Kevin - Saturday. Up with the sun at 6 AM, it’s a frosty morning. So chilly was it that we bumped the RV heater for a few minutes whilst we got breakfast ready. Since we arrived so late yesterday, and because there wasn’t anyone in charge to direct where we should set up our 1847 period camp, we left that until this morning – but we have a 9:30 deadline before the public starts arriving. So, it’s a rushed morning.
From the back of the pickup, I pull out our bins of period clothing and hand them to Denny in the RV. Then we drive over to the period camp and start pulling out the gear we brought. The common tent, its poles, the blue enlistment table, the cooking gear, the soldier belts, musket, flagpole, flag, sign, and all the other paraphernalia that is needed to make an ‘impression.’
After talking with some of the other camps, we learned there wasn’t any real ‘rhyme or reason’ to how the camps were arranged. Accordingly, Denny and I decided to infiltrate our camp between the Revolutionary War and Civil War camps. The French/Indian era Voyager’s camp was beside us with their impressive cargo canoe and tipi.
Once the site was selected for shade during the hot part of the day, we assemble the table first and put onto it all the gear we don’t want to touch the wet grass. Next the tent goes up, then we lay out the blanket pack, the belts and other gear onto an oilcloth. As the enlistment table is finally cleared, we draw out enlistment forms, the writing utensils and the muster form for today’s event. Finally, we lash a branch to our too short flagpole and raise our national colors. Camp is set in less than 45 minutes from deciding where to set to finished camp. The two of us are good at it after so many years of experience. Denny is a brick.
Next we needed to get into our period clothing, so we drove back to the RV, parked the truck for the day and changed into other people. We don’t portray anyone specifically any longer, but if you press us we still identify as Phoebe and Ebenezer Brown. We take one last potty break (period clothes are SO inconvenient!) and walk back over to camp to await the onslaught of thousands of people interested in learning about US history.
You see, our expectations (at least mine were) was that this would be very similar to what we experienced in Michigan at the River of Time Living History event that got us started. There, Friday was School Day with a few thousand public, private and college students wandering through camps. On Saturday and Sunday we’d have 20 to 30 thousand more people come to River of Time. It was big stuff. We were busy all day and exhausted at night. It was wonderful.
To our amazement, at Ft Lupton it was only a small stream of people that trickled through, with only a handful actually coming into the camps. Most just walked the roadway and looked from afar. Few seemed to be interested enough to interact with the period interpreters. Total, I don’t think we had 25 people in our camp.
We think it might have been busier up at the reconstructed fort. They had docents working all day. There were dragoons on horses on parade and learning ‘the drill.’ And, face it, who doesn’t like horses and men in uniform?
It turns out the Heritage Fair organizers were trying to raise money for a new set of bathrooms and had raised their prices considerably. Maybe that was it. Maybe people were too busy doing other things. It takes a lot of PR work and years of dedicated efforts to get the public involved in such events. One young lady had become interested in ‘living history’ through her fiancé. She came into camp and as we discussed, we outfitted her with all the belts, haversack, blanket pack, canteen, hat and the musket. It’s a heavy load the men carried. The women too – just different.
We did get to ‘enlist’ a few kids into the Battalion. We outfitted one youngster about age 10 with all the gear. Dad took a lot of pictures. I forgot to.
Then, I administered the Oath of Enlistment to the youngster.
From the 1841 Regulations for the Army of the United States, comes this version of the Oath of Enlistment:
“I, [state your name], do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the United States against all enemies and opposers whatsoever, and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, so help me God.”
To all the veterans reading our blog; you’ll recognize the basic language of the Oath. It changes a little depending upon the time period when administered, but the duty to protect the nation, to obey the legal orders of the President and officers has remained throughout the history of the nation.
To all the veterans reading our blog; Thank you for your dedication to the nation, to the principles of democracy and representative government. Thank you for putting your family, your body and your life on the line for however long you were enlisted, or served as an officer. We need more such men and women. We need more citizens dedicated to the same principles, who would be willing to lay down their life for their fellow man.