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In his futuristic novel, George Orwell predicted a totalitarian society where people lived like drones lacking the freedom of expression and always afraid of Big Brother watching over all. The government will control the electronic media and propaganda will be spoon fed to the masses. (Mr. Orwell might have been off the mark by about 20 years).
It is my opinion (and I challenge anyone to disagree) that the year 1984 was the greatest year to be a reenactor in the Trans-Mississippi area, and in particular and most importantly it was the greatest year for the Holmes Brigade. Nearly every event in 1984 was marked by an incident or incident's which are still talked about today and have become part of Holmes Brigade folklore bordering on legendary status. To be sure, Holmes Brigade has been part of other exciting events since 1984: the 125th anniversary battles and several movies, but with few exceptions many of these events did not leave as lasting an impression as the events conducted during the year 1984. Allow me to list the events of '84 and debate me whether or not this was the finest year: Camden Point, Makanda, Fort Scott, Brice's Crossroads, Athens, Jeff City, Tipton, Levasy, Roscoe,and Prairie Grove.
Before discussing the events of 1984 I should mention that during the off season, the winter months of '83/'84, Higgy and John Maki came to me with the notion that we form a Mexican War infantry unit. Already about a half dozen boys from the Kansas City area were interested. We would purchase uniforms and accoutrements and portray US Regular Infantry soldier's doing living history at Fort Scott, KS or Fort Osage near Sibley, MO. I will discuss in more detail the Mex War years in a separate chapter, but the reason I give a brief note of it now is because just prior to the '84 season, I purchased an 1841 Mississippi rifle from Skip Merriman (I planned on adding this weapon to my Mex War impression). I brought the Mississippi rifle to the Camden Point event.
At a site just a little north of the actual 1864 skirmish site in Platte County, about 80 men and 20 women and children gathered. Some came from Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Colorado, but most from Missouri and Kansas. On Saturday, we had a generic battle in which the Federals, under my command, got spanked. (I think Higgy had to work at the fire station and I was top sergeant at the event. Paul Rosewitz was our other sergeant in attendance and neither one of us knew much about drill and tactics, except what we read in HARDEE'S. I had boys in line of battle, firing volleys at "johnny", but when pressed I became befuddled and ordered a general retreat. We were shot down like dogs. I lay curled in a fetal position with a pocket derringer, but when I attempted to fire it at an approaching "johnny", it failed to go off and I was rewarded for my folly with a blow to the kidneys.) We also had a musket loading/firing competition, but since I only brought the 2 banded Mississippi, and everyone else had 3 banded muskets, I was excluded from the contest.
On July 13, 1864, pro-southern citizens of Platte County hosted a picnic for Colonel John C. (Coon) Thornton and some 200-300 Confederate recruits. Word of this gathering had reached the ears of Federal troops stationed in Fort Leavenworth and Liberty. Cavalry detachments from the 2nd Colorado (under Colonel J.H.Ford) as well as the 15th Kansas (under Colonel Charles 'Doc' Jennison) arrived on the scene just as speeches were concluded. The federals had also brought two horse drawn mountain howitzers and fired a round or two over the heads of the startled crowd. Then "hooting and hollering" like cowboys on a Saturday night, the Federals scattered the lot and ran the Confederate's out of the county.
In recreating this day, we only had 8 mounted men. These were members of Shelby's who agreed to put on the blue for this event. Beside the carbine rifle and saber, they also carried several pistols apiece which they seemed more than happy to discharge during the course of the reenactment. The rest of us were "dismounted", a few of us carrying pocket pistols as well.
The following is a romanticized version of actual events written by Acting First Sergeant Bob Talbott: "Men, women, and children had spread blankets on the lawn and were dining from large baskets of goodies. As happened in the original fight, the howitzer's vomited thick clouds of gun smoke towards the unsuspecting picnickers. The federals advanced; those of us on foot in a ragged skirmish line firing independently at anything that moved. The mounted boys rode rings around the secessionist's, pistols popping in the air. In the frenzy to escape the blood thirsty red legs, picnic baskets were upset, wine was spilled, women fainted, babies cried. The recently appointed recruits ran in eight directions at once, some looking for a musket stack. Any attempt's at heroism on the part of these men was met swiftly by a little blue bullet. One burly recruit, Roger Johnson, had come armed with a guitar and during the picnic had been serenading the tender hearts with ballads such as 'I'm a Good Ol' Rebel.' He was chased by a couple of mounted red legs until he fell into the creek. Some of the Federals paused to plunder the abandoned picnic lunches, like Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo, to find chicken legs, pies, and bottles of wine which was shared by all. The secessionist women seemed of firmer spirit than the men. Though unarmed, they hurled venom and wrath at the invaders till their faces turned red and the veins stood out on their foreheads. Cutthroats they may have called us, but we were not murderer's of women. Instead several of these women were violated in that they lost some of their personal clothing. A bonnet was plucked from the head of a elder women by a cavalryman and tied to the head of his own horse. Another had stolen the pantaloons from a lady who'd fainted and was waving them like a battle flag. Higginbotham had returned after working at the fire station the day before and was involved in the most heinous act of all. While most of the boys were plundering picnic basket's or shooting wounded prisoner's, Hig snatched a little baby girl and ran off with her. Never mind that it was his own daughter, Hillari. There was such a cry of outrage from the people in the spectator area, I'll bet some of them would have jumped the barricade to go chase him down. 'HE STOLE THAT WOMAN'S BABY!' "History records that Confederate Colonel C. C. (Coon) Thornton was in such great haste to vacate the county, he dropped that flag given to him by the townspeople and it was captured by the 2nd Colorado Cavalry. It now sits in the Colorado Historical Society. Following the action on July 13, 1864, the Federals further chastised the disloyal citizens of Camden Point by burning down their town. To paraphrase Klaatu from the classic SCI-FI movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still, "JOIN US AND LIVE IN PEACE, CONTINUE YOUR TRAITOROUS WAYS AND THIS TOWN OF YOURS WILL BE REDUCED TO A BURNT-OUT CINDER!"