EBUFU Cavalry Events?

[ButtermilkRanger]

Does anyone know of any upcoming authentic events that may be worth hauling horses to? I personally lean toward immersive-type events.

There is one coming up fairly soon in the Trans-Mississippi that should be quite an adventure and worth the trip. If anyone is interested going a little west of the Mississippi for what promises to be a great event, contact me off board.

[YMikels]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Larry,

Just so you know that you are not the only trooper out there in search of an authentic Cavalry experience. For once I'd like to attend something where I actually had a small unit Cav mission, 4-6 riders, and not some show for a paying public eating fennel cakes. A cross country scout would be dandy, reporting back on enemy movements to a larger Infantry force. If I never busted one cap during the ride nor was forced to file partner with a woman, (no offense ladies) I'd be satisfied as long as it was a quality event.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the past Hodge March. I heard it was pretty good. 1st Maine looks to be a great Federal Group and not many folks doing Confederate Cavalry on T. Kern's level. Check out the ONV forum. I know Dan Chmelar is putting together an event early next summer in WI where there will be limited Cavalry allowed as it's mostly an Infantry experience. Retreat from Bentonville is the senario. I've ridden the area a few times and it's pristine for Cav as well as Infantry.

Ever wishing,

Brian Y. Mikels

[Tom Craig]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Gents,

You are certainly not the only ones looking for good cavalry events...or ANY good events (in the East at least) for next season.

Stay tuned as some folks from the 1st Maine and the Valley Light Horse are working on putting together a couple of things in the northern Virginia area. There is nothing 100% yet, but it is very likely that there will be some sort of event in the fall in the Loudon County area, and there may be 1 or 2 other small things.

Sorry to be vague, but we have all realized that we are poop out of luck this year in the cavalry, and unless we do something about it we are going to either end up staying home, or will have to resort to 'streamer events.

When/if we get something together for public consumption, we'll post it here. In the mean time, if you'd like to be kept in the loop/want more info send me an email or a PM.

Take care,
Tom Craig
1st Maine Cavalry
tom.craig@ymail.com

[Ken Knopp]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Larry, Brian & Tom, et' all,

There is another super event being massaged around quite a bit at the moment. Contact Patrick McAllister csabugler@bellsouth.net for more information. Can't say much more at the moment but Patrick can fill you in.

PS: Shaping up to be a good'n!

Ken R Knopp

[Outrider]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

For clarities sake I would like to point out that csabubler@bellsouth.net is NOT ME.

That is "the other" Patrick in our unit , PATRICK PETERSON. Confusion is
understandable though and happens sometimes both being long time Critters and all. However only one of us has any celtic blood in his veins and guess which one that is:D

I, (and I think I can speak for the rest of my unit here), am always looking for good cavalry opportunities. For me ,personally, I am especially anxious for anthing here, in the Western Theater where my primary impressions and interests lie.

Maybe it is just me ,but I feel like events with opportunities for authentic cavalry in every theater have been dying a slow death for a number of years now. It would seem that either organizers do not care about including cav or for whatever reason cannot have mounted participation. Sometimes there is just not enough room for cav and sometimes it just isn't worth the expense and trouble of hauling long distances. Ken is right however, and so is Larry, but I think the long time off work required and the long distances for many may be prohibitive. Things will surly look up though. Perhaps it is time to try my own hand at organizing something (cue loud laughter here)

In the meantime , for me, I am looking to expand into other mounted impressions, grab hold the horn and hold on as best I can.

[csabugler]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Paddy my lad, you are partly correct in that post!! You are correct that you and I are in fact two seperate persons. However:

You typo'ed "csabubler", but I am actually csabugler@bellsouth.net.
Also, my mother's Maiden name was O'Donald, and her mother's maiden name was McBride, so I have a little Irish in me. It manifests itself mostly in my consumption of whiskey and Ale.


There is an opportunity in 09 for cav in the deep south for those willing to commit to the stringent standards that are being set. E-mail me for info.

I have been involved lately in some planning for a couple events and see that there are 2 issues that contribute to a lack of opportunities for good cav.

#1 The lack of good cavalry. We struggle to get 15-20 good cav together, but the mainstream events can easily pull in 100 Josey Wales cowboys with slickers and 9 pistols and western saddles with big spurs. The public is as ignorant as Josey and they love that cowboy stampede crap, so it sells tickets. Too often the cav commanders are among the worst and feed the beast by promoting goofy behavior.


#2 They don't know how to find/use good cav. Because of the prevelance of #1, most event coordinators are at a lose to find/use us. The 'streamers succumb to the need to sell tickets, and too often at EBUFU events the planners are new to it, and make the same mistakes that their predecessors made in the past. The best we can hope for is a planning group who realize this and try to overcome their lack of knowledge.

Or mission, should we choose to accept it, is to get involved in the earliest planning stages to make our abilities known. We can't contact a coordinator 3-4 months befor an event and try to work out a great opportunity. We have to be there from the infancy, a year or two out, to provide feedback and input in order for us to get our "window". Yes, an event can get put together faster than that, but for us to benefit we have to be involved.

IMHO

[Tom Craig]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

I have been involved lately in some planning for a couple events and see that there are 2 issues that contribute to a lack of opportunities for good cav.

#1 The lack of good cavalry. We struggle to get 15-20 good cav together, but the mainstream events can easily pull in 100 Josey Wales cowboys with slickers and 9 pistols and western saddles with big spurs. Too often the cav commanders are among the worst and feed the beast by promoting goofy behavior.

#2 They don't know how to find/use good cav. Because of the prevelance of #1, most event coordinators are at a lose to find/use us. The 'streamers succumb to the need to sell tickets, and too often at EBUFU events the planners are new to it, and make the same mistakes that their predecessors made in the past. The best we can hope for is a planning group who realize this and try to overcome their lack of knowledge.

Or mission, should we choose to accept it, is to get involved in the earliest planning stages to make our abilities known. We can't contact a coordinator 3-4 months befor an event and try to work out a great opportunity. We have to be there from the infancy, a year or two out, to provide feedback and input in order for us to get our "window". Yes, an event can get put together faster than that, but for us to benefit we have to be involved.

IMHO

Some very good points! I will add that in all my years of doing cavalry, I have seen virtually no event organizer/commander who did know how to use cavalry (progressive or mainstream).

The only way that we are going to fix the problem of ignorance about us/how to use us, is to educate the folks that are putting on/running events. That is on our backs to do, and it isn't anyone else's problem but our own.

On the C/P/H side of the hobby, part of the problem is the fact that event organizers are driven to find micro bits of history to recreate because of the overall lack of numbers involved. Folks on this end of the hobby gave up on recreating Pickett's Charge with 200 guys in favor events that depict Company C of the 111th Possum Chasers vs the Skillygally Mess of the 29th GA. While that is much more accurate in terms of the numbers on hand, it often precludes the use of cavalry due to the small scale focus of events. Streamer events still try to do "The Battle of Spottsylvania" and as such, can take the liberty of including a scenario like Yellow Tavern for the cavalry.

That said, there have been several events over the last 5 years that despite being provided fairly detailed historical info regarding cavalry and the scenario done by the event, have still chosen to exclude all cavalry, or at least Federal cavalry. I don't know if that is a logistical issue, a property restriction issue, or a simple desire to avoid having cavalry for whatever reason.

So.....where does that leave us?
1)As has been suggested, we need to work with whatever event hosts we can to get ourselves as much of a role as possible.
1a) We also need to come together a bit amongst ourselves and determine what it is we want EXACTLY so we can communicate that clearly and effectively.

2)We need to educate the folks who run/plan events what we can do, and how we can enhance their event.

3) We need to plan our own stuff, and coordinate with each other. Facts are facts, there are only a handful of units (and maybe a few stray guys here and there) in the country that are doing cavalry correctly. 1st Maine, Valley Light Horse, Crtitters, and Buttermilks. We need to get our acts together, and if no one else will put on events that we can attend, we need to put on our own events.

Take care,
Tom Craig
1st Maine Cavalry

[csabugler]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

3) We need to plan our own stuff, and coordinate with each other. Facts are facts, there are only a handful of units (and maybe a few stray guys here and there) in the country that are doing cavalry correctly. 1st Maine, Valley Light Horse, Crtitters, and Buttermilks. We need to get our acts together, and if no one else will put on events that we can attend, we need to put on our own events.

I nominate Jerry Ross to put something together for us. :D He's talked about it anyway, and is probably about the most centrally located of any of us. I'd be glad to work on something in north or central Georgia, but that's a long haul for most of the above mentioned perpetrators.

[Outrider]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Well Sir, I stand corrected. I was going to use your nickname but thought it best not to embarass you any more than simply knowing me and having to claim me probably already does.

I believe you are both rightand to get as much "authentic" cav together as possible in one place it will have to be as centrally located as possible. There are opportunities I personally know of in the Trans Miss. will but there again the problem of long drives for some will undoubtedly keep many from going. But just in case any IS interested email me at cavman63@yahoo.com

I also would be willing to help in any meagre way I can to put something together but I have to say 20 troopers on either side banging away at each other for a few days does not appeal to me much anymore. I would think the best bet , as you all have already suggested , would be to pick a good event EARLY on, with a good historical reason for being there, and stay with it throughout the planning stages. Other than that I am at a loss.

[Ken Knopp]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

It appears to me that most folks here are "basically" saying the same thing. They want a "quality" rather than a "quantity" cav event (however it would be nice to see both). Although we have all talked about this before, there is a certain leadership vacume in authentic cavalry right now (among other issues). Maybe worse, there is a lack of organization. I firmly believe that someone(s) (soon I hope) will step into and fill that void but regardless, we must move forward as best we can.
The type cav guys that frequent this board have quality impressions so it seems to me using this board to initiate, organize and "promote" such events as we all relish makes sense. Its also obvious that quality units such as the 1st Maine, the Critters (or whatever name they morph into), the Valley Light Horse, Buttermilks, 7th Tennessee, (unnamed) others units and, "quality" individuals are right now discussing and making decisions for 2009. For example, there is already some talk about several good events.....such as that mentioned by Tom Craig, the Bummers event and I note that the 7th Tennessee has several events on their calender for their upcoming (end of January) meeting.
So for starters, regardless of geography (or despite it) can we ask that "any and all" of you post on this board the events you are considering, discussing or planning? No matter how trivial? It may very well happen that such communication leads to better organization, attendence and thus enjoyment by all and "maybe", even begin to ascend to the levels in reenacting cavalry that we all desire. What do you say?

Ken R Knopp

https://www.confederatesaddles.com

[Jerry Ross]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Hello all,
Pete, I would be glad to help in fashion I can . But as I see it the central location of units seems to me around Virginia. I think helping the Valley Light Horse and 1st Maine grow their Unison event is a good one to start . The Critters,Buttermilk Rangers and 7th TN and others could bring their numbers to a already established event .

I know Virgina is not graphically central , but I see were the seed has been planted . There seems to be rental horse available to help out the ones who have a long way to go . I had considered it myself, but was able to get people to share the ride with me.

That is just my thoughts .I am willing to help with any thoughts out there.

[Mike Nickerson]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Hey, the price of fuel is down, I'm game for a "Critter Roadtrip"!

Mike Nickerson

[Outrider]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Well, I suppose I could always stop and see my kin folks while I was in Virginia.

When is that event anyway?

[OldKingCrow]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

There seems to be rental horse available to help out the ones who have a long way to go

I will PAY TOP DOLLAR to rent a good horse at any event y'all do. I will travel, work and my head / impression are properly in check.

My major downside is I do not represent an accurate body type of a mid-19th cenutry soldier / man.

[Tom Craig]

Re: EBUFU Cavalry Events?

Happy New Year to All,

I am a bit biased, but I think that Jerry is right, that the critical mass of good cavarly is centered around Virginia. Rob Bruno gently reminded me that we can also add his 1st Maryland to the list of "us" and they are based in central MD. The 1st Maine now has just about half our guys coming from New England, so the units with good cavalry stretch from Maine to Mississippi, which seems to put VA somewhere in the middle.

The seeds for a cavalry event have been planted and have been growing in Loudon County for 3 years now. For the last three years we have marched and fought across the land of Philomont and Unision in a small variety of formats. We have friendly landowners, LOTS of room to use, and its all historic ground. This past year we had 17 Federal troopers and about 10 CS, but we could use plenty more.

The exact date is still up in the air just yet, but it will be in either September or October. The actual fighting at Unison took place in early November, but as we've found out from two of our three events being in that time frame, daylight is WAY too short at that time of year. If we have guys coming from all over creation to do an event, you want to have plenty of daylight to do the event.

As Jerry said, for those that need them, rental horses are readily available in good numbers in the area as well. For "Old King Crow" you need not worry about your body type being authentic, so long as you can get on a horse and stay there under your own power.

Take care,
Tom Craig
1st Maine Cavalry