Confederate In Blue

Category: tips

  • How to Become a Reenactor Part 1

    Everything written here are my sole opinions and observations and do not represent the opinions or observations of anyone else or any organization With the reenacting season now over, I thought it a good idea to find something to keep this blog going for the off-season.  Here and there I’ve been asked the question, “How…

  • Analysis of Wingless Dynamit Nobel Caps

    Performed at Fort Wayne, Indiana July 15, 2012 At the Fort Wayne event Zack Carte and I tested out the Dynamit Nobel wingless percussion caps that can commonly be found at sutlers.  They have the appeal of being significantly cheaper than the normal RWS or CCI caps, so several of us have been curious to…

  • Restoring the Camp Chairs

    It was at Nelsonville 2011 that I first tried to use my new camp chairs, pictured above.  I found out in a hurry that the fabric was questionable at best—the fabric on three of the chairs quickly tore after only a few minutes of sitting in them. When I originally purchased them a couple of…

  • Analysis of Navy Arms Musket Caps

    I recently visit a gun show in Columbus, Ohio and stumbled onto a vendor (The Ammo-Man, http://www.ermcollc.com/, out of East Rochester, Ohio) selling Navy Arms musket caps for $20 for a tin of 250 caps.  Since this price is competitive with the RWS and CCI musket caps, I thought it prudent to test the caps…

  • Analysis of the new CCI 4-wing percussion caps for reenactors.

    All the sutlers at the Jackson, Michigan event last year that had percussion caps for sale sold the German RWS caps for about $12 for a can of 100 caps.  However, most of these sutlers also had the new CCI 4-wing percussion caps designed for reenactors at $10 for a can of 100—and one sutler…

  • Painting your accouterments and Ground Cloth

    I have Andrew Mott to thank for the following: Oilcloth and Painted Accoutermentsby Jack Cox “Painting” was a 1800’s method of waterproofing cloth for such items as knapsacks, haversacks, belts, cartridge boxes and ground cloths. Properly done, the fabric does become very waterproof, but retains its flexibility. There are many different recipes for both “period…

  • Rolling the Civil War Overcoat

    With the 150th anniversary of the first year of the Civil War coming, I’ve been getting things ready to campaign for one of the major battle re-enactments.  I stumbled onto the below, concerning rolling the great coat and thought I’d share the information. I tried it myself and it does work pretty well.  Below comes…

  • Period Dance 101

    With the season wound down, I can’t let my blog just sit dormant. Since I am a dance master (no matter how debatable that might be) I thought I’d give a brief primer to those who claim to have two left feet. After all, people of the Civil War era did not have television; they…