Well, I don't have any updated gaming stuff to show you dear reader, so I thought that I would share with you some of the pics that I took and had taken during the recent 145th Gettysburg Reenactment this past July.
It was the largest reenactment I have ever EVER seen and despite the humidity, the battles were hard fought. Unfortunately there were cases of heat exhaustion due to the excessive humidity. More on that as we go...
This was my home away from home for the days there. A 2 man "dog" tent. It does have some of the "comforts of home" well hidden in it (an igloo cooler with nice cold drinks!).
My good friend Dan and I made it our "journey", and we had a blast. It was a great way to renew the fact that we had been friends for over 20 years!
Since those long ago gone days of when we were in Germany.
Strangely enough, we had some rain on Thursday night. Since we were camping outside in the open, we didn't get much water and stuff dried out quite quickly, unlike our pards who decided to sleep in the woods and ended up soaked.
Yeah yeah, yours truly sitting on his butt doing KP and cutting up potatoes for supper for Dan and myself. Believe it or now we worked quite well together, and with the food we brought we ate better than just about anyone there.
Who says that you have to survive on hardtack and coffee? I like my ribeyes medium rare...mmmmmm....iron skillet cooked ribeyes on an open flame...yum yum yum...
Friday was the first day of the event and there were two battles. Our brigade participated in the second one where we got hit the yankees harder than they expected. Below is a picture of my very first prisoner EVER taken in all my years of reenacting! A nice fine Captain of Co. A 5th Ohio Infantry. I touched his shoulder told him he "was mine", and then we had our photo taken while the fight was still going on! In the background right over my shoulder you can see Dan yelling for the Yanks to "get some".
The unit before the battle...This is Co. K 44th Tennessee. They were originally part of the unit that I am attached to Co. A 33rd Va, but due to differences, broke off and became their own unit.
Most of them are pretty good folks, and I like fighting with them.
After the rain on Friday night, Saturday was just too damn humid for Dan and Me, so we farbed out and did the town and the battlefield. It was my first trip to Gettysburg and walking that battlefield is stepping on hallowed ground. Everywhere you look are monuments and markers to the men that fought and died here, and the feeling that you get is one of overwhelming emotion.
This is me at the Virginia Monument.
After wandering the battlefield, Dan and I did the "town" (a little bit). I grabbed a couple of t-shirts and some trinkets and then we had real "Farb food", at O'Rorkes. Here's a picture of my lunch that day...mmmmmm...
Another pic of myself at the Monument to The Confederacy...
It's amazing who you will meet at Gettysburg and to prove that it's a small world...allow me to tell you a little story...
That evening Dan and I wandered into the Lincoln Diner...(Yeah that guy is everywhere!), to grab some supper.
Yeah the guy is everywhere...Honest Abes House O' Eats...come on in...Confederate Money NOT accepted...
The menu to this house of culinary delights. Notice the blatant smirk on his face as he waits for you to order the meat loaf or the chicken tenders with fries...
So we order.
As we are sitting there three people walk in; a young man dressed in Confed. Uniform, a lady and a guy bringing up the rear. I look at the guy and think "DAMN...that guy looks like Dan Bennett."
Dan was a good friend of mine and my indirect supervisor when I was at CCSN back in Las Vegas. He's always been a wonderful person to work with and to get to know. We had a great relationship and keep in touch. I'm thinking that there is "NO way" that this can be him. I mean...what are the odds?
But what the hey...
So when I am in line, he walks past me and I say "Dan?...Dan Bennett?"
He stops looks over at me, takes a second and then you can see the recognition on his face.
We grab one another in the diner like long lost brothers. He took me back to meet his lady and her son, (In the 12th Tenn), and it capped off the night.
I mean...truly it is a small world when two friends, five states apart, meet each other in a totally different state in a diner in a small town.
And here's the pic to prove it.
Dan usually pulls for the Yankees, but I've forgiven him for this transgression...
Sunday morning...up and at 'em...starting to break down and get ready to leave, but then we have morning formation and orders. General Pickett is to advance his division on the Union Center. It's the third day at Gettysburg...and we all know what is coming.
But it still has a hum in the air...
The Confederates wait to march down the road to assault the Union...the dark blue line waaaaaayyy up on that hill...
A close up of some of the line....waiting for their move to glory...
Oddly enough I have very few still pics of the third day and Picketts charge. Instead I had mostly video as I had the camera mounted and running.
The guns went off...a ferocious pounding of sixty odd cannons for almost an hour. Then we moved forward. Closer and closer we marched, a mass of grey and butternut, our canteens bouncing, cups clanging, grit and determination in our eye. The first rank went in, and started taking hits. We got to the fence and started firing. The smoke rose in a thick blanket, as we poured fire into the yankees and they poured fire back. The man next to me went down. I found myself singing "Amazing Grace" while firing and then noticed three or four more joining in. It was a humbling moment. Then, Capt. Reger yelled for us to "Tear that fence down!" and we went to it like a pack of devils. The wood came down and the command to move forward went out, and across the ground we went, to our glory.
We started taking hits and men dropped. I took a "graze" and stumbled but the Capt was right next to me and we took some more steps forward before we both went down in a volley. I laid there, wounded (camera running), and saw the next wave pass over me. I could see the men up to the front, dying in masses...Great God Almighty what a sight!
And then it was over...the attack was shattered. The fight ended.
And gladly...we all got up and came home. None of the "deaths" were real, and there would be no graves dug that night for Union or Confederate boys to lay in.
Gettysburg is a place that should be seen to be felt. You can read about it, look at pictures, talk about it, and study it, but until you
physcially walk the ground you cannot even begin to understand and fathom the sheer folly, foolishness, and bravery of those men that fought here.
Indeed it is a hallowed place...
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Another close up of the "Primer Greys"...ready to be painted and based and then sent to the little lead slaughterhouse....jpg)
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The UN Supply Trucks...can't have a crisis in Africa without the UN getting involved. Since most of the Trucks are base coated, these shouldn't take too long. ..
