The First Pennsylvania Regiment

I am suspicious of reenactors. I have a problem with people trying to replicate the past. I don’t think it can be done, and I don’t see the point in it anyway. Recreating a battle in a modern world, and getting obsessive about little details like footwear, buttons, and using the right material in clothing does not make me feel closer to the past. For me it makes me feel like there is less continuity in history that the people of the past were radically different from all of us dwelling in the present. Still reenacting is extremely popular, and there must be a reason for it. Maybe it gives people a sense of history that they did not once have. Maybe it makes them feel more connected to a past that was once something intangible and worse incomprehensible. Maybe in this world of globalization, mass media, and mass culture, it makes them feel like they are carrying on cultural traditions that are really unique against a world where little else is.
These are the feelings and thoughts I had when I observed the First Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment hold their monthly target practice at the homestead on Sunday. The men were very personable, they invited me to stand close by while they shot, and several talked to me for about an hour answering all the questions I had. Unfortunately I forgot my camera that day, so you’ll just have to be content to imagine the men in their colonial garb with their muskets and rifles.
First things first, what is the First Pennsylvania? They’re a group of volunteers who get dressed up and shoot guns just for the fun of it. They participate in a lot of battle reenactments, and they get around. They’ll be in Maryland in a few weeks and at Washington’s Crossing next weekend. All of the men I talked to were very mellow, and no one seemed to be younger than forty. There was not a lot of the bravado and machismo that I expected from a group of younger men. These guys were doing it for the sheer enjoyment of it. They have a leader, who they called a commander, who was running the target practice as far as I could tell (all this included when I was there was telling the shooters when the range was closed because they were checking targets). I did not get a sense of the rest of the organization of the group from the time I spent with them. I don’t know if they have any other officers, or who they are if they did.
The men in the First Pennsylvania were very concerned with shooting traditional weapons in a traditional manner. Some of them make their own led balls, and they were dressed in full colonial garb just for target practice. The men I talked to were very knowledgeable about their weapons, and they explained to me at length the difference between the rifle and the musket. (I still don’t really understand what the difference is though! I’m just a girl). When I interjected with a commonly held notion that the Americans were the ones with the rifles and that’s why they were able to beat the British in battle they corrected me. The middle colonies had the rifles, but in New England the musket was typically used. However, they did show me why a rifle is so much more accurate than a musket. The barrel of the rifle is grooved and it makes the ball spin when it is shot, and this makes the ball go in a straighter line. They let me touch the riles and even offered to let me shoot them (I declined).
Overall my experience with the First Pennsylvania Regiment was an informative one. I still think reenactors are trying to connect with a past and a culture that they feel is lacking from their day to day lives, but is that really such a bad thing? The men of the First Pennsylvania Regiment were very knowledgeable, even more so than me, and I’m the academic. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I am going to join a reenacting club, but I do think that it is possible to learn a lot from this phenomenon called reenacting.