colgaffneyis participated in the Charles City Military History Days this weekend. It was great! It was a “time line” event–reenactors of various times and places through history. Doing 1630 we were very much on the early side, which gave us a lot more scope. Armies of that era tried to be as self-sufficient as possible, so we, as usual, included a wide range of civilian life along with the pikes, muskets, and mortars. So did an SCA group camped next to us. By contrast the 20^th century groups (World War II forces representated included the US 101^stAirborne, the Red Army, and the Wehrmacht) were purely military.

Note, I am not claiming any moral high ground. I enjoyed firing one of our matchlock muskets, and helping out in the artillery crew for our mortars. Interestingly, the actually procedure for artillery firing changed very little between our era (1630) and the American Civil War (both sides were represented).

For our part, the event went off extremely well. I might get in trouble if I claimed this in an official colgaffneyis publication, but since this is my blog I can say the credit for this is due to excellent staff work–our Chief of Staff is mia_mcdavid. We were missing some of our best members for dealing with the practicalities of camp life, but we were able to manage quite well anyway. rhymeswithghoti did a great job as Captain, managing our limited military “man”power very well and proving to be an excellent time traveller, handling creative and entertaining interactions with our weekend neighbors from elsewhen. bullettheblue gave the Sutler’s table the best event I have yet seen for it, while also participating in the pike line and the artillery crews. c_nocturnum and her husband were always around and helping out. AC and AP were always cheerful and willing to help out. BB, our Head Camp follower, kept us very well fed and did an excellent job with the logistics of the kitchen. The meals were great and the cleanup and dishwashing were done without pain or complaint.

Special thanks to our new Wisconsin members, L and J, who hauled most of our gear down in their van and were cheerful and enthusiastic about helping wherever they could around camp.

In looking around at the wider event, I particularly enjoyed our Native American participants. At one point a WW II crew (I think I recognized both American and Luftwaffe uniforms) came by with a small artillery piece, and “opened fire” on their tents. The moderns had a little trouble with the gun, and the natives (who we know from the Rendezvous circuit) leaped out and fired with their flintlock muskets. Then they hid, only to spring from behind the cover of a couple tents and jump on the modern crew with their war clubs. Their moves were great–it looked like something out of the recent PBS show on the French and Indian War.

Perhaps more later–it was a great time….