Ft. McAllister Winter Muster Dec. 8-10, 2006

[Coatsy]

Robbie Mitchell and Joe Blunt are heading up the event and will be in charge of the companys.

https://www.mcallistermuster.org/

First off this is not the same old 1864 reenactment. This event will be portraying Christmas in 1863 that had an inspector visiting from Savannah and a Christmas Party for the men and officers. Both of these events are documented.

Info from the website:

Winter Muster 2006 will recreate the Forts Confederate Garrison as it was in December 1863 over a 24+ hour period.

Registration will be open from Noon until 11:00 PM on Friday December 8, 2006. The event will begin at reveille on Saturday December 9, 2006 and end at Noon on Sunday December 10, 2006.

A registration fee of $12.00, in advance, will be charged for your rations for the weekend. Please see the registration page for more details.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS NOVEMBER 24, 2006!

Event Scenario:

This years program will recreate the Confederate Garrison of Ft. McAllister as it was in December of 1863. Two garrison companies that were present at the fort during this period are being formed for this scenario:

Republican Blues, Co C, 1st Georgia (Capt. Robby Mitchell)
Co E, 63rd Georgia Infantry (Capt. Joe Blunt)
This program will recreate a weekend at Ft. McAllister including:

Various fatigue duties
Replacement of several palisades in the fort moat
Infantry drill
Artillery drill (field and siege)
Twenty-Four hour guard roatation (thanks Kevin)
Outpost duty on the river
Recreation of a Christmas Party sponsored by the Ladies of Savannah for the officers and enlisted men of the fort. (documented please see the research section)
Sunday morning inspection of the troops and garrison by the Inspector Generals Office. (documented please see the research section)
Period Church service

Regulations can be found here

https://www.mcallistermuster.org/guidelines.htm

Mr. Kiev Thomason let me know that there will be a post sutler as well and the Christmas Dinner is going to be a big deal since it was to the soldiers then.

The fort is a cool spot and there are not too many modern intrusions in the fort. And the ranger, Mr. Danny Brown is very recpetive towards the authentic minded programs.

[Coatsy]

Re: Ft. McAllister Winter Muster Dec. 8-10, 2006

Gents, now that Prelude to Chickamauga is over I'd like to remind you that there is still yet another Georgia event this December.

The website: www.mcallistermuster.org/

The regulations: www.mcallistermuster.org/guidelines.htm

This looks to be a great end of the year event and I hope you take it into consideration.

[trippcor]

Re: Ft. McAllister Winter Muster Dec. 8-10, 2006

Registration for this fine event closes on November 24 so now is the time to get those registrations in. For those that attended Prelude to Chickamauga and had a good time. This event is being put on by many of the same folks. It would be a great way to end the year.

[trippcor]

Re: Ft. McAllister Winter Muster Dec. 8-10, 2006

Only five more days left to register. This is a chance to do an event on the original ground. Plus it is just out side of Georgia's most historic City's. So come for the event and stay around to site see.

[BrianHicks]

Re: Ft. McAllister Winter Muster Dec. 8-10, 2006

Click on the thumbnail image to see a larger version.

[gcstanley]

Re: Ft. McAllister Winter Muster Dec. 8-10, 2006

To all those who attended, a deep heart felt thank you for a most rememberable and never forgettable event.

From the headaches of organizing this event, to the eye openings reality of being a post adjutant, and having all my paperwork inspected at the event, to seeing old friends again and making a pile of new ones, I wouldn't trade my experience this past weekend for anything in this world.

My hat is off to all of the fine gentlemen that attended this event, and all the Officers and NCOs that worked with me even until 1:00 AM to make sure every I was dotted and every T crossed, everything completed to perfection. The event staff look forward to our next endevor at this post, hopefully making it twice as exciting and memorable as this past weekend.

A very special thank you to Mr. Daniel Brown, Park Manager, for welcoming us with open arms and letting this idea become a reality.

Respectfully,

Lt. Clint Stanley
Post Adjutant
Ft. McAllister, Gennesis Point, Georgia

[Paul Jerram]

Re: Ft. McAllister Winter Muster Dec. 8-10, 2006

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the recently concluded Fort McAllister Winter Muster, which I think we all agree was a great success. Although numbers were not where we would have liked them to be, it was understandable because of timing, time of year, the threat of cold weather (we know how even the threat of weather can affect an event, don't we?). All in all though, we were very pleased.

Mike Hicks took an abundance of photographs at the event, and Brian Hicks has already posted some on this forum and also on the event forum at http://mcallistermuster.org.

Actual events from December 1863 at the Fort were portrayed, with the attempt being to recreate one company of the Republican Blues and one company of the
63rd Georgia, amidst the working life of the garrison at Fort McAllister when they were inspected in Dec. 1863.

In my portrayal of Major G.W. Anderson, the Garrison Commander, I was incredibly impressed with the smooth running of the Garrison during the weekend, mainly due to some excellent officer impressions and diligent adherence to all duties, by the following offficers:

Capt. William Dixon (Robby Mitchell), Republican Blues
Lt. Herb Coates (unsure of Herb's period persona, but he ably portrayed himself :) )

Capt. Isaac Peebles (Joe Blunt), 63rd Georgia
Lt. Shepherd (Skipper Owens)

Lt. Clint Stanley, Post Adjutant

Capt. Robert Grant (Hunter Poythress), Inspector, AIG's Office
Lt. Thomas Burdell (Jeff Yoder), Inspector's Assistant, AIG's Office

These men worked tirelessly, in period fashion, on their duties, on their paperwork and books - a marvelous sight to see - and I was privileged to be a part of it. In addition, Kiev Thomason did an outstanding job as the Garrison Sgt. Major, and Sgt. Buddy Jowers was excellent as the Principal Musician. Brian Hicks did an extremely convincing impression of a civilian doctor assigned to the Garrison while our surgeon was on furlough, and I particularly enjoyed his prescription (on several occasions) of Dr. Gouge's Miraculous Elixir, procured from the post sutler, portrayed by Jason Rich.

There's so much I could write about ... the artillery drills on the 32 pounder guns ... the full Dress Parade, Inspection (including Muster), Inspection of Quarters ... the time of Christmas Dinner fellowship ... the full Guard Mount, beautifully executed ... the Garrison cooks (Andrew Jerram repeating his performance for the officers from Fort Granger ... burp :p ) ... many, many small "moments" for me personally.

We also owe a great debt to all the men, too many to mention, who did come out for the event and again, performed their duties admirably. Thank you all gentleman.

Again, look for more images yet to come - and we are hoping to submit a full length article, for possible future publication, to Civil War Historian magazine, very soon.

One last note of very good news: $495.00 was donated to Ft. McAllister on behalf of the participants of this event. This money will be used by the Friends of Ft. McAllister, who provided the food Saturday night, to continue to support future programs and improvements at the site. In addition and due to a new state program, the Friends of Ft. McAllister will receive funds from the State for each participants time volunteered during this event. The net earnings after providing the food Saturday night will be around $2000.00!

This Fort has much potential for future events and the staff and Danny Brown, who oversees things there, has welcomed us in the future ... plenty of future opportunities to explore I believe.

To everyone who had a hand in this event - thank you!

Regards,

Paul Jerram
Formerly Major G.W. Anderson, Cmdg, Fort McAllister at Genesis Point