Glance at two reenactments.

The largest reenactment in Canada during 1998 took place last August in Quebec City. Over a thousand reenactors gathered to try out military tactics and have a good time. It was especially notable for the variety of Provincial Regiments present. The northern wing was composed of a large grouping of King's Royal Yorkers, Butler's Rangers, New Jersey Volunteers, some members of Delancy's Corps, a few King's Orange Rangers and the Prince of Wales Regiment.

A southern wing was also organized and the members included two companies of Kings Rangers and Queen's Rangers. This latter wing was quite effective as skirmishers.

A lengthy battle took place on the Saturday and to get the `flavour' of the event, it would be useful to refer to Brevet Col Joyner's report in the Yorkers' newsletter:

Any experienced reenactor commander knows that what separates poorly-trained troops from excellent ones is their performance at the time the momentum switches sides in a battle. As our Provincial line reached its farthest point of advance under the watchful gaze of the two red-coated British brigades, who were parked at the back of the large field, awaiting orders to advance, several columns of Rebel infantry joined the battle on our front. The addition of over 300 of Washington's banditti, made it impossible for us to withstand. At this point we were brought to a halt and began a fighting withdrawal. The inexperience of many of our units showed itself at this point. Our brigade's fire slackened considerably at the point when we needed weight of fire to buy us time to maneuver. Were it not for the Yorkers, Butler's Rangers and Queen's Rangers, [Editor's note: I'm sure that the New Jersey Volunteers with their considerable experience must have been a positive addition too], who continued to fire effectively, we might well have found ourselves pushed unceremoniously off the field.

A later battle during the same weekend appeared to be heading towards the same result, but Brevet Col. Joyner explains that it ended differently. With our position totally flanked we were forced to move back to a more defensible line. I had the colours from each wing move back down the field and gave the order for the disperse and reform on the colours. I have never witnessed such a scene in my 20-some odd years of this hobby. I realized the colours needed to be moved back a further distance and while the troops were approaching, the colours moved back farther. The Northern Brigade troops veered off in the new directions, the rebels hard on their heels in a full charge. When the main body of our brigade reached the colours they instantly reformed. The Rebels slid to a halt and suddenly realized they were thoroughly disordered in the face of a fully formed 185-man brigade--the shock of their reenacting careers no doubt! Colonel Dick Ford of the County brigade, told Col. Watt and me that our brigade staged the finest fighting withdrawal he had ever witnessed. Coming from a 20-year reenacting veteran and a veteran officer of the US army in Vietnam, this must be a real compliment!

If you are inclined to think that the Quebec event was basically battle after battle, there was plenty of time for other activities. In particular the ladies had opportunities to show off their finest period clothing. For the sake of accuracy they tend to wear `everyday' costumes at reenactments, but the chance to have a bit of a period fashion show is hard to resist.

A little later in August, reenactors converged on Penetanguishene to take advantage of the old naval/military facilities there. By reenactment standards it was a most unusual event. While the reenactments are usually organized by time period, this one featured an odd mixture that included the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, a handful of Napoleonic troops and even of few American Civil War Confederates. Rev War units included the Yorkers, Butler's Rangers, the Queen's Rangers, the Brunswick Light Infantry and Brant's Volunteers. With Georgian Bay as a backdrop, it was fitting that there was naval support from the impressive HMS Tecumseh down to period batteaux.

Anyone For Orange County?

With more and more genealogical material appearing on the Internet, one can go through quite a bit of information before actually opening a book! One site reenactors and others should explore is The New York GenWeb Project, http://www.rootsweb.com/-nygenweb/.

Some of the topics include: New York Cemeteries, New York in the Civil War, Find out what county a town is located in and New York Family Reunions just to name a few. There's also a section listing research helps such as Early New York Land Records and New York Genealogical Societies. Even more interesting is a breakdown of the various counties, date formed, parent county and county seat.

Given the tempting array of counties, I couldn't resist a peak at Orange County and each county contains further lists of topics including a Surname Index, queries and books of interest. A quick glance at the queries yielded one about Capt. Abraham Maybee, UE, a favourite Loyalist of mine!

The Books of Interest section contained the following: Mildred Roberts' The Origin of Orange County, New York, from 1683-1947, published 1970, Matilda Gocek's Orange County, New York; a reader's guide and bibliography, published 1973, Malcolm Booth's A Short History of Orange County, N.Y., published 1975 and The Orange County Genealogical Society's Index to the 1881, Ruttenber and Clark history of Orange County, New York, published 1979.

This is just a taste of what is there--don't ask me for more because I may be too busy checking out other NY counties!

Register of Reenactment and Living History

http://alethea.ukc.ac.uk/SU/Societies/deBec/reg18c.html

by John Desmond ([e-mail])

This site features links to: Compagnie Franche de la Marine du Detroit

First Continental Regiment

First Regiment of Foot Guards

Fraser's 78th Highland Regiment of Foot

80th Regiment of Lightly Armed Foot (Gage's Light Infantry) (29/09)

42nd Royal Highlanders

71st Regt. of Highland Foot

King's Royal Yorkers

The King's Grenadiers circa 1759 (20/10)

Lexington Minute Men

18th Century Maritime Society

First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists (1777-1783) (04/10)

10th Massachusetts Regiment - Light Infantry Company

Milice de Chambly

77th Reg't., Montgomerie's Highlanders

Second North Carolina Regiment of Foot

Northwest Brigade Club

The North West Territory Alliance (NWTA)

42nd Regiment of Foot, Light Infantry Company

Rogers Co. Rogers' Rangers in F&I War and Pritchard's Co., King's Rangers

Royal Welsh Fusiliers (16/06)

Simcoe's Queen's Rangers (1st American Regt.)

White Oak Society

Regimental Guestbook

http://views.vcu.edu/tcrabb/guestboo.html

This site is a place for exchanges between reenactors, it includes notes like these:

I recently became a recruit in the King's Regt, NWTA and visiting your web site was one of the things that convinced me to reenact the British side.

Mark Canady [e-mail] Switz City, IN USA

Greetings fellow Loyalists! It has been a pleasure to reenact with you as I'm sure the rest of my unit, the 2nd company Jaeger Korp, would agree. Very informative web site, I have visited it many times and it keeps getting better. God save the lawful King!

Shana Isham [e-mail] or [e-mail] Rock Hill, SC USA

Thank you from a descendant of Paul McPherson 1734-1828 of the King's 17th Foot Regiment. I am in the process of constructing a site devoted to his life as a soldier and as a Loyalist settler in Guysborough Nova Scotia. I would like to include a link to your site as it speaks to so many issues better than I ever could! If anyone knows where I could find more information on the 17th I would be forever grateful.

GGG Grandfather Paul was wounded in battle in 1776 and taken prisoner. It would appear that about half the battles that year took place in the Carolinas and half in the north, even in Quebec. I would love to know the location of his battle and where he was kept prisoner of war. Were POWs billeted in private homes?

Barbara Dorey [e-mail]