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Hey guys, as off topic as you can be, but my other hobby is dressing up as a Napoleonic French soldier for Living History/Reenactment

If it's your sort of interest, check out our Facebook page, as post a lot of content and reenactment GoPro footage on it

https://www.facebook.com/21emeLigne/

Cool stuff.

One of my old wargame muckers used to do this, as a Brit, though.

I suppose that is the European equivalent for Civil War reenactors. I've considered getting into it, but its a bit of an investment.

In the UK there are re-enactment societies for all sorts of time periods from Imperial Roman to WW2.

https://www.historic-uk.com/LivingHistory/ReenactorsDirectory/

There's even an American Civil War re-enactment group in the UK.

Are those full on wool uniforms? How do you deal with the heat?

I saw a civil war reenactment in East Texas. It was 95 degrees. dude!

People have died from heatstroke during Civil War reenactments. A lot of the ones in my area have moved their reenactments to earlier in the year because of it too.

I dabbled in a little ACW reenacting a few years back. Unfortunately the size of the group was rather small and they were kind of creepy (one of the guys who was in his mid-30s kept commenting on the looks of the middle/high school girls at one of the events we went to ).

I have wanted to do French-Indian War reenacting, though.

Speaking of injuries, you can also be like Michael Perry (of the Perry Twins) who lost his right hand in a cannon loading accident!

 Frazzled wrote:
Are those full on wool uniforms? How do you deal with the heat?

I saw a civil war reenactment in East Texas. It was 95 degrees. dude!

Yeah they're full wool, but the UK is generally much cooler. Its not so bad once you've sweated into it a bit, but you've just got to stay hydrated

Vive L'Empereur!

So what type of soldier are you? Voltigeur, Grenadier, or line Fusiler? (I'd be a line Dragoon myself if I reenacted, although I can't afford a horse.)

As for wool uniforms ... Yikes. Just thinking about ACW reenactment of Sherman's Georgia campaign in typical Southern humidity for that time of year. Hellish.

Line Fusilier, grunt infantry! There's far too many people out there who portray elite units and it just looks a bit odd. I'll have to find some pictures of me at some point. Have bought a GoPro, so looking forward to getting some cracking footage with it this year

We actually have a US company, there's loads of people interested in the US but there just doesn't seem to be the existing core out there

A while back I remember hearing about a guy that is an American Civil War reenactor who would literally travel hundreds of miles to do this several timer per year. He once made a detour to be part of a Revolutionary War reenactment, but just wore the same clothes and weapons as he did for the Civil War, LOL. Time traveling Rebels.

re: Elites. Human nature I'm sure, wanting to portray a Grenadier a Pied de La Garde Imperale, or Captain of the 42nd Black Watch as opposed to the average ground pounder.

re: US company. That's a surprise. The Napoleonic Wars are not really part of our heritage, so its more of an intellectual interest. The American Revolution and ACW have a more emotive heritage. Also, I live in California, and reenactment companies are thin here. A friend of mine was part of a Union ACW regiment, and there's a Imperial Roman Legion ( http://legionsix.org/ ), but the groups are small compared to the East & South, where the history took place.

Legion of Honor is a board game where players starting out as a young sergeant or sous-lieutenant trying to make it in life beginning in 1792. Assuming one survives, your characters career can go all the way to 1815.

 winnertakesall wrote:
Line Fusilier, grunt infantry! There's far too many people out there who portray elite units and it just looks a bit odd. I'll have to find some pictures of me at some point. Have bought a GoPro, so looking forward to getting some cracking footage with it this year

We actually have a US company, there's loads of people interested in the US but there just doesn't seem to be the existing core out there

Will check it out, sounds interesting.

Yeah, I actually probably get more general interest and inquiries about joining from the US than I do from the UK, but usually the distance puts them off. A fair few of the US guys actually fly over every few years, like for Waterloo 2015

I heard about Waterloo 2015 too, apparently a lot of Americans were on the French side.

It was wierd though as it said that the French were going to try to win... not really the point of a re-enactment surely!

I remember seeing a a few Civil War and Monmouth Rebellion renactments when I was younger and it did seem like fun, they even had us marching around with pikes in one of them.

I have been thinking about getting into re-enacting (80-years War specifically), but the historical outfits you need for it are kinda expensive.
Maybe when I finish my study and get a job (if that ever happens).

 Iron_Captain wrote:
I have been thinking about getting into re-enacting (80-years War specifically), but the historical outfits you need for it are kinda expensive.
Maybe when I finish my study and get a job (if that ever happens).

Generally, most groups will lend you equipment, and you slowly pick stuff up

 cuda1179 wrote:
A while back I remember hearing about a guy that is an American Civil War reenactor who would literally travel hundreds of miles to do this several timer per year. He once made a detour to be part of a Revolutionary War reenactment, but just wore the same clothes and weapons as he did for the Civil War, LOL. Time traveling Rebels.

Depending on what he wore, that might not be too realistic. Many Confederate soldiers, especially state militia, did not have access to full uniforms and wore just what they had lying around, often times just farmer's clothes. This is quite similar to how Revolutionary militia often looked, especially at the beginning of the war.

 ArcaneHorror wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
A while back I remember hearing about a guy that is an American Civil War reenactor who would literally travel hundreds of miles to do this several timer per year. He once made a detour to be part of a Revolutionary War reenactment, but just wore the same clothes and weapons as he did for the Civil War, LOL. Time traveling Rebels.

Depending on what he wore, that might not be too realistic. Many Confederate soldiers, especially state militia, did not have access to full uniforms and wore just what they had lying around, often times just farmer's clothes. This is quite similar to how Revolutionary militia often looked, especially at the beginning of the war.

Indeed. The standard "uniform" was just regular clothing-typically farmer clothing- dyed a brownish color from butternut. The early militias at the start had a variety of uniforms - including Union Blue (and inversely some Union uniforms were grey), but as time wore on volunteers just had what they had.

In a crowd of "militia" he would have fit right in.

I've done Viking, Jacobite, F/I Wars and general 18th century civilian. Health and finances has ended up putting a stop to it though.

infinite_array wrote:
I have wanted to do French-Indian War reenacting, though.

Don't make the mistake I saw at Crown Point when I visited one there. Fat pasty lard white guy in loin cloth portraying a ranger in native cloths. There was not an inch of colour to him, not even a tan line on his arms from wearing a t shirt. The thing that surprised me about reenactment in America is that they don't eat the food they cook on the fire, they just throw it away at the end of the day. Here in the UK everyone gathers to eat the food, it tastes so much better.

 Dr Coconut wrote:
I've done Viking, Jacobite, F/I Wars and general 18th century civilian. Health and finances has ended up putting a stop to it though.

infinite_array wrote:
I have wanted to do French-Indian War reenacting, though.

Don't make the mistake I saw at Crown Point when I visited one there. Fat pasty lard white guy in loin cloth portraying a ranger in native cloths. There was not an inch of colour to him, not even a tan line on his arms from wearing a t shirt. The thing that surprised me about reenactment in America is that they don't eat the food they cook on the fire, they just throw it away at the end of the day. Here in the UK everyone gathers to eat the food, it tastes so much better.

Well if I were in a civil war reenactment and someone made "sloosh" and thick coffee I would have eaten it. Sloosh was basically a fatty type of cornbread, like you would find on corndogs.
https://warontherocks.com/2016/02/foods-of-war-sloosh/

Give me that and good moonshine, and I'd be a happy duck!

 Dr Coconut wrote:
I've done Viking, Jacobite, F/I Wars and general 18th century civilian. Health and finances has ended up putting a stop to it though.

infinite_array wrote:
I have wanted to do French-Indian War reenacting, though.

Don't make the mistake I saw at Crown Point when I visited one there. Fat pasty lard white guy in loin cloth portraying a ranger in native cloths. There was not an inch of colour to him, not even a tan line on his arms from wearing a t shirt. The thing that surprised me about reenactment in America is that they don't eat the food they cook on the fire, they just throw it away at the end of the day. Here in the UK everyone gathers to eat the food, it tastes so much better.

tf, I didn't know they did that in the US, that's really weird.

I remember at an event here, seeing a guy portraying a Zulu, who'd just applied several layers of fake tan in an effort to make himself look less like he was from Somerset

 winnertakesall wrote:

 Dr Coconut wrote:
I've done Viking, Jacobite, F/I Wars and general 18th century civilian. Health and finances has ended up putting a stop to it though.

infinite_array wrote:
I have wanted to do French-Indian War reenacting, though.

Don't make the mistake I saw at Crown Point when I visited one there. Fat pasty lard white guy in loin cloth portraying a ranger in native cloths. There was not an inch of colour to him, not even a tan line on his arms from wearing a t shirt. The thing that surprised me about reenactment in America is that they don't eat the food they cook on the fire, they just throw it away at the end of the day. Here in the UK everyone gathers to eat the food, it tastes so much better.

tf, I didn't know they did that in the US, that's really weird.

I remember at an event here, seeing a guy portraying a Zulu, who'd just applied several layers of fake tan in an effort to make himself look less like he was from Somerset

One would have to be careful. In the US, that could be considered wearing blackface, and could have severe repercussions. But I don't think the UK has the same minstrel show / blackface racist history.

We don't really have a history of that, particularly in rural areas. You could turn up as a shoepolish Mr T (as I have seen) at a village party, and no one seems to care.

Unsurprisingly the su[per tanned Zulu wasn't very convincing. First event of the year next week though, looking forward to getting some good GoPro footage but having trouble hiding the camera

 winnertakesall wrote:

Unsurprisingly the su[per tanned Zulu wasn't very convincing. First event of the year next week though, looking forward to getting some good GoPro footage but having trouble hiding the camera

Are you wearing a hat of some kind?

You could hide it in that.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 winnertakesall wrote:

Unsurprisingly the su[per tanned Zulu wasn't very convincing. First event of the year next week though, looking forward to getting some good GoPro footage but having trouble hiding the camera

Are you wearing a hat of some kind?

You could hide it in that.

A very expensive French Shako, might try and make something that looks sorta similar.