For the Beginning Reenactor, Before You Buy a Thing! by Paul Calloway

[BenjaminLDavis]

My two cents worth: this was something of a trip down memory lane, been in the hobby about 11 years
and was fortunate enough to fall in with a band of rogues who steered me to the quality stuff right off
and it has served me well (aside from resale on authentic, nobody has mentioned the durability of quality
made garments and traps ~ this is possibly more important if you plan to stay in the hobby and USE this
in the field. The cheap stuff falls apart. I still use all of the clothes I started with, except for one RD II that
got too tight on me, sold it to a good pard in my mess.
Hats ~ Tim Bender or Greg Starbuck. Cannot go wrong with either. Measure your head ACCURATELY,
not tight or loose, and you will get a good fit.

[cprljohnivey]

I learned that S&S sutler will be carrying Tim Allen hat soon. Contact Tim for details.

[Canebrake Rifle Guards]

Yes- S & S Sutler has Tim Allen hat, Paul Smith caps, and Greg Starbuck kepis.

Greg Starbuck

[Archie R. Lib]

Great information. I am a pretty "fresh fish" to this end of the hobby and this is really helpful. I wish I would have found this sooner.

Guess I need to practice my "search the forum" skills.

Thanks Paul.

[The Chesterfield Rifleman]

I made the mistake of not reading before buying, so now I have all this Made in Pakistan clothing and blankets filling up my closet. I've finally started to read before buying a certain article of clothing, although I mostly window shop anyways. I am currently writing down all I know in Microsoft Word and printing articles off the forum so I can look back on them when the time comes. Thanks to all who took the time to research, write and post all the articles and links.


Also, I have not been able to find the Southern Guard's website anywhere. Did they sell their domain or did they split?

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Southern Guard...
Sadly, their website is no more. There was a lot of great information there!

[dixieflyer]

James,
Long ago and far away, back in the old days, before the dark times, in the days of the old Republic . . . I took two three ring binders with me to events, and kept them in my truck. One was all of my documentation for my impression, i.e.: images of original uniforms & accoutrements, articles and other written documents, etc. (Understand, this was well before the interwebs.) The other one contained articles I photo-copied and notes I made in case I ran across something I wanted, but wasn't sure about. A combination of the two, even in electronic format for today's modern campaigner, might serve you well for this before you venture down a dark alley on sutler row.

[Philip cav]

I usally carry maybye 1-5 pages of documention on items. Most of the time they are hand written by me from books and well established web sources. Since you mentioned sutler's row, Elizabeth Clark has a download on 5 questions to ask a sutler before you even think about buying an item. It is on the sewing Academy website.

[The Chesterfield Rifleman]

So did they split or is the website just done?

Thanks Warren for the advice. I already have 10 pages done on my Gettysburg Impression. I am now focusing on finding lots of books and articles. Any help is welcome.

[dixieflyer]

James,
The best advice I can give you, as far as doing Federal is concerned, especially AoP, is to obtain a copy of the Columbia Rifles Research Compendium. If you can't find a copy, see if a pard will make you a copy. It's chock full of hours of research fun. I was just telling a pard the other day if everyone would just aspire to what is in those pages, we'd all be a lot better off in the hobby.

I saw your request for book suggestions, but 90+% of my research is on the Western Theater, so I don't think I have anything for you there.