14th TN: Skirmish Drill at Winter Camp from Ashley Bowen on Vimeo.

I spent Saturday with the 14th TN at their winter encampment outside Hagerstown, MD.  It was a lot of (cold, shivering) fun– lots of laughter, a little good natured teasing, and some good food cooked in cast iron over a frying pan.  Not for everyone, I know, but it worked for me.

You can play the video above by using the title of this post as the password.

I talked in my last post about the conscious relationship between reenactors and the objects in their lives/hobbies.  All the men (MEN! even the VMI cadets) in this group make their own uniforms by hand and have become fairly accomplished knitters.  Plus, one of the men in this unit makes rifles.  I know that not everyone feels comfortable with guns, and that is cool (I grew up in TX and am deeply conflicted about my own political opinions on recreational firearms), but it is hard not appreciate the craftsmanship in these rifles.

This group’s leader, Skip, has been a gem of a find inthe reenacting world- I talked to him about my thesis project and when I invited myself along for the weekend he didn’t even flinch before saying “yes.”  Thank goodness he did, I feel like the 9 hours I spent with them were as useful in terms of research as a week in the library.  It is not a perfect window into their community, but it certainly was a decent peep hole.