills to build the gun carriage and limber. As for horses, eh that's a long term goal, but so far pulling together not counting the trailer, it looks right now to be an endeavor costing less than $30,000.

Two gentlemen were kind enough to take me to the emergency room. But rather than lay all night in the cold March water seeping through my ground cloth, I had to risk driving myself home. The only person with a trailer rejected any suggestion that his friend made that I sleep in his trailer. No one was willing to help me get home, until possibly the next day. I'm lucky the four hour trip home didn't kill me,possibly by passing out, especially since the doctors had no clue what to do about my leg so left it completely untreated mush.

And just about all I can say is OUCH!!! That got significantly more painful than your original post talking about it.
 
....... Right now me and some friends are looking into doing it, and right now we're probably gonna go buy some molds for the barrels of a good gentleman soon, and we'll probably cast the barrel,......

I will try to put this a gently as possible... Don't cast your own barrel unless you are experts and plan on having the barrel xrayed. If you don't know what you are doing, the result will simply be a 800lb or so bomb. *Any* flaw in the casting, or the wrong flavor of cast iron, boom!
 
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I will try to put this a gently as possible... Don't cast your own barrel unless you are experts and plan on having the barrel xrayed. If you don't know what you are doing, the result will simply be a 800lb or so bomb. *Any* flaw in the casting, or the wrong flavor of cast iron, boom!

Oh don't worry, I've been reading up on it as thoroughly as possible, and taking notes from experienced people.

Plus one friend and mentor on the project has cast a dozen or so pre-CW cannons and is pretty experienced...

We're going with cast solid, cast vertically (we are planning on a bronze field gun or two), and bore out the bore and sleeveing it with 4140 steel liner threaded and welded along with other ideas I'm told and read are smart. Half-***ing something of this scale has never been something I'm fond of, plus the idea of hard work literally blowing up in my face and taking an arm or leg with it is not something I'm willing to risk. I'd never tackle such a wild idea without experience and knowledge nearby, but some other folks? Yeah I completely understand and appreciate your note of caution.

I'll probably start a thread on it once it gets going in the next few months so good ideas, and pictures of how it should be done are out there for folks who might do something stupid. On another note, I thought cast iron was a considered a big no, no and ductile iron was the best iron method? Also I hadn't heard of x-raying it as a good idea, I like that one, just hope the foundry has that capability.
 
Two gentlemen were kind enough to take me to the emergency room. But rather than lay all night in the cold March water seeping through my ground cloth, I had to risk driving myself home. The only person with a trailer rejected any suggestion that his friend made that I sleep in his trailer. No one was willing to help me get home, until possibly the next day. I'm lucky the four hour trip home didn't kill me,possibly by passing out, especially since the doctors had no clue what to do about my leg so left it completely untreated mush..... But hey, it gave me a taste of what it would have been laying in wet bedding, wounded, with frost in the air, and only a half of a pup tent to provide a wind break.
I'm sorry that no one was willing to give you a hand in a time you needed help most. That is inexcusable, IMO.
 
The Chickamauga 135th had the most cavalry I have ever seen. I got up at the crack of daybreak and walked to the dirt road (the johns were there). I heard something coming and it was Forrest's Cavalry already on the move. They were in columns of two and were closed up in formation.....no extended space between horses. It took fifteen minutes for them to pass and was a sight to behold. I don't know how many hundred riders there were. I am getting chill bumps remembering it....it is so vivid in my memory. This sight ranks as number one in my 32 years of reenacting .... Right there with assaulting the Hornets Nest at Shiloh after that massive artillery barrage with the ground shaking under our feet for 25 minutes waiting to step off.

I want to thank those cavalrymen that provided that once in a lifetime spectacle. If you were part of that please share that experience, here, with us. I had ten ancestors that were in the Confederate cavalry.
 
It is ironic that in the frontier days and Civil War Calvary was the erred branch, especially in the Then Southwest, and Trans -Mississippi. Speaking of Smaller events. June 17 2022 is the 160th Anniversary of The Skirmish at Smithville Arkansas. This skirmish was a Calvary engagement with 3 companies of the 5th Illinois Calvary engaged a Missouri State Guard Calvary Company operating in Lawrence County Arkansss under Hindmans Partisan Ranger order while awaiting orders from Higher in Missouri. If we were to host an reenactment, would it be possible to have very many Calvary to participate? Is Elliot's Scouts in Missouri still active, and do they have any mounted gunmen?
 
That reminds me of a local event last year, one of the cavalry officers had a big accident...

From what I can recall, and I didn't see it, the horse reared up and fell back on him and crushed his pelvis along with some other serious injuries. It took him out of events for a while, and a month ago at this years event he was back, (I can't recall if he made it back to events before then), with the hole that caused the fall named after him now with a sign to let him know everyone remembers.

Cavalry can be dangerous, but we all look out for one another, this year for back-in-the-saddle officer a collection was taken up to help him, where almost every reenactor donated to help him.
Another thing I've noticed is with the age disparity in reenacting, most the older ones dont like to do realistic falls from their horses...…..
 
Two gentlemen were kind enough to take me to the emergency room. But rather than lay all night in the cold March water seeping through my ground cloth, I had to risk driving myself home. The only person with a trailer rejected any suggestion that his friend made that I sleep in his trailer. No one was willing to help me get home, until possibly the next day. I'm lucky the four hour trip home didn't kill me,possibly by passing out, especially since the doctors had no clue what to do about my leg so left it completely untreated mush..... But hey, it gave me a taste of what it would have been laying in wet bedding, wounded, with frost in the air, and only a half of a pup tent to provide a wind break.
Holy smokes man how awful. Sorry for your experience. Hopefully ur recovery went well.
 
I have been asked to participate in cav. Also to hitch to an ambulance and a ordinance wagon. Would have liked to do a civilian impression with a team and farm wagon. Biggest thing stopping me was liability. Like in Unicornforge's unfortunate incident which he described above who's liable, event organizer, property owner, horse owner or all of the above? Not risking my farm for a hobby.
 
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