Rucker's Tavern Tales: Trevilians Station

Reenactments aren’t all morning dress parade and battles. The military camps are open to visitation (except during the battles) and most events have a variety of activities of the era but not necessarily of the war. This event had a nice array of non-battle activities and presentations, too many for any one person to attend in fact. This is very good.

Union Horse & Saddle

This nice gelding has a army issue saddle blanket, saddle, saddlebags and halter. His rider hasn’t put the army issue bridle on him yet. On the march he would also have a picket pin & rope, a nosebag for feed, a bag of grain, a shelter half and a canteen as well as his rider’s overcoat and various other small personal possessions.

Union Picket Line

Army regulations had cavalry encampments located on the perimeter of the infantry camps & near water. Human comfort came a distant second to horse comfort. All the camps had shade for the horse lines at this event with plenty of horse troughs that were refilled throughout the day.

Nice Reproduction Tack Stand

Stands like this one were common in fixed garrisons. That’s a nose bag hanging on the left side.

Unit Tack Stand

This stand keeps everything off the ground and out of the mud. They had a canvas tarp cover for it too.

Confederate Camp

The camp streets were wide enough to drive a pickup & horse trailer down them. The horses could go through camp 4 abreast with room to spare.

Confederate Soldier

The day got hot & muggy. Quite a few soldiers took a quick nap between the mounted and dismounted battles.

Camp Kitchen

I really liked the design of this camp kitchen. There’s 2 shelves inside spaced for cans up top, plates in the middle, and tall containers at the bottom. One side box has spices and the other has utensils. The top box keeps the period appropriate containers out of the way & secure.

Best Union Tent Ever!

This is without a doubt the best campaign tent setup I’ve ever seen. The wood sides are corn crib slabs and have notches to lock them in place. The bed is more corn crib slabs that fit in more notches. The vertical tent poles are saplings cut to size and debarked. There is no ridge pole, instead ropes tension the ridgeline. The tent itself is a 6x6x6. Its dry, its roomy, and there’s a straw filled tick on the bed boards. Awesome, just plain awesome.

19th Century Style Doctoring

This lady was explaining to one and all the techniques of 19th century medicine and surgery.

The Apothecary

This lady was explaining how pills were formulated and made. She also talked about home remedies and herb lore. The Confederacy was very dependant on home remedies because the blockade made so many of an apothecary’s usual ingredients unavailable.

Field Apothecary Kits

Few medicines were available pre-made. Apothecaries made pills, salves, and infusions as needed.

Federal Bugler

This bugler gave a lovely talk and demonstration of the bugle calls that governed a cavalry soldier’s day and gave him commands on the field of battle.

Period Musical Concert

These folks played the dance and parlor music of the era. They were quite good although it was too warm to dance.

There were also seminars on telegraph operations, home front activities, spies & spying, the role of women in the war effort, and various children’s activities as well as a living history camp with period school lessons.

And a Parade of Carriages, all sorts of carriages pulled by all sorts of horses.

4 Person Carriage & Team