Monday, September 13, 2010

First Call! Cold Harbor

The next major Birney's Division Civil War reenactment will be Cold Harbor, held on October 2-3, 2010 in Perryopolis, PA. This event is held on a wonderful piece of ground and features period buildings, trenches and breast works. One of the highlights is the motion-picture scale pyrotechnics.

All Federal units who plan to attend should relay the following to the specified personnel.

1. Name of unit attending.
2. Number of military personnel.
3. Will you have an officer or NCO in charge?

Units within, or participating with, these battalions should email the requested information to:

1st Battalion: Lt Col Rohrbaugh - cpldlr160@comcast.net
2d Battalion: Lt Col Smith - clsmith@5thohio.com

Artillery and Cavalry units should send information to Capt Murphy - ltmurph54th@yahoo.com

More information on the reenactment can be found on the Events page at http://www.birneysdivision.org/

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Ft. Sumter garrison event 2011

I have been contacted by Mike Doyle of FVB/1st Federal Division concerning the Fort Sumter garrison in Charleston, SC next April to kick-off the 150th ACW Anniversaries. Mike is one of the national coordinators for this event.

Lord willing, I am signed up as duty Bugler for this event and plan to attend with 3rd DV Field Music.

There will be a very limited command structure there, with highest rank for Company H being probably a First Lt. which will be filled by Mike Doyle and/or General Baldwin's Staff. I however, would still be on site as an advocate for Birney's interests.

We currently have about 24 signed up for this and the goal is 50. When the 50 goal is reached any remaining interested parties will be put on a back-up roster to fill in for anyone that is unable to attend. There will be two companies, Co. H and E as historically to total 100 men as it was in 1861 with Colonel Anderson.

I have included the correspondence from Mike explaining the details and the link for the uniform and equipment requirements, which I think are very liberal for this event...the goal should to meet the highest standards they have listed for this type of immersion event...IMHO

We will be guests of the NPS and they will be handling boat transport to and from Sumter as well as providing the rations.

Let me know if you are interested so I can keep a tally of Birney's personnel and contact Mike as well so no one is missed, but do so without delay. After Birney's has a shot at attending, it will be opened up to the other orgs... USV, National Regiment... etc...

Any questions, contact me.

Best regards,
D. Rohrbaugh, Lieut. Col.
1st Battalion Birney's Division


(this was sent to FVB 1st)

Gentlemen,

This is my first email contact with you as a group. It is a partial list of those who want to attend and I will be adding names as I get their email addresses.

Registration will be opening up very soon for Fort Sumter and I want us to be the first to get on the list.

Once the 50 man total for company H has be achieved the registration will be closed.

We will be occupying the fort from Sunday, April 10th until Thursday, April 14th.

Please get the word out to everyone who you think or know may be interested in attending this unique event with us. Please have them email me at this email address or call me at 410-549-6125. Time is of the essence!

I've attached the website of U.S. Regs. and standards for you to review. http://www.zipcon.net/~silas/sumterstandards.htm

After we have all registered, there will be a meeting scheduled to answer any questions and share information with the group. We will plan to have work shops to get our uniforms and accoutrements together and to help others who are interested in making their own items.

For those of us who can't attend the meetings or workshops, detailed notes will be taken and emailed out to you.

This is a once in a life time event and it kicks off the 150th commemorations of the Civil War across our nation. I can't think of a more honorable and exciting way to participate in the 150th's then to be a part of this very unique event.

Thank you,
Mike Doyle

Expanded features on the Division News page

A few months ago, our organization launched a new website that would be able to keep up with changing information. Today, we have expanded a few of the services on the Division News page to include the following:

- Easier to read posts.
- A search box that will allow you to find information faster.
- A data polling box which will enable members to respond to various questions.
- The ability to a Division News to your RSS reader.

We look forward to your feedback and hope to continue to add more functions in the future.