09/30/04

I belong to a Civil War reenactment unit called the Critter Company.  The Critter Company is based out of Atlanta, Georgia and strives to portray men from both sides of the conflict.  We are a group of living historians that have done extensive work for both the State and Federal Park Services.  Our members have been involved with research, been featured in publications and have been involved with productions on Georgia Public Television as well as documentaries and features on the History Channel.  Since we strive to study and research the historical perspective of the life of the common Cavalryman, we keep modern day politics separate.  As a group, we have no interest in modern day arguments about the various issues that face our society. 

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I mention "hardcore" in several places.  For those of you confused by this term, I would simply say that this is often used and misleading misnomer.  When I say that we are a hardcore group, I am simply referring to the fact that we chose to do things differently than a lot of reenactment groups.  We have taken our personal impressions and kits to a level that other groups chose not to.  This includes the material and construction techniques that are correct for this period in history.  It also includes items in our kit that were common for the soldier of our period.  We chose to portray troops on campaign and eat period rations.  This is a very big hobby and there are many groups.  There is room for all in this hobby, but we orient ourselves to correctly portraying the equipment, tactics and life of the common Civil War Cavalryman.  To find out more about the Critter Company, click on the link below:

In addition to the Critter Company, I am also involved with a group of my creation that portrays the men of Wilder's Brigade Mounted Infantry.  You can read more about Wilder's Lightning Brigade on my website, but I will give a brief rundown here.  Colonel John T. Wilder was an innovative man.  Seeing a weakness in the Federal army was carrying out operations, he had his Infantry brigade mounted on horseback and equipped with the most state of the art rifle.  The Spencer Rifle.  The Spencer was a 7 shot repeating metallic cartridge rifle.  In the hands of Wilder's Lightning Brigade, this rifle had a devastating impact on Confederate troops.  His men became highly mobile shock troops.  Able to insert themselves quickly on the battlefield and delivery the equivalent firepower of many times their number.  To learn more about Wilder and the Spencer Rifle, click the following link:

Here is a picture of a buddy of mine in California (Ed Simms) portraying one of Wilder's Mounted Infantry.  Way to go Ed!

If you want to learn more about Civil War reenacting, the Authentic Campaigner board is the place to go.  Here you can ask questions and do research.  Enjoy!