February 17, 2008 right around President’s day there is a big event at Fort Ward in Alexandria, VA. Every time we go to this event, it gets very crowded. There is a lot to see and learn which makes it a family friendly event. We basically go for photo opportunities. Were first artists, and than historians. This year it was cold, but not as cold as last year. I didn’t go last year, but from what I heard a few times they had to deal with snow.
We spent a lot of our time exploring the encampment and learning more about the period. Each year we’ve gone to this event they have someone talking about the medicine and weapons used during this period. We looked around the encampment, and saw all these drums aligned by one of the tents, so decided to take a picture of them. You never know what photo will make a great banner for your website or page.
After they had the encampments opened to the public they had a reenactment of a battle that was fought during the American Revolution. Normally we stand at the exact location which is good if you’re doing it for safety reasons, and don’t want to get separated. Its a good idea, but when you’re 20+ yrs old and want a more variety of images not such a good idea. Especially when you’ve been around a person for your whole life your photographs end up looking very similar. During the battle reenactment we each decided to pick a different locations so that we wouldn’t end up taking the exact same picture twice or three times. So one of use stood at the top of the hill to get the colonist view point while the other stood at the bottom of the hill to get the British view point. It ended up working because we got twice amount of different pictures than if we had both stood at the exact same spot. After the 30 minute battle all the reenacting units line up so that visitors can talk to them, and get photos. We usually point our cameras at the fife and drums because we don’t get to see too many of them, and after a while when you’ve taken troop or individual unit photos they start appearing alike.
July 20, 2008: On a relatively cool summer day in July we decided to go to Jerusalem Mills. This was spur of the moment kinda thing. We didn’t get to see the actual raiding of the store, but got to see a 30 minute reenactment that felt more like 15 minutes. Spent most of our time touring around the area, and learning the history behind the Mill.
We took a hike around the park for the first time and saw a covered bridge. We’ve seen other covered bridges in Frederick County Maryland. All of them appear the same, but each one has its own unique history. This covered bridge was no different than the others as far as how it was built. They had a blacksmith demo, but didn’t stay in the building to long because it got hot really quickly. We toured around the mill, the mill it self is pretty much gone. Hopefully one day they’ll rebuild it, and have it working again. 
Than when it came to watch the battle reenactment you couldn’t see too much since we were all on a hill. Luckily for us a few of the Union troops decided to stay where we could all take photos of them. Got a few okay pictures, not great but okay. During these kind of events we wish we had a camera with a long zoom lens than we would have great pictures. But instead we have a camera that won’t put a whole in our pockets. Both cameras you usually take with us do take awesome photographs. One camera we use doesn’t have really good zoom so we don’t even bother using it, during cases of far away battles. So we swap the other camera that has better zoom to take pictures from far away distance.
Sorry to bore and carry on about the cameras. Back to the Civil War Reenactment. They had a small calvary unit, which was interesting. Most of the reenactments (Civil War, and Revolutionary War) we’ve been too in years past didn’t have a Calvary unit with them. So this was a treat for us.
On August 2nd, 2008 we went to Belair Mansion, located in Bowie, Maryland. This was a very small living history event. Pretty much went there to meet up with a friend and see the house. Love old houses, luckily for us, we get to spend two days each week volunteering at an old house that was built in 1868.
We were running a little late again for this Civil War event. It seems like its a reoccurring thing with Civil War events this year. Well we will just have to try a little bit harder next year or the next CW event we go to.
First thing we did since we were running a little late was tour around the house. They had a short 30 minute video on the house so we learn a few thing about it before walking around the house. The house is huge it has like three floors of rooms filled with period artifacts. Also you can see everything around you because within everyone room at least in the bottom floor there are these huge windows to look out of. Once we walked outside we saw a few demos and walk around the small encampments. A calvary unit was at this event, so we were able to learn what their roles were during the Civil War. Also learn what life was like for the common soldier at the time, and what drills they had to practice over and over again so that they would be ready for what ever battle they might have face.
Since it was a living history event there was no battle reenactment. Before we knew it the event was over. The event was only 4 hrs long which kinda stunk. To bad that the house has limited hours when they are opened and they don’t have special event hours. They could of used at least 4 additional hours. We could have at least stayed there for another 2-3 hours. The weather was beautiful, not too warm.
September 20, 2008: The Red Coats are coming at Jerusalem Mills! Actually they already came and left.
We went back to Jerusalem Mills for their annual colonial event. It was held right on the field so that there would be enough room to walk around. It was on a very unusually warm fall day. There were plenty of people walking around in period uniform, so we enjoyed ourselves as we wondered around the camps. They had a small group of sutlers, selling arrangement of stuff from period clothing to crafts. We had a friend with us who never been to the park so we showed her around since she was unable to join us for the Gilmore’s Raid event. We walked towards the bridge and than took the trail back to the Mill that is behind everything else. There were no reenactors encamped by the Mill this time due to everyone being on the field except there was a small group of them at the entrance where you bought your tickets. After touring the other parts of the park we went inside the Mill.
Before we knew it was time to watch the 30 minute reenactment. There were two men on horses at this event. Again there aren’t many people who ride horses that we’ve seen during other events of this time period probably because most are relatively small compared to this event. Also you can never predict how the horses are going to react every time the cannon’s fire. The two horses that were at this event were a little jumpy, but all seemed to go safe during the battle reenactment. During this particular battle the British end up kicking our (colonist) butts.
Took plenty of pictures of all the events we’ve gone to which can be viewed within our gallery page of our “Reenactors Network” website.
