SCVi Living History Day

After much preparation, the living history day at the kid's school finally arrived.  We were heavily involved this year.  Not only was Ben's class involved, so Shannon made a costume for Ben, but Matt also attended as a 1860's civilian photographer so Shannon made a costume for him as well. We also made tin soldiers for the Sutlery, a Steam Cannon for demonstration, and Matt brought several of his black powder guns for the teachers to use.  The event was held at Ranch Camulos near Fillmore.

Ben's costume came out great.  Shannon made the pants, jacket, and haversack. The belt, buckle and hat were ordered on line through a Civil War sutler.

There was a great turn out for the event.

There was also a local news station attending. They captured photos and video some of which you can see here.    (Thanks to Rene Bowen for this photo)

The mock battles contained both union and confederate forces. 

Matt used his 1930's Graflex 4x5 press camera as a pseudo civil war camera. We are not yet ready to try out wet plate photography so we were shooting ISO 100 4x5 sheet film. 

We brought black powder guns for the teachers to use.  Here's Matt giving an overview of an 1800's 

style Kentucky Long Rifle.  (Thanks to Rene Bowen for this photo)

Ben got to launch the steam cannon.  (Thanks to Rene Bowen for this photo)

For the most part, only percussion caps were used, no powder. However there was one demonstration of "shooting a deserter" where powder was used to show the sound of rifles. 

Here's the amazing middle school teachers involved in the event. 

Here's a few more photos of the encampments, hospital, and such.  The event was really well coordinated and organized with much to see. 

Tin Soldiers and other 18th Century Past Times

The whole family has been working on demonstrations for the  SCVi Civil War Reenactment.  Ben's 8th grade class is organizing it so he has been heavily involved.  Here's a few of the activities.

Tin Soldiers

Ben and dad have been working on making Tin Soldiers. Some of the participants will be attending as Sutlers and our contribution is to make period toys; specifically, these metal soldiers.

The solders above started out as two blocks of tin.

The block is melted in a pot. and then scooped into a ladle. Everything is done outside to allow for plenty of ventilation.

The molds are made of a hard silicon rubber or from aluminum.  You would think the rubber would melt, but it does just fine. 

Molds are carefully clamped to make sure they don't leak.

Metal is poured into the mold. This is the aluminum mold. 

 When the mold is opened, the solder can be removed. There's always some extra bits to cut off.

Ben's Uniform

Ben has been assigned to "fight" on the side of the Confederacy for the battle reenactment portion of the event.  He is responsible for putting together a uniform. Of course, we could have just gone to Goodwill and cobbled together something from old clothes. Though, since Shannon loves to sew, she his building one from scratch.  Here's how it looks currently.

Shannon made the sleeve rank from scratch as well based on a photograph in a history book.  It looks identical to the period stripes.

Shannon had to hand sew the stripe on the pants.

We still need to pull together a belt, hat, and some buttons as well as some other details.

Steam Cannon

Ben was assigned to make a demonstration of the "Power of Steam".  Steam was used to power much of 19th century technology.  This one uses an electric hot plate to boil water in a Sig bottle. Opening the valve releases the steam and launches a Ping Pong ball.

Matt's Costume

Matt will be attending the event as a civilian photographer. He'll be using his 1930's Graflex Press Camera to try and make tintypes of the event.  We won't be using the exact same process that was used at the event, but we'll still be closer than what you'd have with a modern camera.  It should provide an interesting photographic challenge.  Shannon made a suit for this as well.  Here's a few photos of the suit and Ben modeling it.