Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

[Hairy Nation Boys]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

I am very excited about this event. Frank has put a lot of work into every detail in making this an authentic recreation of the Camp Jackson Affair. I hope others like myself and the Hairy Nation will join with the 1st Missouri Militia.

[Michael Comer]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

Here is a photo of what was Camp Jackson. It is a wartime picture since the troops are Federal but will serve to give folks an idea of what the area looked like where the actual event took place.

[MissouriStateGuard]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

All,

Here's some more insight into how the Missouri Federal troops were armed at Camp Jackson:

“The balls fired were the deadly Minie rifle balls, which weight an ounce and five-eighths each [the .69 Minie weighed 730 grains, or 1 5/8 ounce] and make the most frightening and ghastly wounds… The wounded are not as numerous comparatively, for the reason that a person hit with a Minie has little chance of suffering, for if struck in a part not vital, the sufferer is most apt to bleed to death.” - San Francisco Evening Bulletin, 28 May, 1861, Pg. 1 col. 4.

Of the arms of the Home Guard, in the riot at Fifth and Walnut, 11 May 1861:
“… the German Home Guards was attached on last Saturday, as most of them were raw recruits and had just got their muskets from the Arsenal and were on their way home to their armory. They were fired upon from a large church, and some windows in dwelling houses, and, although raw recruits, they stood fire pretty well, and riddled the Church and dwellings with large Minnie balls shot from their muskets. Some places the mason work of the Church and houses you could find holes large enough to put a fist in; and when a man is struck with a large Minnie bullet, it punches a hole in him big enough to crawl through.”

V/R,
kip

[Michael Comer]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

Just a reminder that there will be a tactical on Sunday. Those who are portraying Missouri State Militia need to bring some other duds since we will be portraying M. Jeff Thompson's men during this little set-to. Should be a good mix of civilian and military clothing for that with appropriate accoutrements.

[Huck]

Re: Camp Jackson May 6-8, 2011

I have my new civilian Trousers in the mail today. My hats off to Joe Blunt for this top shelf dapper set of trousers.

[Rmhisteach]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

I had fun How about you ???

[The Lonely Reenactor]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

I had a great time! The highlight for me was the saturday "Camp Jackson affair". There were quite a few 1st person moments encountered throughout the weekend as well that I enjoyed very much. One being four such fellows escorting a tremendous amount of coffee beans, trading about the populace for meager amounts of food. - Marty Rubin

[Rmhisteach]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

Good
- Cooking good Deutschen Schitzel with pards around the fire
- Asking for bounty in the Secesch camp.
- I seen them fellers with the beans too they sure were handsome gents.
- Great site with tons of it own history. The museum we toured was very cool .
- The look of alot of the troops was very good .
- The Weather was awesome !
- Experiencing a meaningful Commereration to a great and horrible day in the history of St. louis, Missouri and the US
Bad
- Not a consistant impression for the weekend
- Museum not open on sunday for us to visit
- Not getting Pickled okra or lemons from the secesch Volk .
Ugly
- My pards ha ha
- trying to find our camp when we got there on Friday at midnight
- Foam Bricks FLoatingat us

Thanks to all who organized this " first " of the 150th for most of us ! It was a memorable time .

[Irish Bill]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

The good: Snitzel!
The weather
Teaching the local public a but of local history
Returning stolen beans by trading
The kids on friday who were interested in history
Did I mention Snitzel!
The bad: kids who could care less about being there on Friday
Being called ugly by my pards

[Huck]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

Rod, did you get any bounty, I think not........

[Rmhisteach]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

Huck,

Despite all of our efforts , the Secesch were unwilling to give us any money to join up . In fact your company was going to charge us to become members of the militia. Ha HA good times .

[Campjacksonboy]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

Thanks guys thank you for helping make this happen.
Frank Aufmuth

[Old Cremona]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

Thank you, Frank, for making it happen. Thanks for hiring my band. I really enjoyed talking to the kids on Friday. They can't all be expected to be history fanatics like us, but they were reasonably interested in our music presentation.

The re-creation itself was pretty cool--I heard that over and over. For myself, seeing your daughter Megan lying with the civilian casualties shocked me at first--I got a little taste of what it must have been like.

[Horace]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

I enjoyed the hell out of this event and I learned alot.

Jefferson Barracks was a beautiful site. The camp was about a two minute walk from the Mississippi River. The adjuncters had a company street at the edge of the others.

On Saturday we labored through a brigade drill in the morning and later in the day, the mildly named Camp Jackson Affair was reenacted for the public. This was a unique event, in that hardly any shots were fired, and the audience had to pay attention to what was going on, rather than just watch a powder burner. As such, I thought there was way more drama and insight than what you'd get at a standard reenactment.

For myself, I wasn't clear beforehand on the details of the incident - being guilty of 'Eastern-itis' to a degree. So, parts of what happened were unexpected to me and made for some excellent period moments.

We, the adjuncters, were portraying a company band box rich kid soldiers, Co. A of the 1st Missouri State Militia, the 'Saint Louis Grays'. (Of course we were dressed in blue, just to keep it confusing.) We were pretty much laying around the campfire on our little militia weekend. Some other militia companies were drilling in a space in front of the camp area. Soon Federal troops were seen coming down a road, and cavalry with drawn pistols could be seen coming toward us in a skirmish line from another direction.

The company was ordered to fall in, and we watched things unfold from where we stood. Our view was obscured by tents and other militia units, the Union presence being at the other end of the field. We could hear a large prolongued chorus of shouted protest. I guessed that it came from the large crowd of modern spectators which had gathered, but it was coming from another large group of period civilian spectators who we couldn't see.

Frank Aufmuth, portraying General Daniel Frost the militia commander, rode forward to parlay with the Union commander, General Nathaniel Lyon. I have to say that Frank looked pretty dope riding forward in the tailored uniform and shako. I don't know who portrayed Lyon, but when looking at a picture of Lyon after the event, I realized that he was a dead ringer for the guy.

We, the 'Grays', were marched forward to the area where the other militia companies stood in formation. Now I could see the crowds of period civilians shouting their indignation. They were led by Marty Rubin, who was pacing back and forth in front of the crowd, waving and yelling at the Federal officers in a frenzy of anger.

We were ordered to stack arms and hang our accoutrements on the stacks. Shouts of indignation went up from our ranks, but we did it. (This is one of the things I didn't realize about this event historically. While the MSM had elements of Confederate sympathy, they were by and large just there for the anual drill they'd done for years.)

It dawned on us that we were surrendering to an alien force which had come out of nowhere and that we hadn't provoked in any way. We were marched off between armed Unionist guards. Just as we were starting down the road, a volley of shots was fired behind us. We either ran or fell to the ground as a herd of panicked civilians fled past us. I looked through the fleeing crownd and could see bodies on the ground, most of whom appeared to be civilians, including women. Wow.

We were marched a quarter mile or so to a building enclosed by a high stone wall. As we were entering thre gates we saw 'General Lyon' who told us "Sleep tight, boys!" and was answered with a chorus of go-to-hells.

Reenacting this massacre/affair drove home for me what a tragedy this was, and how it couldn't have set the stage in a worse way for the tragedies to come, turning Missouri into the 'War Within the State'. Many Missourians swore revenge for this act of disarming the militia and firing into a crowd of unarmed citizens. Many of the Unionists who disarmed the militia were German immigrants, which brought anti German sentiment in the state to a homicidal pitch - all of this three weeks into the war.

As I've said, this was heady, complex stuff to reenact. It was a great idea to do it. Frank Aufmuth, the chief organizer, ran into alot of bureaucracy and indifference in putting it together. He told me afterward that he thought maybe the spectators should have had someone explain what was about to occur. I don't know. If anyone was confused about any of it, hopefully they went home and looked it up. I definitely think this was an excellent demonstration of living history which drew in the spectators and provoked thought, which is quite rare.

Once we'd been 'released' from confinement we headed back to camp and went back into 'pre massacre' mode with the usual campfire shenanigans. Carl Anderton played the banjo, with Kyle 'Cuffy' Pretzl on bones. They were joined at various times over the weekend by two fiddlers whose names I didn't get. Overall, it was the best period music I've heard. It wasn't quaint or old timey. It was on. If these guys have a record, I'll buy it.

On Sunday, those adjuncters who'd stuck around participated in a reenactment of a battle that occured a couple of months after Camp Jackson. Pretty standard farb battle on a different field, portraying citizen militia. We got to function as skirmishers, which helped a little, and we brought in our wounded which might have added a little realism to the otherwise miraculous 100% kill ratio that happens at these gigs.

My thanks to everyone involved, and for the help I got, especially with loaner stuff. This was a worthwhile event and a great time.

Below are images of a fairly accurate portrayal of a member of the St. Louis Grays, and some post event retardedness. They're running in reverse order for some reason.

[Huck]

Re: Camp Jackson, April 29-May 1, 2011

Nice photos horace....................