| You should have been there! An ongoing journal of our events |
September 2003 12 - 14 Sep Fort Mc Henry, Baltimore 27 - 28 Sep Battle of St Leonard’s Creek Fort McHenry The forecast for the weekend was foreboding… wet and what do you know, the weather folks were right, rain and lots of it. We set up camp on Thursday evening, a nice dry evening, long rows of straight erect proud tentage. The next day (Friday evening) Mike and Dona decided to stop by and check things out and five of nine tents were down. It was a combination of age, wet, weight and wind, put these ingredients together and it spells disaster. We got out the old needle and thread and did some mending, a lot of mending (see the Frankenstein repairs to number 3). When we left, things were as good as new, or so we thought. Change scenes and cut to the next morning. Mike arrives on a wet and windy morning and six tents are down. Unfortunately, is he is wearing his officer pantaloons (as in tight, too tight to bend over) and unable to effect repairs. Eventually, other members arrive and one by one the tents are repaired and re-erected. The problem is these are OLD tents, and as they age they get threadbare. This causes them to shrink when they are wet and that in turn stretches the loops to the breaking point, as they dry they go back to the normal size. Well, enough of the physical aspects of the weekend, now for the meat of the matter. We had a few folks present (Lee, Dave and Chuck) but there was not much we could do but demonstrate a bit, keep dry from the rain, demo a bit more, find a dinning fly that’s dry. This went on for the whole course of the day. The only scheduled event that was canceled was the auction. We drilled a bit (when the rain let up), ate the interesting food (the caterers do period food but oh what combinations!) and talked to the brave folks who came out in the rain. By the time of the tactical demonstration the rain had quit (and not a moment too soon, my feet were wet to my knees and my wool cape weighed about 20lbs.) and Paul joined us to make a… small but reasonable showing during the demo. The problem was that we are militia and thus do not fit in with the uniform or drill of the regulars. Neither do we match the other militia unit who was doing light infantry with the rifles, the result… where to put the 5thn Maryland. We ended up covering the retreat of the lights and then were placed in the line to fight with other infantry. We were able to fire off enough volleys to have two reloads and very few misfires. We were complemented on that at the officers meeting on Sunday. Sunday was the same as every year, little of our unit present, nothing to do, few tourists but it was DRY and it took the entire day to dry out the tents and equipment. At the end of the day Mike and the rest of the unit (Dave) rather efficiently packed up and were first to exit the field. Overall, a good weekend. We, however, need to increase our presence in order to do what we do and not be ahh… the ahh… bastard children of 1812. Battle of St Leonard’s Creek - CANX |
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