If you want to start reenacting or just want to explore the hobby, my advice is to join one of the better Revolutionary War regiments. Whether you choose to be Contential, Militia; or, for the stout of heart, British is more about who you are and what you want to learn. For me it was all in. I joined the 43rd Regiment of Foot.
Yes, we have an alter ego, 2nd Pennsylvania, but lets be honest, we’re Redcoats. We’re mean, we’re an effective force that dominates any event we attend, and we’re highly authentic and professional in our comportment. In other word, we ARE the British army in NE Pennsylvania and everyone either loves us or hates us. We’re okay with that.
My son found the 43rd. Turns out, we were attending an event in Sturbridge, Massachusetts that included a Revolutionary War battle reenactment. This was a BIG event with multiple units from literally all over the USA. He was transfixed and told us that this was what he really wanted to do. “Okay, go find out how.” Well, when we returned to Philadelphia, he was still determined and did quite a lot of research eventually concluding that the 43rd Regimement was the best place to start, so we joined.
“We” joined, because you see, minors can only carry muskets with parental supervision. But this was a great Father/Son experience. It involves study and academic mastery, a fair degree of atheleticism, and offers opportunities for leadership and public speaking. We learned together to shoot our muskets (easy) and to march and maneuver in the line (hard). Over the years, we developed and perfected (sort of ) our persona as His Magesties soldiers and got to attend some really cool events like the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, Occupation of Williamsburg, and the battle of Oneota in NY.
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Michael Carver -- Historical Interpreter/Reenactor 