The last weekend we were at Funkstown, MD, for the Civil War reenactment. We are reenacting as Civil War cavalry, with the Blackhorse, a Company from the 4th Virginia Cavalry. We are supposed to be Confederates, but several times this year, including at Gettysburg, we have been asked to ‘galvanize’ which is the word for portraying the other side, in this case Federal cavalry. For those with a sharp eye it is easy to tell that we are normally portraying Confederates given the equipment and weapons that we have, and the Federals tend to be a bit ‘rule follower’ anyway, and we simply can’t match that when we do it. To portray Federals we simply have suitable uniform jackets, trousers and hats to change into, but the rest of our gear is either Confederate, or works for both sides.
Well, I do enjoy being the bad guys every now and again! On the Saturday morning, the action started with riding into town on a ‘forage’ where the locals have food out for the reenactors. Given we were dressed as Federals, I do recall telling a household, as they gave out food to us, that I would return later to burn their house down, given the Confederate flags that were on display. In my mind, when we are dressed as Federals, we are simply disguised in order to conduct spying activities behind enemy lines! Or whatever I have to tell myself to not be irritated at being dressed as a Federal trooper!
The action on the Saturday is a fight on the streets of the town itself in the morning. The afternoon battle was cancelled due to storms. Given that I am there as a reenactor, I cannot get photos or video unless I am able to do so surreptitiously, or unless a spectator takes photos and gives them to me. I was able to get a little bit of video and I’ll post that below. The way the battle went was that the Federals kicked it off with cannon fire on the main street, but the Confederates came on, and also deployed elements on the two parallel streets, ending up flanking us, so they ended up surrounding us on three sides and kicking us out of town.
The battle on Sunday was in an open field and we had a great time, and I was unable to get any video. The cavalry was given the task of scouting and initiating the battle on the Confederate column as it emerged from the trees. One of my boys was not there due to a neck injury but I had Alex with me. Scott, Alex and I were deployed as the initial ambush group. There is a a lot of free play within reenacting so long as you follow the general script, and its important that Cavalry don’t just sit about on horses, but actually do stuff, and we were able to do that on the Sunday battle.
So anyway, the three of us were deployed forwards out of sight. At 1 PM the cannons fired and we pushed up over the hill and began engaging the Confederate column with some rapid revolver fire. We then bugged out and rode through the woods, emerging on a heading towards our own artillery line, but not realizing that the Confederate cavalry was between us and the artillery. I had put Alex in charge of our mission and followed him out at a gallop, as we rode past the Confederate cavalry hitting them with revolver fire as we flashed past. It was glorious. We ended up regrouping with the rest of the Federal cavalry and then the rest of the battle involved carbine and revolver fire into the flanks of the Confederate line as we held the left flank, and also sabre battles with the Confederate cavalry. We still couldn’t stop the Confederate infantry as they ended up pushing the Union troops back and came on with a final bayonet charge, which ended up being timely cut short by the bugle call for the end of the battle. Uncover (hats off) and remember the fallen.
Here is a little bit of video. It may be easier to watch these on YouTube given the size of the shorts format (it’s little bit annoying!):
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