Return to American Civil War reenacting in England-Day two

With Sunday morning we've repeated what had become over a short time the tradition of the breakfast bap. Once again we ate breakfast prior to donning or Civil War clothing. Today's clothing choice for Antina was her summer sheer blue and red plaid and for me what I've referred to as my Gettysburg dress which is a cream and red plaid.

Once again as we were settled on site Antina and I took to taking photographs and video while the gentleman enjoyed more drill. After drill Company E decided to ham it up for the cameras and get some good advertising shots taken while they had the opportunity so with that we headed off to other portions of the site for a more natural setting. As Captain Parkin decided on some scenes to set the question was asked "who volunteers to be dead, Lloyd?" I must admit that Lloyd plays dead very well. Once the photographs were taken the boys headed back to camp while Antina and I wandered the rest of the site and buildings. At one point both of us wondered if and when the boys would realize they lost their photographers.

Upon returning to camp Mike and David set to attempt to convince the members of Company E to attempt Gettysburg in 2013 with promises of crash space and much exploration of the USA. As the time approached noon, Mike headed out to hunt Antina down for the second time with David trailing behind to attempt to find me. The boys found us both at the portion of the site which produced rockets up until 1996. The gentleman manning this portion of the museum had worked here until it was closed and now he volunteers. Therefore we were getting a very personalized tour of this part of the facility. Just prior to entering this part of the museum, the gentleman had approached us as we were attempting to figure out what was in the canal. He expertly advised us that they were the canal barges that had previously been sunk at other portions of the site and had been brought here and sunk for preservation until they could be restored properly.

From Gunpowder Mills Site

Since our men had found us they informed us that they were headed back to camp and they had a short time to get a bite to eat before they were going to need to do bayonet drill. As we wandered back to camp after having looked through one other building, we found the boys ready to do bayonet drill. But before they had too much of an opportunity to get geared up for that, some of the officers had decided to do sword drill. This put David and Mike in the opportunity to teach. It's not often you see privates teaching officers sword drill. Quite a few times you could hear someone from the class ask "can you show that one move again?" As they valiantly gave up their time to teach sword, they were excused from bayonet drill in order for them to get something to eat before having to form up for battle.

We therefore retired to the small café on site which had great pasties (we had managed to enjoy the same café yesterday as well). As the boys went off to battle Antina and I set ourselves up for more picture taking of the action. I was grateful to Antina for taking my camera as will as hers so that we could maximize our view of the battlefield while I shot video.

And now comes time for the after action report: today's battle scenario varied slightly from the previous day. This time the sharpshooters moved through the union camp, but it was only part of them. Corporal Davidson, Captain Parkin, and private Parkin performed the end round. Those that had filtered through camp opened fire on the Confederates. The sharpshooters united and headed for the Canon when one group broke off for the flight. David had decided early in the battle to take a back wound but he changed it to a leg wound while he waited for the Confederates to either capture or kill him. Neither happened and the rest of the company dragged him back where he made a miraculous recovery. Mike noted that while the rest of the company seemed to double quick forward he seemed to be stuck in waddle speed. The sharpshooters headed back to the middle of the battlefield and started to take that Canon when they decided to charge forward. At which point they needed to fall back, and then were required to charge forward again when most of them died. As you view the battlefield from the sidelines all you saw were spots of green dead reminding us of Monty Python's famous line "take out your dead." I will admit at this point that I was asking who was dead upon the field at which time Neil's magic spotting service came into use and Sergeant Hoddle informed me the green that I was asking about was in fact my husband. I was pretty embarrassed but amazed at Neil's talent as he spotted the remainder of the dead for me based upon their leggings of all things. I took the opportunity to take some close-ups as I could of the dead litter in the field. But wait, not all of the sharpshooters were dead and the remainder took that Canon after all. With all of this, the union won the second day.



The battle ended with all dead rising, all troops forming again in front of the crowd and performing the fire by company, the fire by file, and the fire by society. Mike, once again used all of his powder.

With the battle done we wandered back to camp and started collecting our things to head out. David grabbed one of the bags with mundanes in it and sent me off to the bathroom to change. As I was finished stiping out of my Civil War clothing in the bathroom I looked into the bag only to find that I had Mike & Antina's stuff instead of David and mine. I waited and hoped that Antina would realize the mistake before she or Mike got too far in changing and we could make the switch. Blessedly I didn't have long to wait before Antina entered the bathroom and passed me the correct bag while she took to undressing in the other bathroom stall.

Clothing having been sorted and us being dressed more comfortably for the ride home, we said our goodbyes and headed off. After we climbed into the vehicle, Mike and Antina asked if they could reenact over in England more often. So I'm guessing that they had a good time.

For all pictures and videos I encourage you to visit our website at http://members.aol.com/cimberann/vance/gunpowder.htm.

You would think we would be exhausted and ready to head home . .and you would be right . . but along our drive home there is the opportunity to stop and see Berkhamsted Castle. Okay, so we didn't see much of it as it was closed for the evening, but we did stop and persist until we could walk around the outside of the walls and hold the cameras up high to get the best shots we could (and we could say we'd been there).

The castle having been seen, and it now nearing towards 7 P.M. food was becoming a high priority. We stopped at a Services and enjoyed Burger King before getting back on the road. Once we arrived home the flurry began. The boys began unpacking the truck in the drizzle and handing the items to me in the dining room for me to find a spot for so they wouldn't track wet and mud into the house. Meanwhile, Antina set to work on separating out their stuff from ours so that she could start the process of packing.

Once the truck was unpacked and showers were had all around, Antina and Mike set to work on their packing with a vengence while I attempted to finish all picture downloads and transfers so that Antina and I would have a copy of each other's pictures and video. Antina did wonders on her task and managed to get everything to fit into their 2 suitcases with exception of one small box of linen which I was to mail. I managed to get all the pictures and video onto Antina's 8 GB thumb drive but it was FULL. Okay, so we were a little busy with the cameras during their trip . . but look at all the memories!

We lamented that on the morrow that David would head to work and I would be driving Antina and Mike to the airport so that they could start their journey home. How did the time pass so fast?