On the weekend of July 15-16, we participated in the Battle Of Funkstown. A smaller event, but amazing for MANY reasons. We look forward to this one every year!
The first really amazing aspect is the Infantry Battle IN the town! The two armies meet in the middle of the town for a fierce infantry street battle battle, where the spectators literally could reach out and touch the re-enactors. The sounds, the guns, the screams.....nowhere else are spectators this close to the action!
And then there are the two full scale battles on the battlefield in the park (Saturday and Sunday), where our unit takes part in prominently portraying the artillery at the event. Like during the street battle, spectators are much closer to the battle action than at other events. We don't participate in the street battle, since the firing of our canon in the town could shatter windows and set of all kinds of alarms in homes and cars :-)
The very unique aspect of Funkstown is that the town's residents provide the soldiers with food. The foraging before the Saturday street battle is such a wonderful tradition! Many residents decorate their homes, there are tables, tents and porches filled with food and drinks for the re-enactors. From home baked goods to sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, fruit, sweets and candy, everybody gets fed really well that day! A big, big THANK YOU to the wonderful folks of Funkstown! The town loves the event and we love coming to Funkstown.
You should come see it next year!
Of course there was also the usual share of UNIQUE moments in camp! Whether Ray sewing Louis' cracked pants, starting a fire in the rain Sunday morning, the heat, and the fun and laughter we always share.
But this time, well.....it got a little scary for a short moment:
Early Saturday evening, we all gathered under the big fly at the commander's tent, because a storm was announced and it started drizzling. Knowing that it would pass quickly, nobody gave it much thought. But then the wind started picking up dramatically, the rain changed from drizzle to "cats & dogs" and before we could react, the whole fly came down on us.
So four or five of us tried to get the fly back up in the pouring rain. It was a struggle, but we managed to temporarily fix things and were just settling in again, as all of a sudden we hear a loud "wroom" and crack. First, we could not clearly locate where it was coming from.
So I got up looking and after only a few steps, I saw this:
The tree came down right in between Kevin/Michael's and my tent!
Yup, you probably had the same thoughts as I when you looked at the pic:
"Oh my, luckily the tents did not take a full hit and nobody was in there!"
God held his hand over us.
So the question was: how do we get the tree off our tents and removed? This is where the true friendship among re-enactors from both sides comes into play: a group of Pioneers from the Union camp saw from a distance what happened. Within minutes they were at work, with axes and a saw! They worked under "liquid encouragement" as they stated, and in less than 10 minutes the problem was solved! And the least I could do to THANK them, was to further improve their "liquid encouragement" with a very well deserved ice cold one.
Soon we resumed enjoying our evening. And after a while all went to sleep. Soon the camp go quiet, with all of us slumbering in dreams of an eventful day. All of us? Not quite....
I was laying there....awake...listening to every slightest movement in the trees from the wind. The softest crackle of wood....giving me terrible visions.....
And I learned the hard way that I should not have told anybody about it :-) The unit had a decent amount of fun with it, and that is fine, too! But all in all, we have a wonderful time in Funkstown.
We are all looking forward to our next big event, the Battle Of Antietam/Sharpsburg on September 18/19! All info in the link on our frontpage.
Hope to see you in Gettysburg!