More flowers than I can remember --
But none with the purple, gold, and red
That dyes the flowers of September!
-- Mary Howitt
We have come to this organization to fulfill a need that we each have, and yet, we have shared a part of ourselves from that need.
We share our hopes, dreams, excitement, joy, and disappointments. Yet, we pull each other up out of the mire, brush ourselves off and get right back into the grime of this hobby we call re-enacting. We take on the personalities of people from a day gone by, when a nation was at it's darkest hour. We portray a time when brother fought brother. Father against son, uncle against cousin and so on.
A time that this nation saw the very jaws of hell open to take it in and almost devour the very reason that we fought to be a free and independent nation. A nation free to decide on i's own how to govern itself and to let the people speak for themselves. And not worry about what they say or how they said it.
A nation conceived in liberty that all men are created equal. Yes, a time when we were torn in two and wanted the best for each side.
The South… a new nation, where each state governs itself. With no Federal government or any other government to tell them how they should act.
The North… a Union, still with the ideals of the Founding Fathers attached to govern when only needed to govern and let the states rule them selves.
Indeed, this is a time that we as re-enactors love to go back to. A time when the nation thrived on independence and pioneering adventure, we step back into it just to take a peek and live, if only for the day, a time we know, as only this group and those who also portray that time, can know it, known as The War Between the States.
May we endeavor to keep this hobby "alive" with the need to share it with others.
Ralph Bryson, President
