Shooting Comp

James Kain — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:35:05 -0500

What would everyone think and or do if I was to contact my Range to set up a shooting match for all the CW reenactors in the state? It would be in Anson acrost the river from the Madsin Mill. I would set it up for the spring of 09 so we can put it on unit schedule or personal date books. I m only wondering, and havnt done more then ask you guys. I d like to keep it all CW tech and dress. So what do you think?

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain digital archives at Bowdoin College

mjohnson — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:50:39 -0500

The Bowdoin College's Campus News reports the launches an online resource dedicated to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

The archive contains a series of letters to and from Chamberlain over the course of his life, many photos, and a Google Map of his travels. I have not read through much of it yet but wanted to share the new resource on Joshua Chamberlain for those how have an interest.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain digital archives at Bowdoin College

Brit Rifles Recovered in Afghanistan

mjohnson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:10:57 -0500

According to The Independant, British soldiers serving in the Helmand believe they have recovered rifles lost in the Battle of Maiwand.

I am fascinated by this idea that rifles captured by Afghan tribesmen 128 years ago at the Battle of Maiwand may have still been in use by their descendants. The number of rifles discovered is not clear from the article but it is clear that it is more than a few! Some reselling for £1100.00.

On July 27, 1880 a force of British and Indian troops numbering about 2500 were outflanked and routed by an Afghan force reported to be about 25,000 in strength. Nearly half of the British force was lost! An Afghanistan officer described the battles end.

"These men charged from the shelter of a garden and died with their faces to the enemy, fighting to the death. So fierce was their charge, and so brave their actions, no Afghan dared to approach to cut them down. So, standing in the open, back to back, firing steadily, every shot counting, surrounded by thousands, these British soldiers died. It was not until the last man was shot down that the Afghans dared to advance on them. The behaviour of those last eleven was the wonder of all who saw it"

I love the gallantry that history has to offer!

Of course I see an error in the article. The article states,

"Unlike the successful defence of Rorke's Drift in 1879, as featured in Zulu, the battle of Maiwand a year later was one of the worst British defeats of Queen Victoria's 63-year reign. A 2,500-strong Anglo/Indian force was routed by an Afghan army of about 12,000 men."

Huh? First, Rorke's Drift is the small action made famous by the movie Zulu. But was minor compared to the Battle of Isandlwana that created the situation at Rorke's Drift. And history shows that the British lost more troops at the Battle of Isandlwana than at the Battle of Maiwand 19 months later. The paragraph may be just poorly written but it is certainly poorly researched. That just annoys me!

In any case, this is all very interesting. Like suddenly discovering rifles from Custer's Last Stand, perhaps?

Soldiers in Helmand unearth British rifles lost in 1880 massacre for the entire article.

Contraband Found!

nhrn1 — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:55:51 -0500

Contraband Found!

June 14th, 2008 Camp Baker, Pownal, ME

Mrs D Bergeron was camping with the Third ME. The First Sargent, M
Bray, was tipped off by an informer that Mrs Bergeron had confederate
items in her tent. On orders of the Sargent, Private Jared Johnson
performed a search finding several Confederate items including a CS belt
buckle, Confederate currency and personal letters.

Mrs Bergeron was asked to stand before the company while charged as a
Confederate Sympathizer, upon questioning she claimed that the belt
buckle and currency were sent to her by her brother, Micheal Bell. The
personal letters were reviewed and offered proof that her brother was
indeed a union soldier being held as a prisoner of war.

The charges were dropped at that time. Mrs Bergeron was unavailable for
comment as she was suffering melancholy as a result of the experience.

Lots of stuff for sale

Joe Dupere — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:13:47 -0500

My wife and I have bought some land and are building our own home. Regretfully I don't have as much time for re-enacting as I used to, so I'm planning on selling all my gear. Below is a list of what I have and what I'm asking. If you know somebody looking to get into the hobby and might want to buy the works, I might be willing to negotiate a single price for the whole works. The bulk of the items came from Blockade Runner and/or Fair Oaks.

Joe Dupere,
formerly of the 29th Ga

Federal Uniform
Sack Coat, size 44 $45
Blue Kersey pants, size 36 $45
Bummer $17
Blue check, 3 button shirt, large $17
Suspenders, cotton $10
Belt, with US Buckle $10

Confederate (Georgia)
Shell Jacket, size 44 $25
Muslin shirt, large $14
Butternut pants, size 36 $14
Kepi $14
Vest, size 44 $45

Brogans with heel plates, size 8 $45

Euro Arms 3 band Enfield, with
Sling, partially defarbed $310
Bayonet with scabbard and frog $30
Cartridge box and sling $38
Cap pouch, (with some caps) $10
Cleaning kit for Enfield $22

Canteen (grey) with leather strap $26
Tarred Haversack $17
Tin cup and plate, fork, knife and
Spoon set $15

Rubber ground cloth $20

Odds and ends (wallet, pipe, lucifers with tin box, tin pill box, comb, toothbrush and tooth powder, two beeswax candles, one paraffin candle, tin candle holder, handkerchief)
$20 for all of the odds and ends

The Future...............

Seamus — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 06:04:46 -0500

While at work I often find myself running a printing press pretty much alone with the sound of the machine and the thoughts and voices in my head...and when I am running a really big job the press might be running for and hour and a half before it needs to be refilled with paper....during that time I have come up with ways to solve many of the worlds problems but just cant get my ideas to the right people.....
but before I let myself get pulled to exposing the details of these plans, let me tell you reenacting has been on my mind lately. Not just how many union soldiers can I get to defend the train, but how do we, and by that I mean all of us blue and grey alike, how do we increase our membership? I know its an age old quandry, some of the best or more commonly used Ideas require massive effort but often yeild mediocre resluts. I am going to start with the age old poster idea as a start but where do we go from here? Seven years of reenacting its pretty much the same faces but different looks....some have gotten taller others have gotten greyer? Ive seen the fruits of five years of tables at the Black Powder show....and crosspollination of groups is just shuffling the numbers, like when some place builds a " Industrial Park" and all that happens is established local businesses move to the park, not the new businesses from away that planners were banking on...
So
I have been Brainstorming and come up with the following....
1. Joint Advertising at movie Theaters,
We have all seen the slideshow of ads before the preview. maybe we could pool resources and film some kind of threatrical piece and beg for adspace....we know people who film and I am sure some of us know people in the Theater business...
2. Recruiting drive encampment.
some encampmet on any given town that has a park and we do the usual living history but some hands on for the public and if we do it it is not in conjunction with the east meddybumpkis quahog fest its just us in a park doing what we do with the express purpose of lureing people in, local news and radio will need to advertise before and maybe a remote on the spot with a big country station....
3. Local in state Tactical weekend.......
more remote version of the park scenario we get to have some fun in the woods and fields much noise and smoke and announce it to the public maybe a public skirmish and people see how much fun we are having and just want to join......

TO use some over used and over blown phraseologly, we are in a major paridigm shift and we need to think outside the box.......specifically get people away from the x-box

Seamus

Announcement

Lt. Porter — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:52:43 -0500

Hello all,
I wanted to take a minute to make a brief announcement..... After much concideration and debate, the wife and I have decided to move on. We will be moving to North Carolina within the next few months. This was a VERY hard decision, but with the way the economy and the over all state of the State of Maine we feel it's best that we get out now. I wanted to say thank you to all those that made me feel right at home in the reenacting community in Maine. Even after an 8 year break, I felt as though I had never left. I will miss you all and hope that we may meet up around a camp fire down in the "true" south ( even you bluebellys ).

Regards
Lt. Jason Porter
29th Georgia Vol. Inf.

Hearing Crickets

nhrn1 — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:40:18 -0500

Wow, Everyone must be busy re-enacting!

Memorial Day Parade review

mjohnson — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:47:56 -0500

Greetings all,

Well, the official start of the summer has past. Would love to hear everyone's report on their Memorial Day Parades.

For myself, I was a spectator at the Waldoboro Parade. It was a couple of dozen units, mostly public safety equipment. But there were 4 Confederate reenactors marching. Anyone have any idea who they might have been? I didn't recognize them.

I then watched the Damariscotta Parade, which was much larger than I expected. Quite a few Semi-trucks making their statement of the state of the economy and honoring family members of the drivers who served in the armed forces. There were 3 reenactors who I believe were French and Indian Wars. I didn't get a chance to talk to them so I can't be sure.

I may not be marching these days but I still love seeing reenactors and living historians out there!

So where were you and what did you see?

The First GReat Train Raid 2008

Seamus — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:15:01 -0500

Start: 2008-06-21 09:00

End: 2008-06-21 17:00

Well that time has come again, the next installment of the great Train Raid....it looks like its gonna be bigger and better than last year, we all had a great time with our friends in blue and hope there are more of them to kill, we have some renforcements coming up from mass this year and some friends from the 20th as well but once again its the call "we need boys in blue" the union repulsed us twice last time.... and now we are on refridgerators all over south korea......(inside joke)
let me know if anyone else is interested blue or grey so I can tally numbers and craft scenarios.....Civilians play a roll as well!
great op for the first person with spectator passengers and each other.
Seamus