This year, we were eager to attend the annual reenactment of the Battle of Camden in South Carolina at Historic Camden. My older son's musket had arrived a few weeks earlier, and he was itching to fire blackpowder. We'd missed the reenactment in 2010 because I was at the North Carolina Writers Network's annual conference teaching a workshop on creating archetypal characters. So on Saturday 5 November, we daytripped to Camden.
Saturday was windy and chilly. A cold front had moved through the day before. But the skies were clear, and the 33rd Light Company of Foot, our unit, was in good form.
I meandered through camp and said hi to everyone. Then I caught an excellent presentation by authors Sheila Ingle and Chris Swager entitled "Women of the Revolution." Sheila and Chris employed their storyteller's skills to captivate the audience with tales of the courage of Nancy Hart, Kate Moore Barry, and Martha Bratton.
Here are the Crown forces artillery and Hessians units preparing to do damage to the Continental Army. The program called the reenactment "Battle of Hobkirk's Hill Tactics." What transpired at 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon looked more like reenactors simply enjoying themselves and entertaining the spectators. The wind was quite brisk and made walking (and sometimes firing) a challenge. One shot the artillery fired into the wind produced a smoke ring that hung spookily in the air, then drifted back onto the cannon before dispersing. I've seen plenty of smoke rings from cannons and muskets, but I've never seen that happen before.
At the end of the battle, the 33rd Light executed a right wheel to the beat of the Hessians' drums. I captured the maneuver on video here. The wind, audible in the film, really whipped up during that time. It almost blew me off my feet, and you can see my difficulty in controlling the camera. My petticoat and cloak kept ballooning with the wind, just like sails on a ship.
Late afternoon, reenactor kids in period clothing got together for a game of Rounders. I initially assumed that Rounders was a descendent of the Ball-and-Stick game played by Native Americans. But I learned that Rounders has been played since Tudor times and is like baseball and softball. (Maybe with a dash of Fizbin thrown in.) I don't know whether American children played Rounders during the years of the Revolution, but the kids in the field last Saturday sure had a good time. This is hands-on history. It's what helps children learn and love history of all periods.
We stayed for the Guy Fawkes bonfire/fireworks celebration at 7:00 p.m. (This picture is the Guy from 2008.) In previous years, Crown forces reenactors stuffed the Guy with ordnance fireworks; after the Guy caught fire, there would be much excitement and laughter and dependence upon quick reflexes from the surrounding folks in greatcoats and cloaks. Also, the bonfire was built in a redoubt a short distance from the Kershaw-Cornwallis House. This year, the Hessians were encamped in the redoubt, so the bonfire was built on the battlefield. And the Guy wasn't loaded down with fireworks. But that didn't stop Crown forces reenactors from having fun, because they still had explosives fireworks. Plus they launched a number of three-foot-tall hot air balloons that looked beautiful and eerie as they floated over the subdivision to the west and were, no doubt, mistaken by residents as UFOs. After several of the hot-air balloons were aloft, Crown forces reenactors decided to gun them down with missiles Roman candles and other fireworks. Several shots came within inches of those balloons. We'll go back next year. Someone's aim will have improved, for sure.
What were the reenactors in the Continental camp doing all that time? Firing their cannon. What else could they do? It wasn't the Fourth of July.
Train up a child in the way he should go,and he may become a redcoat.
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I hate that I wasn’t able to go. I would have enjoyed it quite a bit, I’m guessing.
Looking at the guys in uniform, I’m reminded that they didn’t come up with chevron stripes for corporals and sergeants until the first decade of the 19th century, so it’s difficult for me to tell the enlisted ranks apart. (Something I learned when reading the Sharpe novels, heh)
Tracy, you’d have loved it. Especially the way the redcoats reverted to their barbarian roots over those hot air balloons.
In the group shot, our sergeant is the fellow who’s standing on the far left. He wears a sash to denote that he’s a sergeant. No chevrons, right-o.
I know that the sashes persisted into the Napoleonic era, with the addition of the chevrons. I imagine chevrons made a sergeant easier to pick out on a smoky battlefield than did a sash. Sergeants of the Napoleonic era also carried a pike or a halberd, which I imagine was probably true of the RevWar era as well, am I right?
Hmm, our sarge in the 33rd Light doesn’t carry a pike. I’ve seen a few pikes on the battlefield during reenactments, but I haven’t noticed whether they’re carried by sergeants. I’ll check into that.
Visually I prefer the look of a sash over a chevron. The problem with the sash is that it gets in the way, especially when you’re drawing a saber, and it can even provide a convenient “handle” with which a foe can grab you. Some cavalrymen, Tarleton included, didn’t wear a sash into battle for those reasons.