Organizing a march ?

[oldreb1343]

Being inspired by the AP Hill march, does anyone know what all it takes to organizing a march ? Our unit use to do a march up south mountain years ago to raise the funds for our monument on the mountain in foxs gap near the Reno monument. Would love to do that march again since I never got to. Any info would be most helpful.

[den.bolda]

Re: Organizing a march ?

We organized a 5 mile march between two historic sites during the sesquicentennials. The school used one of their buses to drive us to the site of the 1862 ford and we marched back to the wartime fort which was our base of operations. I drove the route before hand several times to be able to identify the mile points. We marched on country dirt roads and chose a path that had the most shade. Farmland doesn't have a lot for trees in our area. Trees provide shade from the sun and protection from the wind. We had a vehicle following with a paramedic and fluids. It was very hot and most everyone had an empty canteen about half way through. We stopped to refill canteens, take shade, and eat rations. We were refueled enough to finish strong. The last mile of the march included a parade that was organized by the town to celebrate the founding of the fort. We were honored in that we were one of the lead elements in the parade. We sang as we marched.

We got to camp and everyone was wiped. Lunch was ready for us when we arrived at the fort. Our camp guards did not do the march and did most of the afternoon public interaction while the rest of us slept or had light duty.

We opened the invitation to march to Scout troops, ROTC groups, etc. The event was covered by the local media. We did the march at the route step, which was shown on the evening news. We were attacked on social media for not marching respectfully. I invited the critics to wear a wool uniform on a hot July day, marching five miles on a shadeless, windy, and dusty road, with full gear, carrying colors, etc. The invitation was ignored.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Organizing a march ?

Depends what you want to do. For about 14 years I had a permit from Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority to march on the W&OD trail in full kit with weapons. For whatever reason they didn't want us to carry bayonets so we learned to stack with ramrods. For the first few years my friends and I would go out a few times a year. In 2008 we made it monthly and provided the dates to NVRPA as part of the permit application.

Most marches went from Wiehle Avenue in Reston to Hunter Mill and back again, a distance of five miles, which we usually repeated. For some events we did 15 and even 20 once or twice. All we needed was the permit and a willingness to purchase new bootees every couple of years or so.

By about 2013 interest in the original group had largely died out and the monthly walkabout slipped from up to dozen participants down to two or three or, sometimes, just the one, feeling a bit odd next to the bikers and skaters. And the fees kept going up, so I pulled the plug a couple of years ago. Still, it was great practice for marching events, not to mention an opportunity for a kind of rolling living history in an area that did see some activity during the war.

So I'd advise you look to around for some similar opportunity in a local park or rails-to-trail and see what you can gin up. We only did it for the day, starting around 8:30 a.m. and ending whenever we ended, but it always made for a pretty full day...