On April 11-13 of the year 2761 AUC an event was held at Camden Revolutionary Historic Site.  This was a multiple period military time line event with everyone from Roman soldiers, to Vietnam draftees.  This was the second year of the event and the first event that I have taken my girl friend, where I have participated as a soldier.

On April 11 I got off work early, 1230hrs, and headed to my apartment to get my gear ready to go.  My girl friend was coming to pick me up and we were taking her truck since it is more reliable and can better hold my gear.  She got to my place around 1415hrs.  We quickly loaded everything up and set out on our way to Camden, SC.  Traffic was down to a minimum except for inside Columbia.  We finally arrived on site around 1600hrs.  Only one other Roman had arrived at this point, and he was a new recruit plus this was his first event.

I then set out to talk to the event staff to see where we were going to be.  We wanted to be in one of the earthen forts left by the British but they decided against it.  I knew that the Centurio was not going to arrive until 1800hrs but I called him to let him know that we had arrived and made contact with the event staff.

Finally around 1815hrs the Centurio and the “War Wagon” arrived and we now had five soldiers.  We first went to where the vendors were and started to set up Soul of the Warrior.  The tents went up quick and the boxes of stuff where numerous but lite.  After all the boxes where under the tent we left that site and headed to the camp site.  We got all the scuta out, three contubernium tents, the Centurio tent, camp stove, camp box, and other items to make the camp a “real” Roman camp.  We didn’t do a whole lot just enough to people to sleep in that night.  It was about this time that my girl friend started making the comment about needed to take a shower and wants to get a hotel room.  She asked my opinion and I replied “I want to camp out but I am not going to turn down a hotel room!”  Then one of our new members in the Upstate had a small surprise for us.  He had made a Roman crane.  We set it up and spent the next few minutes in awe of this thing because none of us had ever seen one and I don’t think one exists outside of Europe.

We all then went to Fatz for “Jollification” where we had a good meal.  The kids got a table for themselves and the rest of us got a table to ourselves.  We all got something different some got steak, chicken, pasta, salad.  Some of us got beers, some water, and some tea.  When we sat down the kids must have been real hungry because they started eating sugar packets.  After the meal we went to the hotel and literally crashed! 

On April 12 we had to be on site around 0800 to finish setting up camp and have officer call before the event started at 1000hrs.  So we got the hotel to call our room at 0645hrs and the alarm clock to go off at 0700hrs.  We both got up kind of slow but we got there and eventually got on site around 0810hrs.  We did some small stuff around the site like clear it of all modern equipment and trash, fixed up the Centurio tent, and other miscellaneous things.  At 0900hrs there was an officer’s call in the middle of the site.  The Centurio was at his vendor tent so I went to the meeting.  We discussed items like safety for us and our equipment, how to deal with the public, how we were going to be judged for awards, and info on the meal that evening. 

At 1000hrs the event officially opened to the public.  The Centurio and Signifier walked around to look at the other periods, our newest member went to talk to his buddies in another time period and left only our engineer and myself to man the camp.  It was not to bad only a few questions from a number of visitors. 

During the day we got to be good friends with the Rev War guys who were camped behind us.  In my humble opinion, they were very impressive!  Their camp, their tents, and their gear looked period from top to bottom from what I could tell.  I was very impressed with the officer tent, how it had a partition in the back to make his own little room in the back.  In fact the whole day they spent joking around with us about what did the Romans give the British and that they would hold up an object and say “the Romans gave us that!”  At one point he came up to us with a little fan of himself and a published article in the Charleston magazine about him in his gear.  He even stated “you are not truly famous until you fan yourself with yourself.”  We all got a good little chuckle out of that one. 

When lunch time came around we had peacock (turkey) bread, hummus, fruit, oil of olive, and cheese.  It was a pretty good little meal.  At this time my girl friend told me she had gotten a room for the night again but with one addition, it had a Jacuzzi tub!  The Centurio was jealous!  Shortly after the meal is when the weather starting getting bad, not too bad just starting getting overcast.  Then around 1400hrs it started to look really bad and begun to rain.  At first the rain was very lite and came in and out for about thirty minutes.  We took the opportunity to take our armor off and relax, no body likes a rusty mail. Then around 1500hrs it started pouring.  Knowing that the crowd would disappear (and wanting to relax in a Jacuzzi) at this point my girl friend and I went back to the hotel.  We relaxed in the tub for a while before we had to be back at 1730hrs. 

When we got back it was sunny out and hardly looked like it had rained.  All of the Romans had changed in to modern clothes and our new member that lives in the Upstate was leaving.  So we helped him pack and wished him on his way.  We then started talking about what to do about dinner but ultimately were going to say and eat the dinner that was provided for us.  The dinner was pretty good.  It was four different kinds of lasagna including one vegetarian, purlow (as I know it) which was rice, chicken, and kielbasa cooked all together, fried chicken, and a real good brownie!

That afternoon the Centurio and family went back to the hotel to crash I guess, my girlfriend and I went around to see the town, our new member went to the hotel, and one stayed in camp.  We drove around and looked at some of the old houses, a better view of the house on the site, and to find Camden Military Academy.  It wasn’t until 2030hrs that we started back to the hotel.  That night we did not sleep as well for some reason but it was still a good nights sleep.

On April 13 we didn’t have to be there until 0900 so we got to sleep in a little but this morning it took a lot longer than we had expected to get going.  We finally arrived on site around 0915 and everyone thought that we were not going to be there because we had a Jacuzzi tub.  When the event opened at 1000hrs we were not really expecting a big crowd until 1300hrs and for the most part we were correct.  Their was a small flow of people for about the whole day, even after 1300hrs the crowds didn’t get any bigger. 

At around 1330hrs there was a demonstration/lecture about the different timelines present at the event.  We all lined up, in the sun, and one gentleman explained the different types of weapons, and armor on each soldier.  He said it would be about thirty minutes tops, it was an hour and a half.  One of the things that I thought was funny about the demos but wasn’t all that funny was that every weapon that shot off rounds had a problem firing except for the American WWI Springfield rifle. 

At 1430 hrs Camden Military Academy Band and color guard showed up and practiced a little bit for the parade we were having that afternoon.  It was kind of like a pass and review.  Just before 1500hrs we formed up where we had the officer meeting.  Then the band fired up with the color guard behind them, and all re enactors from oldest time period to earliest behind them.  For me it brought back some memories of being in military school.  Now this is my opinion but the band was horrible.  They were not very loud, could not stay in step, and the no one could keep a tune!  The award ceremony went on for a while and the Romans did not get any awards. 

After that we all changed into modern clothes and packed up everything.  My girlfriend, myself, and the boys tore down camp, while the rest tore down Soul of the Warrior.  We finally got on the road around 1700hrs and finally arrived at home around 1900hrs. 

My report on the Camden Military Timeline.