The Five Minute Battle

At the militia meeting we had what we called a "Five Minute Battle" in the large blockhouse. The scenario was that we were under siege in the blockhouse and that we had to shoot off thru the gun ports in the walls. We did this with the windows and door closed.

The smoke from the pans of the muzzleloaders was thick and clung to everything. The sparks from the pans flew everywhere, and reloading in the dark was difficult... as I was unable to see how much powder was going into the pan and how much was falling down the barrel. By the time we stopped firing, the smoke was so thick that I couldn't make out faces across the room, only silhouettes.

It was really amazing. While we didn't meet our goal of 120 shots fired over the course of the five minutes, it was still a great experience. The poor guy to my right could barely get a shot off, I think the touch-hole from the pan to the barrel was stopped up.

I've already got plans for the next muster... more on that soon! Wanted to get these additional images from the battle up.

Mansker's Militia

The event that I've been planning for what seems like forever finally took place over the weekend... The first interest meeting of Mansker's Militia!

Friday, Saturday and a portion of sunday were dedicated to an interest meeting for the men volunteers of Mansker's Station. The Militia is basically a group started for the volunteers BY the volunteers for the purposes of sharing knowledge and educating the members of the group... building relationships and mutual enjoyment of all involved.

We hosted about 21 guys from all over the place... with guys even coming from as far away as Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi. Many representing other sites like American Village, Rock Castle and Bledsoe's Fort

Some of the events that took place over the weekend were drills of the Manual of Arms, practice marching in formation, a 2 mile perimeter march of the park in full pack and weapons, and a simulated battle with all the guys closed up in the big blockhouse. The black powder smoke was incredibly thick and poured out of the gun-ports and windows afterward, it was an amazing sight.

Special thanks go out to Ashley at the fort for letting us have the special encampment, to Martin for is invaluable assistance & to Kris(ten) for her help in taking these great images!)

Life of late

So it occurs to me that I never write anymore.... and not just here, but anywhere. I've been SO busy doing freelance work and school stuff that I just haven't had the time to do it.

Plus there's the planning for the militia group that I'm helping to start out at the fort... that's kept me pretty well busy too. I didn't have any clue that there would be so much fore-planning involved in such an event.... but I guess that's what happens when you build a program from scratch.

I'm REALLY looking forward to the weather getting warm and being able to get out to the fort again... being inside all winter has made me a little stir-crazy. I'll get my fix soon enough though... the militia muster interest encampment is coming soon and I'll have a whole weekend full of guys in their 18th century togs.

I'm sure to have some decent pictures from the event, I had to find a photographer to take some pics for future promotional purposes... so that'll be fun. Maybe we'll get some good stuff out of it.