Birdsboro, PA 2008 - Part 5 - The Battle

After lunch the boys had a battle. First all the colonists formed up in the field behind our tents, and the coordinators came around in their orange shirts and checked all the guns for safety.



While the calvary looked on to make sure their troops were doing as they were told.



The First New Hampshire had a small turn out of guys this time, only four! But they joined up with some other small groups and all together they were rearing to go battle some British!



There was actually a strong showing of colonists overall. Because this was a Continental Line event, we saw groups all the way from Virginia. Usually we don't see them at the events we do, because it's too far for them to travel to our events and we don't travel to theirs (though we will be doing another Continental Line event in VA this year). So it was neat to see colonist groups from NH to VA, and all points in between.



After the safety checks, it became just like the modern military, hurry up and wait.

They brought their guns up ...



Then they brought their guns down ...



Then they finally headed off to battle.



Oh and it wouldn't be a post about the Daniel Boone experience without mentioning some more about the mud! Here's a bit of what our captain had to say about it:

Just a quick note to intrepid few that made the trip to Boons. Never in all my years have I ever seen that much deep mud. Flanders field in France was the only one that could have surpassed it.

I literally had 2 inches of red clay mud caked on the bottom of my petticoat. Lindsay took this picture for me as we were headed out to watch the battle.



The battle started with some fighting going on around this little house. I didn't get any pictures of that part, because we decided to set ourselves down in front of the lower field to make sure we could get some good pictures and videos of the guys.



The colonists pushed the British past the house and into the lower field.



I got some pictures and video of a group of loyalists, who were the first into the field, but I wasn't sure who they were, so I asked if anyone knew when I posted the video on YouTube. I got a response from lgrzerostr:

It's the Jagers!! loyal to King and Country! HUZZA!! (there are umlauts over that a in Jager)Signed "a happy lobsterback"







Eventually all the British moved down into the lower field and they were handing out some good volleys to the colonists.





The Indians joined in the battle and were seen ducking in and out of the bushes, putting up a good fight.



Once the colonists were in the field completely, our guys were right up front, which was great. Most times I have a hard time getting good pictures of them because they always seem to be towards the back side of the field. Our captain had a few things to say about the battle as well.

We also had a battle, that turned out well. We captured a gun position, that went over well with the attending British commander. After the battle he conceded he never expected that to happen. It was done safely and swiftly. Stunned would be a good explanation.

Unfortunately I missed that part, so I don't have any pictures of it, but I did get a fun series of pictures that shows each step of them lowering their guns to shoot at the British across the field.





















And here is a picture of what they were shooting at.



I also was able to capture a few videos of the action:





After a short break ...



The boys started to move forward.







Pushing the British even farther back ...





Overall it was a great battle, probably one of the better ones I have seen. They were nice and close to the audience in the field and we really got a good view of all the action.

To see all the photos from the Saturday battle, click here.

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel