Birney's officer commands post-Gettysburg event

I wanted to give you all a heads up on a new event that I have decided to assist with this year. The Battle of Williamsport was the last act of the Gettysburg Campaign for the ANV and AoP. There is much support for this from the locals and the NPS and appears to have a lot of perks connected with it. Proceeds are going to a very worthy case and I believe we can all have a lot of fun with this as well as doing a great job in interpretation for this very important final to the Gettysburg Campaign.

I have taken on the Federal overall command for the event to be held at Williamsport, MD July 13th-15^th and believe we can do an effect job of portraying the history of this pivotal event in history. And have a great time doing it! The amenities and perks are very attractive here. A meal Saturday night as well as a period barn dance. Running water sinks and showers (well concealed in a very period looking building) pool time, and a busy but interesting schedule.

We will be hashing out the final details for the event but below is a schedule of what is planned. Give this due consideration, something new for all of us. I visited this event last year as an observer and saw a lot of potential.

Here's a quick schedule of reenactor events. Friday from noon until ? units sign in and set up camp w/ no activities planned. Saturday: Camps open at 9 and speakers begin at 10. The first fight is scheduled to start at 11ish and will be the right flank portion of the Battle of Williamsport July 6th 1863 involving the 21st VA and the Wagoner's/Company Q that saved Williamsport. For the rest of the day I would like to offer different types of demonstrations at Springfield farm i.e. inf/cav/art/camp cooking/etc. Living histories. There will be an appreciation dinner for the reenactors and helpers at 5 PM. We're tossing around the idea of doing an evening fight at 7 o'clock but that's still in the air and then there's a barn dance at 8:30 (this was a blast last year) on Sunday we'd like to do a period church service along w/ the community churches sometime around 9. At 10 the NPS does an interpretive march down the C and O Canal to the Falling Waters crossing site. This is a nice walk but after you do it once you've normally gotten your fill. This is where the NPS works with us because they give us a little $ and a little advertising but the town is always working with the C and O Canal so this year I don't have much of a choice. The NPS REALLY wants soldiers to march along with the visitors and then they want to put on some kind of a "skit" when the visitors reach the point they want about a dozen CSA to be running towards the river while a couple Union soldiers are firing shots at them from a distance. I think it's somewhat lame but this is what they want. My answer to that request has always been that I'll try to get volunteers to participate but I can never guarantee their involvement. Troy thinks we can get some guys to do the March for the skit but the NPS promises that as soon as they do their skit they'll be on the first bus to get them back to Williamsport for the last reenactment that will be at 2 on Sunday afternoon. My goal is to have the event complete no later than 4 PM. So, the boys can fight it out for a bit, come back and chill a bit, and then pack it up and go home. I hope that this doesn't sound to intense but hopefully it will be a lot of fun for the reenactors, our guests, and US!

The CSA forces at Williamsport consists of 3^rd and 10^th ANV, Troy Fallon and Tony Morgan the former and the latter. A decent size force for this event.

Also, there are bounties!

$100 for any company fielding 20 armed infantry

$150 for every company of 6 armed and mounted Cavalry

$150 for every staffed full scale piece of Artillery (FYI we already have 2 if not 4 full scale pieces coming from the Artillery Reserve) but we always could use more.  

Again, I see this as a very unique opportunity to do something a little different and hope that you will give this due consideration. Registration information is on the Schedule page at www.birneysdivision.org.  

D. Rohrbaugh, Colonel, Commanding
1^st Battalion, Birney's Division