Tag: Living History
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Cedar Creek 2021
The weekend of October 16-17 saw the resumption of the reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek after a year off due to Covid. Linda and I joined the 7th Louisiana Co B. for the event. An old friend from “Gods and Generals,” Tony Morgan, was our commander.
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Fort Loudon Market Fair
On the weekend of June 25-27, the Fort Loudon Historical Society had their annual 18th Century market fair. I believe that this was the third such event for this group and was, by all accounts, the largest. This was due in no small part to the canceling of the much larger Fort Frederick event earlier…
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School of the Longhunter
After a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic, Pricketts Fort, (near Fairmont, West Virginia) held its School of the Longhunter, which is largely a symposium on various aspects of life on the 18th century frontier. This year, due to ongoing restrictions, all aspects of the event were held outside of the visitors’ center in and…
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Events for 2021(?)
I know that I have been pretty quiet as of late. The situation with Covid restrictions has been tough to assess. They seem to be loosening up in some areas and some groups are finally starting to plan events. There are other questions that I have heard expressed by concerned reenactors. Will Cancel Culture put…
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Backyard Reenacting
We all know that this reenacting season has been pretty much a wash. Linda and I decided to regard this as a “rebuilding year” and just work on our impressions. In an effort to keep our skills sharp and see what needs repaired or improved, we have set aside an area in our backyard to…
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Cedar Creek 2019 From the Confederate side
The reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek was held over the weekend of October 19-20. Since I hadn’t fallen in with the Confederates at a larger event, I decided to do so this time. I have known Tony Morgan since the days of filming ‘Gods and Generals,’ and he was pleased to have us…
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This Year’s Coming Events
Here is what we have so far: January 2019 WWI – Jan 11-13, 2019: “The Calm Before the Storm”(Hosted by FR 90 (German). Time period: Winter 1917-18. Event held at the Caesar Krauss Great War Memorial Site, Newville, PA. http://www.greatwarassociation.com/Schedule.html
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Fort Henry Days 2018
On Sunday, September 2, we took part the reenactment of the 1777 siege of Fort Henry by Native American allies of the British. Scenarios alternated through the weekend as the Saturday battle featured the 1792 attack by natives as well as British regulars and Loyalists. Sunday’s battle reenacted the 1777 event, in which the attackers…
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GAP 2018
This year the Battle of the Bulge Reenactment at Fort Indiantown Gap was held a week later than usual – from January 31 to February 4th. The weather for the event was predictably cold, but there was no snow to speak of. We spent most of our time portraying German volunteers and Volkssturm in charge…
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Recap of (Most) of 2017
This past year has been an interesting one to say the least. Here is a recap of what we have done since April. We attended the Lantern tour at the Grafton National Cemetery in Grafton which contains 2100 internments, including 1252 Civil War soldiers. I delivered General Black Jack Logan’s address of May 5, 1868 to…
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Initial 2018 Calendar of events
Here is what we have so far for the coming year through April. January 2018 WWI – Jan 12-14, 2018: “Bathelémont: Baptism of Fire”(Hosted by FR 90 (German) and the 18th RI (French)). Time period: November 1917. Event held at the Caesar Krauss Great War Memorial Site, Newville, PA. http://www.greatwarassociation.com/Schedule.html WWII – Battle of the…
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Fort Frederick Market Fair 2017
One of my favorite events is the Fort Frederick Market Fair. This event held annually at Fort Frederick State Park. This is a Maryland state park surrounding the restored Fort Frederick, a star fort active in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. The market fair is a combination reenactor’s shopping mall…
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School of the Longhunter 2017
April brings showers and on April 6-8 of this year, it also brought the School of the Longhunter which takes place at Prickett’s Fort near Fairmont, WV on an annual basis. This encampment/symposium is an interesting and informative event with a lot to offer for the Colonial era reenactor/living historian. This year’s presentations included talks…
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GAP – Battle of the Bulge Reenactment 2017
This annual reenactment/living history event was held from January 25 through the 28th at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. As usual, it was a great opportunity to see some outstanding impressions, visit with old friends and shop at the many vendors who came to sell their wares at the event. As usual, we assisted at…
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2016 – A Retrospective
This is a month late, but better late than never. The following is a quick summary of events we attended last year: Our first event of the year was at Fort Indiantown Gap for the annual Battle of the Bulge Reenactment, sponsored by the WWII Historical Association. We take part in the Axis hospital…
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Events – January – May 2017
Below are the events on which we currently have information. More to follow. January 2017 WWII – Battle of the Bulge Reenactment, January 25- 29. Ft. Indiantown Gap PA. Contact: http://www.wwiiha.org/new/index.php/fig February 2017 WWII – Elbe River Event, February 18, Old Bedford Village, Bedford, PA. regardless of the weather as usual. They still have…
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Reading Airshow June 2-5, 2016
This year’s Reading event was blessed with reasonably good weather for the first couple of days. The third was another story – more on that later. The 193rd was again out in the farthest reaches of the airport grounds, with a US group largely hiding us from view, but we still got a good…
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Grafton Lantern Tour 2016
The Grafton Lantern Tour is a memorial to the hundreds of Civil War soldiers buried in the Grafton National Cemetery located in Grafton, Taylor County, W.Va. This cemetery is a particularly appropriate location for such a memorial. “In 1867, Maj. R. C. Bates was ordered by the War Department to locate a permanent burial site…
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Fort Frederick Market Fair 2016
Fort Frederick State Park is a Maryland State Park surrounding the restored Fort Frederick, a star fort active in the French and Indian War (1754–1763) and the American Revolution (1775-1783). The fort served as a refuge for settlers and was originally garrisoned by the 60th Regiment of foot and local militia. It was never directly…
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School of the Longhunter 2016
Prickett’s Fort, near Fairmont, WV, held its annual School of the Longhunter once again this year and as usual, it was an excellent event. According to the official website, “Pricketts Fort, constructed in 1774, provided a place of refuge from American Indian attack for early settlers. It was built at the confluence of Pricketts Creek…
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Fort Indiantown Gap 2016
This year, The Battle of the Bulge Reenactment was held from January 27-31. On the way up on Friday, we had a harrowing drive through a white-out in western Maryland and, having been in one fender-bender already this winter, the thought of turning around and going home did cross my mind. But we toughed it…
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2016 Events
The following is starter calendar for the 2016 Reenacting season. More to follow. January 2016 WWII – Battle of the Bulge Reenactment, January 27 – 31. Ft. Indiantown Gap PA. Contact: http://www.wwiiha.org/new/index.php/fig February 2016 WWII – Elbe River Event, February 27, Old Bedford Village, Bedford, PA. regardless of the weather as usual. They still have…
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School of the Longhunter 2015
The School of the Longhunter, held at Prickett’s Fort State Park, Fairmont, WV, is a two-day seminar which takes in a variety of subjects relevant to anyone who participates in 18th Century living history or even just has an interest in that time period. This year, the event was held on April 9th and 10th…
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Grafton Lantern Tour
Grafton, West Virginia – Grafton National Cemetery Lantern Tour On Friday evening, May 22, at 8:30 p.m. There will again be a living history tour of the Grafton National Cemetery. Tour leader Mark Tennant will lead the tour of Civil War graves in the cemetery. Mark and reenactor assistants dressed in Civil War period…
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FIG 2015
Occuring as usual during the last week of January, this year’s FIG event was a particularly cold one. Once again, Linda and I joined the folks at the German hospital to assist with the living history. I am not sure what the standing temperatures were for the weekend, but the wind chill was impressive. To…
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Upcoming 2015 Events – January through April
The following is what I have so far for our general region. Some events have not yet released their 2015 event information. Check back for updates and additions. January 2015 WWII – Battle of the Bulge Reenactment, January 27 – February 1. Ft. Indiantown Gap PA. Contact: http://www.wwiifederation.org February 2015 Civil War – February 20-22,…
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Old Bedford Village 2014
This year the annual battle between Grossdeutschland and their invited units and the 193rd Rifle Division, their comrades the 9th Guards and other gallant Red Army units, took place on the weekend of November 7-9, 2014. This year, the scenario involved the Red Army’s advance into Poland. As has been the case for the last…
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Cedar Creek 150th Anniversary Reenactment
The 150th Anniversary Reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek took place on the weekend of Octorber 17-19, 2014.I had not attended this event for some time and was looking forward to going back. It also promised to be the largest Civil War reenactment that Linda had experienced. We went down Thursday in order…
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Chief Logan Civil War Reenactment 2014
News Flash! The following is a report from our correspondent, Bill Donegan from the field in the Southern Mountains: Federal Battalion wiped out! A Federal Battalion led by Captain Steve Allen was wiped out to a man at Chief Logan State Park on Saturday September 27, 2014. The Federal objective was to capture…
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Old West Weekend, Old Bedford Village, 2014
OBV’s Old West Weekend is always a real hoot and this year, Linda and I got to take my granddaughters to share in the fun. We made this a day trip, so I can’t address the whole weekend, but there was a lot going on while we were there. Starting off on Saturday morning, we…
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Reading Airshow 2014
The following is part of a group of reports that are regretably late due to several months of intermittent illness and other projects which demanded my attention. Anyway, here goes: On the first week of June, we made our annual trip to the Reading Airshow. The 193rd was once again as far back in the…
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New Market Pt. II
The following is Captain Chuck Critchfield’s AAR from New Market: This year’s reenactment at New Market, Virginia, marked the 150th anniversary of the battle fought in a thunderstorm and made famous thanks to the Virginia Military Institute. But it was also a milestone for member of the 1st West Virginia who participated in the 125th…
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Battle of New Market Reenactment 2014
The 125th anniversary reenactment of the Battle of New Market, Virginia, was my first experience in Reenacting in May of 1989. So it was fitting that I made it back for the 150th this year, also the 25th year in the hobby for myself and Mark Tennant, 1st Sgt. of our unit, Co. A, First…
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Fort Frederick Market Fair
This year, Linda and I attended our first Market Fair at Fort Frederick in Maryland. I have been hearing about this event for years, but have never gone. I am glad that we finally did so. Located just off I-70 near Clear Springs, MD, Fort Frederick is in and of itself worthy of a visit.…
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School of the Longhunter
This year, for the first time, I attended the annual School of the Longhunter at Prickett’s Fort, (April 3-4) accompanied by my wife, Linda. The School is pretty much a symposium on 18th Century frontier life and covers a variety of subjects and activities. For example, the program started with an in-depth discussion of tumplines…
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MTA 2014
For a change of pace for me this year, Linda and I attended MTA at the Jamestown Settlement as mere tourists, rather than participants. Because of this, we were able to actually take our time and look at every exhibit in depth and at our leisure. Certainly a different feeling than the usual ‘stealing a…
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The GAP 2014
The reenacting/living history season, for many of us, begins at Fort Indiantown Gap during the Battle of the Bulge reenactment week. (Last week of the month). This year was no exception, as Linda and I once again were part of the German hospital display hosted by Pete and Kate Gentry. As usual, I portrayed a…
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After action report: OBV/Elbe Tactical, Bedford, Pa. 2014
The following is a report from our correspondent, Bill Donegan, just back from the front: For those who don’t know or who have never been, you can time travel back to Germany 1945 via Old Bedford Village (OBV). OBV is located 1 minute from the Pa. Turnpike off exit 146 Bedford, 220 Sawblade…
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Burning Springs Documentary Filming
Here is the latest dispatch from our correspondent, Bill Donegan: Thanks to Jack and Tonya Daft I was able to participate in the making of a documentary about the oil and gas history in the Kanawha Valley area. “Burning Springs” is a documentary produced by Motion Masters, a Charleston, W.Va. company that has produced…
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Ukraine 1944 – Old Bedford Village Fall event 2013
The scene is Ukraine in 1944: The Ukrainian people find themselves in the middle of a three-way struggle during what seems like an endless and brutal war. On the weekend of November 9-10, 2013, this scenario played out at Old Bedford Village in the annual fall battle tactical between Grossdeutschland Division and the 193rd Rifle…
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Great War Association Fall event – 2013
On Friday, November 1, I once again made the trip to Newville, PA for the Great War Association’s Fall WWI event. The parking lot was full, indicating a good turnout and the Flea Market was extensive and busy. This year, the weather was quite favorable during the event and although the sky clouded up Saturday…
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Burning Springs
The following is a post from our correspondent, Bill Donegan: Thanks to Jack and Tonya Daft I was able to participate in the making of a documentary about the oil and gas history in the Kanawha Valley area. “Burning Springs” is a documentary produced by Motion Masters, a Charleston, W.Va. company that has produced…
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Droop Mountain 150th
The West Virginia Reenactor’s Association held it’s reenactment commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Droop Mountain on Labor Day weekend this year due to a scheduling conflict later in the fall. While the event lacked the attraction of colorful autumn leaves, which it normally has, the park is still a remarkably beautiful…
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Tank Farm 2013
The weekend of August 21-22, the Virginia Museum of Military Vehicles (http://www.vmmv.org) and the Americans in Wartime Museum ( http://www.nmaw.org), held their annual open house. The weekend offered a little bit of everything. In addition to the usual array of military vehicles and reenactors, there was a diorama of the invasion of peleliu made entirely from…
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Remagen Bridge Reenactment 2013
Here is a report on the event at Tidioute, PA this past weekend, by our correspondent, Bill Donegan: Do you know what God did this year at the Tideoute event? First I have to set this up for you. Mr. Ken Hechler used to be Secretary of State for West Virginia. He was a member…