Historical Reenacting

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

Anybody here doing any sort of reenacting stuff? I know we have some Cowboy Action Shooter folks in here, and I guess that sort of counts. I've always had an interest in how folks did things back in the day, but it's always been more of a personal thing. The performance type of reenacting always looked fun, but I am just as satisfied doing it on my own the way my ancestors did it. 

Lately, I've been spending a bit of my spare time trying to outfit myself as close to possible as how an early Mexican Texian settler would have done it. 

I've learned a lot about sewing. The sewing machine was not really common until around the civil war, so if you want to really appreciate the clothes they wore, you have to sew them by hand. If you told fifteen year old me that I would be spending my free time sewing clothes I wouldn't have believed you. But on the other hand, if you said it was to make clothing like what our ancestors wore when they first settled Texaa I would think it's pretty cool.

Anyhow, I'm in the process of making a historical "costume" that is as close to something that my Texian ancestors might have worn. Also guns and all that, but it looks like I may have to make my own black powder.

 

So, anybody else do any reenacting? For yourself or for the public, whatever. 

[Gil Bang 25997]

First, I'm gonna kick your ass.

Then, I'm gonna re-enact kicking your ass

Hank Hill

[Gil Bang 25997]

I've learned a lot about sewing. The sewing machine was not really common until around the civil war, so if you want to really appreciate the clothes they wore, you have to sew them by hand. If you told fifteen year old me that I would be spending my free time sewing clothes I wouldn't have believed you.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by Gil Bang

[justhookit 4191]

I’ve been to colonial Williamsburg. It sucked. That’s all I’ve got.

edit- I was 16 or so and my dad took me there because I was looking at Duke, UNC and UVA and it was close and seemed like something we should do. Anyway we went and about 30 minutes after we were there he looked at me and I just kind of rolled my eyes. We spent the next 2 days playing golf.

Edited October 8, 2021 by justhookit

[ztejas 43528]

34 minutes ago, justhookit said:

I’ve been to colonial Williamsburg. It sucked. That’s all I’ve got.

edit- I was 16 or so and my dad took me there because I was looking at Duke, UNC and UVA and it was close and seemed like something we should do. Anyway we went and about 30 minutes after we were there he looked at me and I just kind of rolled my eyes. We spent the next 2 days playing golf.

Um... did you not go to the William and Mary campus? Because holy shit it's beautiful. 

Sometimes I wish I had gone there.

[deadshank 24653]

My neighbor two doors down did the re-enactment bit.  Did the Texas Revolution thing and a lot of Dutch oven cooking meets.  He was from originally from Virginia and really into American history.  Heck, even his house was done early American and his landscaping was as natural as possible and just bordering on overgrown. He was a kook but in a good way.  
 
He moved off to Tennessee and flat out gave me his Klose smoker, a really nice air compressor and a bunch of tools.  Like I said he was a kook but in a good way. 
 

 

[El Diablo 4232]

My ex was a Hoosier so we checked this place out while visiting her family one year. Pretty cool and set around the time frame you're interested in.

https://www.connerprairie.org/explore/experiences/1836-prairietown/

[BabaYaga 15305]

Never joined, but seen the Civil War battlefield reenactments.  JFC, the smoke.  You read about it.  How it altered and obfuscated entire battlefields, but to see it in person.  It's wild.  

[BabaYaga 15305]

2 hours ago, deadshank said:

Dutch oven cooking meets.

Did those when son was in the scouts.  JFC, cobbler after a long day from a Dutch oven is priceless!

2 hours ago, deadshank said:

out gave me his Klose smoker, a really nice air compressor and a bunch of tools.  

Damn man, those are high end.  Nice.  Getting back into stick burners from being a BGE guy for so long.  

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

2 hours ago, deadshank said:

My neighbor two doors down did the re-enactment bit.  Did the Texas Revolution thing and a lot of Dutch oven cooking meets.  He was from originally from Virginia and really into American history.  Heck, even his house was done early American and his landscaping was as natural as possible and just bordering on overgrown. He was a kook but in a good way.  
 
He moved off to Tennessee and flat out gave me his Klose smoker, a really nice air compressor and a bunch of tools.  Like I said he was a kook but in a good way. 
 

 

Your neighbor was @RDCanecutter?

[CHIEF 5094]

It's kinda like this for me. My old man was into the Cowboy cooking. I guess reinactments are cool for kids.

CHIEF

[Gil Bang 25997]

31 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

It's kinda like this for me. My old man was into the Cowboy cooking. I guess reinactments are cool for kids.

CHIEF

"Bigger dorks, I have not seen"

[RDCanecutter 26463]

Never been a re-enactor, but I am glad somebody is getting to use that Klose smoker.

Re-enacting always seemed like a good excuse to stock up on replica knives and black-powder weapons. And if you eat healthy and don't look like the other re-enactors, you might get to stand in the same shot as Salma Hayek or whoever when they do a movie set in your time period.

Closest I ever came was being an extra in an Auburn Public TV movie, First Frontier, which is short for 300 Years of Various Europeans Fucking with the Locals as it moves from DeSoto's rampage through the Southeast, to the French and British, to Andrew Jackson. I can't find a copy. If you do, there's one transition where a boat full of French fur traders floats past while it fades to a map. The young skinny dude with the musket is me. 

Whatever you do, don't get into HEMA, Historical European Martial Arts. It looks fun, I bet it is fun, but what will happen is that you look up, ten years have flown past, and all your friends are dudes who know way too much about spears and longswords.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

1 minute ago, RDCanecutter said:

Re-enacting always seemed like a good excuse to stock up on replica knives and black-powder weapons. And if you eat healthy and don't look like the other re-enactors, you might get to stand in the same shot as Salma Hayek or whoever when they do a movie set in your time period.

That's a lot of truth for two sentences, but with the last black powder plant in the US closing, I feel like there needs to be something about making your own explosives.

[RDCanecutter 26463]

5 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

That's a lot of truth for two sentences, but with the last black powder plant in the US closing, I feel like there needs to be something about making your own explosives.

Shee-yih... I already have one friend who's missing a thumb and he got that way from hobby-shooting a defective Lee-Enfield. I wouldn't get within 10 feet of a weapon shooting home-made powder.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

Unless somebody is getting a little too exotic it's pretty tough to blow a weapon up with black powder, homemade or not.

[RDCanecutter 26463]

 

https://y.yarn.co/2b882e6c-badd-4eb8-98cf-9743012fdfb0.mp4

[BabaYaga 15305]

30 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Unless somebody is getting a little too exotic it's pretty tough to blow a weapon up with black powder, homemade or not.

Challenge accepted….

 

 

[Mrs Whiggins 13050]

He passed away several years ago, but our neighbor was a Civil War re-enacter. His ancestors fought for the Confederacy and so we would see him sometimes when he'd come home in his uniform but IIRC he had some Union gear too because they re-enacters were often short-handed on that side. He did it on the weekends and would drive down (I think?) to north of Houston or somewhere near there. He was pretty into it.

A friend of my husband's from college spent his summers working at a Living History museum in Iowa as a farmer/guide. Having seen the sod house in Nebraska that my husband's grandmother spent her childhood in, I have an appreciation for the hardships endured but I don't necessarily want to relive it.

@NotActuallyALonghorn--I sew some, or used to--hand sewing is tricky but a useful skill. As I have gotten older, my horribad eyesight has gotten worse and I am just picky enough to limit it mostly to repair jobs now. Glad you're discovering how enjoyable it can be to see a finished product and know you made it.

[baboso 6057]

If you have not read it, check out Confederates in the Attic.  Civil War re-enactors, etc.

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

12 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

He passed away several years ago, but our neighbor was a Civil War re-enacter. His ancestors fought for the Confederacy and so we would see him sometimes when he'd come home in his uniform but IIRC he had some Union gear too because they re-enacters were often short-handed on that side. He did it on the weekends and would drive down (I think?) to north of Houston or somewhere near there. He was pretty into it.

A friend of my husband's from college spent his summers working at a Living History museum in Iowa as a farmer/guide. Having seen the sod house in Nebraska that my husband's grandmother spent her childhood in, I have an appreciation for the hardships endured but I don't necessarily want to relive it.

@NotActuallyALonghorn--I sew some, or used to--hand sewing is tricky but a useful skill. As I have gotten older, my horribad eyesight has gotten worse and I am just picky enough to limit it mostly to repair jobs now. Glad you're discovering how enjoyable it can be to see a finished product and know you made it.

From what I understand, with civil war reenacting, most groups are depicting a unit from their geographical area. So when several groups get together they end up with just Confederate or Union groups unless it is a really big event like Gettysburg or something. Since it's kind of hard to have a battle with just one side they have to be able to bat for the other team.

[RDCanecutter 26463]

From what I understand of US Civil War history, once you got farther west than Virginia, US troops were spottily supplied with replacement uniforms (or food), and CS troops were often running around dressed as civilians, so with a little creativity you could probably re-enact lots of units using an overlapping small selection of gear.

[Parliament 14283]

On 10/7/2021 at 11:44 PM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Anybody here doing any sort of reenacting stuff? I know we have some Cowboy Action Shooter folks in here, and I guess that sort of counts. I've always had an interest in how folks did things back in the day, but it's always been more of a personal thing. The performance type of reenacting always looked fun, but I am just as satisfied doing it on my own the way my ancestors did it. 

Lately, I've been spending a bit of my spare time trying to outfit myself as close to possible as how an early Mexican Texian settler would have done it. 

I've learned a lot about sewing. The sewing machine was not really common until around the civil war, so if you want to really appreciate the clothes they wore, you have to sew them by hand. If you told fifteen year old me that I would be spending my free time sewing clothes I wouldn't have believed you. But on the other hand, if you said it was to make clothing like what our ancestors wore when they first settled Texaa I would think it's pretty cool.

Anyhow, I'm in the process of making a historical "costume" that is as close to something that my Texian ancestors might have worn. Also guns and all that, but it looks like I may have to make my own black powder.

 

So, anybody else do any reenacting? For yourself or for the public, whatever. 

Your mom and I reenacted her college years last night.  She taught me some things.  Wow.

[JA13B 3]

First time to post here. I do historical reenacting, specifically American Civil War and now WWI (Black Watch). I was a history major in college, and read about living conditions, food, matching etc… but living it, even for 36-48 hours gives you an appreciation for just how tough these guys were.  As far as Civil War reenacting I’ve pretty much started going to just a handful Of events a year, usually involving flying or long ass drives. (Virginia, Alabama and Georgia earlier this year). Being Union is a lot easier as due to their supply system it was a fairly common uniform across all theatres with maybe a few exceptions and the occasional odd ball units (looking at you Zouaves).  Confederate is harder.  To do a good portrayal you have to look at what unit you’re doing, when in the war you’re doing, and what theatre your in.  That’ll determine if you have a Richmond Depot, Columbus Depot or some other type of uniform as well as accoutrement.  I can nerd out on this shit and bore y’all to tears.  Lots of research goes into doing an impression right, first hand accounts, browsing reports and receipts in archives, studying drill manuals etc….

WWI Black Watch is easier. Plus thE wife likes the kilt.  And I got to get a new gun!

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4976]

I hear you on the nerding out bit. I feel like the civil war is pretty well documented compared to other periods. I can't begin to tell you how much my employer has paid me in my down time to scour anything and everything I can find online that might give me some insight to some obscure article of clothing that we don't have many or any extant examples of. Try looking for information on something like shoepacks or Texas revolution era hunting shirts and you will find more questions that need answering than answering by a factor of ten or more. Trying to figure out these puzzles is half the fun, and when you find something or connect a few dots that nobody else has it makes all that time that your employer paid you for worth it (to you, probably not them, but they'd prefer that to a nap).

[Horn Draoi 256]

I did the cowboy action shooting deal for years and had great fun, but it’s half-assed “re-enactment.”  My late father did the mountain man re-enactment bit for years;  I tried 1 weekend with him, and ended up sleeping in my truck and trying to locate the nearest Starbucks on my phone!  Not good times for the people that had to live it.  As my scoutmaster buddy used to say, “I love me some porcelain!.”

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

On 10/8/2021 at 9:39 AM, BabaYaga said:

Never joined, but seen the Civil War battlefield reenactments.  JFC, the smoke.  You read about it.  How it altered and obfuscated entire battlefields, but to see it in person.  It's wild.  

Smoke from artillery fire would cause late thunderstorms after Summer battles apparently.