- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Part I - The Gathering of the Hosts
I have spoken here before about the fact that Civil War reenacting has been around long enough to have a history of its own; a definite highpoint of that history would have by any standards to be the events of the 125th Anniversary of the War, 1986 - 90. Naturally, Gettysburg's anniversary in 1988 was the greatest of these in any respect. This was the largest reenactment held to date, featuring something like 10,000 - 12,000 participants, and I was a part of that number. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate any of my papers from that time, so I hope you will excuse me if I recall what I can from memory about the events of that long weekend.
At the time, I was serving as chairman of the Dallas, Texas, North Texas Reenactment Society, a group originally dedicated to Confederate artillery, but which had become a large organization with (too) many impressions pulling in too many directions. I acted as captain of those who more and more chose to portray Union infantry, somewhere above a dozen; other members joined a local Confederate infantry group and my best friend among them joined a Federal artillery crew as sergeant. In the photo above, I am the officer about 2/3 from the left in the front rank looking to my right to guide on the captain at left with his sword raised. This was Jeff Grezelik from Florida, head of a large group called the Department of the Gulf; our two companies formed the division (a group of two companies) seen above.
At this time there was competition and rivalry among reenactors that still continues in various ways to this day. For Union reenactors, this was chiefly in the existance of three separate and competing battalions, the Eastern Battalion of authentics; the Western Battalion, ditto; and US: the "Third" or so-called UO Battallion. The latter was supposed to represent unattached others, i.e. those not affiliated with either of the other two; but this quickly degenerated into Unwanted Others or Unattached Orphans - those not deemed good enough by the other two! Our colonel was a former U.S. Marine officer named Tom Moore who I'd met previously at Corinth, Miss., and who had invited us to join him here at Gettysburg as part of his battalion. (Col. Moore can be seen on the white horse in the right background in the photo below.)
Once arrived and established in camp we drilled in preparation for the various scenarios we were to perform over the next three days: Seminary Ridge, The Wheatfield, and Pickett's Charge. Since my "company" was only about a dozen strong - and Col. Moore had told me, "You provide the Captain - I'll provide the company", or something like that - we received other Western Federals from Arizona, Colorado, and California; plus a file of very "fresh fish" from somewhere nearby in Pennsylvania, all decked out in lots of shiny new hat brass: bugles, numbers, letters, etc. They didn't camp with us, disappearing when a battle ended and only reappearing right before the next. The group in these photos below show only the old-timers among us, properly sized by height so all mixed up as to origin.
I was hugely assisted in my duties as captain by First Sergeant Glen Hargis of our Dallas group, seen in these photos drilling the men while I do what I always did best - pose for the camera! Our approximately thirty-man company (including the new locals) was the smallest in Moore's U.O. Battalion and probably the smallest Union infantry company on the field. Fortunately, most were men of experience, making my job all that much easier. Above, the position of ready!
Aim! As you can see in the background, other companies are likewise performing company drill. Notice the red three-leaf clover insignias of the First Division of Hancock's II Corps which we represented in the Wheatfield scenario. These were donated to us as part of our registration packets.
Recover arms! Oddly enough, once the event was underway, the structured battalion formations were largely abandoned, probably because they were unwieldy and really too large to represent veteran Union regiments at the time of Gettysburg. Our U.O. Battalion was probably as strong as a full-compliment regiment of a thousand men or more, so it and the others were broken into smaller units of maneuver.
My thirty-odd plus Jeff Grezelik's approximately eighty were combined with a larger and truly Northern unit of over a hundred, seen in formation in their company street above and below,whose usual impression was of the 28th Mass. thereby making us a part of the Irish Brigade too, at least for the Wheatfield scenario. Note especially their green Regimental and National colors topped with the wreaths of evergreen foliage used by units of the Irish Brigade:
Below, my Home, Sweet Home for the days of the event. This was a very hot July, making it hard to really rest, even at night.
Next time - Whirlpool in the Wheatfield!
I have spoken here before about the fact that Civil War reenacting has been around long enough to have a history of its own; a definite highpoint of that history would have by any standards to be the events of the 125th Anniversary of the War, 1986 - 90. Naturally, Gettysburg's anniversary in 1988 was the greatest of these in any respect. This was the largest reenactment held to date, featuring something like 10,000 - 12,000 participants, and I was a part of that number. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate any of my papers from that time, so I hope you will excuse me if I recall what I can from memory about the events of that long weekend.
At the time, I was serving as chairman of the Dallas, Texas, North Texas Reenactment Society, a group originally dedicated to Confederate artillery, but which had become a large organization with (too) many impressions pulling in too many directions. I acted as captain of those who more and more chose to portray Union infantry, somewhere above a dozen; other members joined a local Confederate infantry group and my best friend among them joined a Federal artillery crew as sergeant. In the photo above, I am the officer about 2/3 from the left in the front rank looking to my right to guide on the captain at left with his sword raised. This was Jeff Grezelik from Florida, head of a large group called the Department of the Gulf; our two companies formed the division (a group of two companies) seen above.
At this time there was competition and rivalry among reenactors that still continues in various ways to this day. For Union reenactors, this was chiefly in the existance of three separate and competing battalions, the Eastern Battalion of authentics; the Western Battalion, ditto; and US: the "Third" or so-called UO Battallion. The latter was supposed to represent unattached others, i.e. those not affiliated with either of the other two; but this quickly degenerated into Unwanted Others or Unattached Orphans - those not deemed good enough by the other two! Our colonel was a former U.S. Marine officer named Tom Moore who I'd met previously at Corinth, Miss., and who had invited us to join him here at Gettysburg as part of his battalion. (Col. Moore can be seen on the white horse in the right background in the photo below.)
Once arrived and established in camp we drilled in preparation for the various scenarios we were to perform over the next three days: Seminary Ridge, The Wheatfield, and Pickett's Charge. Since my "company" was only about a dozen strong - and Col. Moore had told me, "You provide the Captain - I'll provide the company", or something like that - we received other Western Federals from Arizona, Colorado, and California; plus a file of very "fresh fish" from somewhere nearby in Pennsylvania, all decked out in lots of shiny new hat brass: bugles, numbers, letters, etc. They didn't camp with us, disappearing when a battle ended and only reappearing right before the next. The group in these photos below show only the old-timers among us, properly sized by height so all mixed up as to origin.
I was hugely assisted in my duties as captain by First Sergeant Glen Hargis of our Dallas group, seen in these photos drilling the men while I do what I always did best - pose for the camera! Our approximately thirty-man company (including the new locals) was the smallest in Moore's U.O. Battalion and probably the smallest Union infantry company on the field. Fortunately, most were men of experience, making my job all that much easier. Above, the position of ready!
Aim! As you can see in the background, other companies are likewise performing company drill. Notice the red three-leaf clover insignias of the First Division of Hancock's II Corps which we represented in the Wheatfield scenario. These were donated to us as part of our registration packets.
Recover arms! Oddly enough, once the event was underway, the structured battalion formations were largely abandoned, probably because they were unwieldy and really too large to represent veteran Union regiments at the time of Gettysburg. Our U.O. Battalion was probably as strong as a full-compliment regiment of a thousand men or more, so it and the others were broken into smaller units of maneuver.
My thirty-odd plus Jeff Grezelik's approximately eighty were combined with a larger and truly Northern unit of over a hundred, seen in formation in their company street above and below,whose usual impression was of the 28th Mass. thereby making us a part of the Irish Brigade too, at least for the Wheatfield scenario. Note especially their green Regimental and National colors topped with the wreaths of evergreen foliage used by units of the Irish Brigade:
Below, my Home, Sweet Home for the days of the event. This was a very hot July, making it hard to really rest, even at night.
Next time - Whirlpool in the Wheatfield!
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