ROSCOMMON – The Third Battery, 1st Michigan Light Artillery unit hosted its 4th Annual Civil War Encampment Reenactment Sept. 9-11 at the Roscommon Fire Training Grounds.
‘There are other reenactment groups besides ours, but we come together as one big group to have fun,’ Dale Shantz, corporal of the Third Battery, said.
The group reenacts the civil war by having skirmishes and cannon shoots. The reenactors wore costumes of the 1800s consisting of old fashioned dresses, and American soldier costumes representing both the North and the South. They cooked food outside over an open fire, chopped wood for the fire and completed other old fashioned tasks.
‘One group that’ here is the Michigan Living History Education Association (MLHEA),’ Becky Shantz, one of the reenactors, said.
‘We have 112 members, all over Michigan,’ Dennis Spiekeran, an 1820 Soldier reenactor from Unionville said.
‘We do several reenactments a year; this is our second year as reenactors at the Roscommon Fire Training Grounds.’
Due to the rain, the planned cannon shootings were difficult to do on time.
‘We were able to shoot at dusk on Saturday, and then we had a beautiful day on Sunday afternoon and fired four shots,’ Dale Shantz said.
Roscommon Boy Scout Troop 944 has assisted each year.
‘Roscommon Troop 944 scouts helps us out with our reenactment and we help them with their Spring Jamboree,’ Shantz said.
Sunday church services were held around the campfire, officiated by Dale Shantz, a Lay Minister.
‘Church in the Arbor means church in the fields, but we have an old fashioned service,’ Shantz said.
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