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AFTER-ACTION REPORTS:
Hickory Landmark (April 23-24, 2009)
Excerpt from: VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 THE REGIMENTAL DISPATCH Generated by Foxit PDF Creator © Foxit Software http://www.foxitsoftware.com
We met their onslaught and won the day!!! On Thursday, April 23rd and Friday, April 24th, 2009 about 17 members of the 49th NCT and Soldiers Relief Society participated in the Hickory Landmark event at the beautiful and Historic Maple Grove House in Hickory, NC.
During the event, we introduced approximately 1100 students from surrounding schools to Civil War life. Included in the tour stations were:
1)The Captain's tent where the students were able to see flags from the war as well as home life for the civilian population; 2) Various foods and cooking methods that soldiers would use; 3) Camp life (or the vice area as the 1st Sergeant put it); 4) The Chaplain showed the young people how important religion was to the 19th century person; 5) The Surgeon tent was probably the second favorite area because the children loved being freaked out by the surgery demonstration; 6) Students were shown uniforms and equipment of the Civil War soldier; 7) Probably the most popular area of the day was the weapons display and demonstration. They really loved seeing all the old rifles, muskets and pistols. But the firing demonstrations were really enjoyed!!!! 8) We also had period music as Minstrel Boyles strolled around the grounds with his fiddle. He had a Name That Tune session with me and Steven (which I lost miserably).
Overall the students were well behaved and seemed to be very interested in all the historical demonstrations!
Besides us, there were Cherokee Indians, Spanish Conquistadors, a horse drawn hearse, Beekeepers, and more.
We would highly recommend this event to everyone. It is so much fun to show young people how they lived in the 19th century and how different soldiering was during that time.
Respectfully,
Pvt. Tony Hancock
Latta Plantation - Living History (May 2-3, 2009)
Excerpt from: VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 THE REGIMENTAL DISPATCH Generated by Foxit PDF Creator © Foxit Software http://www.foxitsoftware.com
The Living History event at Latta Plantation near Huntersville, NC took place on Saturday, May 2nd and Sunday, May 3rd, 2009. If you have never been to Latta, you have missed a really beautiful place. It's hard to believe such a place can exist so close to a city as big as Charlotte.
This event was different in that we performed in 1st person. If any of you don't know what that means, we all became someone from the 49th during the war. In this case, it was May, 1863. If you want to know who each of us played, you need to ask individually because I could barely keep straight that I was Abraham Nash and Steven was my son Wiley. A little poetic license was taken, because the Nashes were actually brothers from Rowan County who enlisted in March, 1862 and were with the 49th through the rest of the war.
About 16 of us performed for approximately 300 visitors. In addition to camp life, folks were treated to live firing demonstrations as well as some actually getting to fire the weapons.
And yes, some of us got court martialed. Apparently myself and three others went out on "picket duty" and some gunfire occurred. In the melee, one of the Albright brothers was wounded in the head.
After much shouting and a trip to the surgeon, we were placed under guard pending an investigation (where a lot more shouting occurred). The investigation turned up only a bottle of hooch and no sign of Yankees anywhere. After the Captain finished his lunch (and an escape attempt failed), we were ushered (or is that sacheted) to the shadiest area there (no less for the Captain) and proceeded with the court martial.
Apparently what happened was the brothers fought over the bottle of hooch and we all fired off a few rounds to make it look like a Yankee attack. I think we were set up, because the bottle in question looked strangely like one the 1st Sergeant had earlier.
The good Captain after due deliberation (i.e. a few seconds) sentenced the Albright brothers to Rail Time (that is not a misspelling) and the Nashes were put on report.
This is another highly recommended site to attend because we had a great time and the place is beautiful.
Respectfully (especially to Captain Hopping or whatever your name was during the weekend),
Pvt. Tony Hancock
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