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Kennesaw Military Timeline
The first time that the Kennesaw Civil War and Locomotive Museum has put on a timeline event in seven
years. Not the best of events in terms of public and re-enactors but the Romans did win "Best Camp"! Roma Victa!!!
After Action Report
September 29-30, 2760 AUC
Name: Marivs
Minivs Donatvs
Rank: Optio
Centuriae, Legio VI FFC, Cohors I
On September 29 through the 30 of the year 2760 AUC an event was held at the Kennesaw Civil
War and Locomotive museum. It was a timeline event with Veitnam, WWI, WWII, Civil War, Rev War, 14th century, pirates,
Medevil, and Roman. It was a just a simple little event for us.
On September 28 I was on the books to work until 1230hrs but I had worked a little
extra so I was able to leave at 1130hrs. I had packed by gear the night before so all I needed was gas. After
I got gas I called our centurio and told him I was on my way and did I need to pick up anything? He told me that he
forgot apple and grape juice and some fruit. So I went to Bi-lo and picked up some juice but waited on the fruit because
I didn't have a cooler.
Once I got all the stuff I needed for my journey I got on the interstate and headed to Atlanta around
1215hrs. Getting to Atlanta was not a problem nor was getting on the beltway around Atlanta but after that was a challenage!
There were cars everywhere and lots of them! I don't mind driving in rain, snow, dark, or in traffic but Atlanta puts
a whole to twist on traffic! I was cut off twice, and had to slam on the breaks to avoid an accident that had just
happened.
When I finally got to my destination safely I thought I was the only one there. I saw
the registration table and the parade feild behind it but no one was there. So I waited around, looked at the depot,
walked around the town, and finally called our centurio, no answer. Then I caught a glimpse of the war wagon.
So I went to the registration table, registered, and headed back to our site.
When I got there they had the legio XI papillo tent, and our centurio tent up. Some of the
people already there were the centurio for legio XI, and four of their members, three of them this was there first event.
From legio VI our centurio and wife, our signifier, and our members from the DC area. After shaking a few hands and
passing out a couple of hugs, I tried to find something I could do.
We set up the new SOTW booth, and then moved it to another location. We set up another papillo
and added a few final touches to our camp. During the set up of these tents I noticed something that kind of bothered
me, a train would run by about every thirty minutes to an hour. At that moment I was thinking about getting a hotel
room because the tents were set up less than 50 feet away from the tracks. Luckily our centurio got a hotel room and
offered to let me stay.
That night we ate at a local restuarant called The Whistle Stop, it wasn't bad. It looked like
a hole in the wall from the out side, being next to a general goods store and a mom and pop car lot. There was eight
of us that ate there that night. It reminded me of a small town family restuarant. It had no hostess, the menu
up on the wall, tables and chair stationed everywhere, and a little train running along the wall. I got the meatloaf
with green beans, and mash potatos, boy was it good! Our centurio and one of our members from DC decided to get the
all you can get chicken. We tried to get them to break the record of 12 chicken legs but they were busy that night and
we were luckie to get refills on drinks.
After we ate we went to the hotel room around 2000 hrs, took showers and went to bed. Later
I found out that someone, staying on site, had brought a box wine and someone had to much. Nothing bad happened
but things got real friendly.
On September 29 we woke up around 0630hrs and got some breakfast. We stopped
at a McDonalds, not my first choice but at least it got us all going. We arrived at the site around 0800. The
event didn't start until 1000hrs but we wanted to clean the site of any modern stuff, and prep ourselfs before the event kicked
off.
I quickly went to my car to get my stuff since I had not unloaded anything. I threw on my tunic,
subarmalis, and caligae threw my hamata over my shoulder, put my galea on, put my balteus on, grabed my scuta, and headed
to the site.
On the way back to the site I ran across one of our members that was dressing out in Civil War gear,
a Confederate Infantry I think. Just asked him how he was doing, what was going on, and just shotting the breeze with
him. It was good to see him, especially since I don't get to talk to him much because he lives in Flordia.
After everybody got to the site and got kitted out we had twelve people, which is a VERY good turn
out! Most of the day was spent just talking to the visitors, looking at each others gear, and looking at the other groups.
The Civil War guys which was a pretty good collection of Yankee and Confederate guys. They had
two cannons which they shot off about every hour. It was a very good display, in my opinion a poor camp, but good display!
The Pirates didn't have much of a "camp", just a jolly rogers hanging/laying, two hay bails, and
themselves. What they lacked in camp they made up for in presentation! They had something to say about everything
and could make you laugh at the most serious of things. For example all us Romans wore tunics and no pants, well the
pirates just thought we were the ugliest white women they had ever seen. After talking to them, in a serious modern
conversation, I found their serect. Instead of giving the public a bunch of dates, and technical info, they made
the public believe that they came across a couple of pirates. They played the part, they acted! No wonder the
Romans can't get best over all impression.
To my knowledge, and I could be wrong, we were the only ones that did a display for everyone to see.
Meaning we were the only ones that went to the parade area and did some kind of drill. Before we went to the drill area
we did some practice drill next to our camp. Since we had some new guys it was a good thing we did it, although I was
even more rusty at the drill than I thought. The drill was nothing fancy! Just a few columon movements, a few
flanking movements, a wedge, and testudo. The one thing I didn't like was the guy that stood in as optio. He is
a great guy and has brought a lot to the hobby but yelling at us during the drill didn't help the impression in my opinion!
It would have been better if it was in Latin instead of English but great if not at all.
After we did drill for the public I was beat! I am not sure if I was hurting because of my
back, my armour not fitting right, or if I was out of shape but I had to get out of that armour! I did and I felt a
lot better that is until our centurio said that he was hurting and wanted me to command the next drill. My immediate
reaction was awe sh*t! I don't mind filling in for our centurio, nor was I worried about the commands. I was worried
because I had to get back in my armour. It turned out that we didn't because the visitors at that point were trickling
in.
It was at this time that my brother from DC started to portray a licta. He carried around the
fasces and followed Julius, our senator. It was kind of weird but after a while we would see him sitting around and
the senator was no were to be found. So instead of calling him our treachiarius instead of our tessiarius.
After the event was offically over everybody got real friendly! The Scots came over and shared
a few storys about Scotland, liqour, and and liqour! We passed around the flask and started trading stories about our
cultural histories.
At around 1800hrs the museum had gotten dinner for us. It was nothing fancy but it did get
us full. It was wings, bbq, and beans from HOOTERS! Yeah, I am a guy and I like going to HOOTERS but
who goes there for the food? The food was good and I took it as a thank you for helping us with the timeline event.
During the meal I was given a mission, to hide the fasces from the treachiarius (sorry bro) which I accepted. The treachiarius
fliped out and almost searched the whole site looking for it. He found it and then proceeded to never let it out of
his hands again!
After dinner we were allowed to have a private viewing of the museum and locomotive. I am not
much into Civil War but as a amatuer historian I enjoyed being in a place were other people shared the same hobby as I did.
Plus, I remember my grandmother taking me to see the General when it was in a wooden shack closer to the mountain, but the
train seemed bigger then.
Once we all saw the museum we headed back to the hotel room to crash. From what I heard that
night from the guys that stayed at the site I missed out on some very nice Scotch. I haven't had good Scotch in a while
and after that day it would have gone down real nice! Even after missing all of that I did enjoy sleeping in a bed that
was not right next to a very active rail line!
On September 30 we woke up around 0800 hrs. Which was very nice! The
event didn't kick off until 1200 hrs. That morning all the Romans invaded the local restaurant, The Whistle Stop, and
had breakfast. There breakfast was just as good as their dinner! I got the country ham, grits, scrambled eggs,
hash browns, a bisciut, and orange juice to drink.
After taking our time eating breakfast we staggered back to camp, where I found the fasces sitting
out in the open. I then took it upon myself to hide it. Only one other person saw me hide it and he kept quite.
When the treachiarius returned to camp he then fliped out once more. He then proceeded to look over the entire Roman
camp and when it wasn't found he went to the Scots camp and no fasces was found. After looking closely in a few areas
it was found and the person responsible confessed (I couldn't do it like that, not to my bro).
Once everyone reached camp some of us started to say goodbye and head home. We helped each
other pack, passed out more hand shakes and huggs. I finally got home around 1530 hrs.
The event did continue on until 1700hrs from what I was told. Believe it or not, but I also
heard there was an even bigger showing of visitors that day too.
There is my report for the event in Kennesaw, Georgia.
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