1st Manassas Update

A planning meeting was held on Saturday May 6 and attended by Lt. Col's Tony Zusman & K.C. Meadows, representing the Corps.

The first half of the meeting covered the schedule for the weekend and various other administrative matters. The second half of the meeting was a walk through of the battlefield and camps.

News of importance....

As you all, hopefully, know, the event will be held at the Cedar Creek Battlefield site in Middletown, VA.

We will be camped this time in what is usually the Federal camps. The Federals will camp on the site we occupied at the 140th Cedar Creek event.

The camp site for the infantry will be at the farthest point of the property down the hill from the Chevron station on Rt. 11. We will be about halfway down the fence line.

Artillery will be camped on top of the hill behind the Chevron station.

Cavalry will camp along the treeline at the bottom of the field.

Artillery and Infantry please note....we will be camped in open field so please plan accordingly. The field looked a lot better than the past Manassas field and no poison ivy or oak was observed. Believe me it is already up in that part of Virginia as a bumper crop has already appeared in my flower beds.

Longstreet's Corps infantry will be portraying Colonel Nathan George "Shanks" Evans Brigade. This will include Wheat's Tigers commanded by our own Chaplain Buddy Wheat, who will once again portray his ancestor Chatham Roberdeau Wheat.

For those who pre-registered, we were told that our registration packages with event medallions will be mailed out by the end of May.

Additional information on the event can be found at the event web site.

Remember back in the good old days….

When the month of May was the busiest reenactment month of the year? What has happened!

Used to be we had an event every weekend in May and usually one the last week of April and first week of June to boot.

Now we have conserved time and space, given respect to the family and opted to have all May events on the same weekend. Sure makes planning for those “ONLY ONE EVENT A MONTH” units a lot easier.

This year we zero in on the weekend of May 19 through the 21. the granddaddy of all events, New Market, wishing not to piss off Mom no doubt, opted to move it’s event off that date a few years back. It had only been on that date for more than 40 years and it still confuses people who traditionally think of it that weekend. Heck if Mom really loved her kids she would come to the event with them.

For years events jockeyed around the Mother’s Day/New Market Weekend. Meadow Farm moved several times from the beginning of the month to the end and finally settled for a day in June. That event not only changed months but changed sites too.

New Market, as mentioned, is the granddaddy of all eastern reenactments. The reenactment began, I believe, the year after the actual battle was fought and has been fought, all but one year, on the actual site at the VMI owned park. A consistant tourist draw, this event is well supported by the Corps' Valley units.

A favorite for the Tidewater units, and a few others, is the Ft. Pocahontas event held at Sherwood Forest plantation. This event has pulled good attendance for years and offers a good fight, meal and entertainment. The opportunity to fight a historical battle against the ever gallant USCT (a most worthy opponent) is a definite plus.

Sorry to say the same weekend an up and coming event in West Virginia is held at Lewisburg. The event, sponsored by the 5th Virginia Infantry, Co. G, offers plenty of activities for both military and civilian. The street battles are said to be some of the best fighting of the year. Face it, other than Fredericksburg we do not often get a chance to fight through a town.

Not to be left out, in North Carolina, Alexander’s Battalion Field Hospital is involved with a commemoration encampment at Trinity College highlighting Gen. Hardee’s encampment there after the Battle of Bentonville.

My word! What a weekend. Add to this the local observations by each unit on Memorial Day and you can still make a month of it. What more could you ask for, time at home to mow the grass and you still get to shoot Yankees at least once.