Monday, August 16, 1999
British are coming - again
Revolutionary War battles re-enacted
BY TOM McCANN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT RECOVERY, Ohio — Warren County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Krznarich found himself in the middle of a war Saturday.
He watched helplessly as officers around him fell dead, their bodies rolling down the steep hill.
Sharp claps of musket fire frightened his new horse, Dryden, but Deputy Krznarich kept his seat.
As the gunpowder smoke cleared from the battlefield here, fallen soldiers stood and spit used “blood” pellets.
His Continental forces had defeated the Redcoats, but the British get their turn to win next time.
For the weekend, Deputy Krznarich left behind his badge and revolver, donned the bearskin-decorated helmet and saber of the 4th Light Continental Dragoons and joined hundreds of other Midwesterners to recreate an authentic Revolutionary War-style battle.
Officially, they gathered here to commemorate the bicentennial of the Greenville treaty line, planted by surveyors. An Indian treaty made Fort Recovery — 55 miles northwest of Dayton, Ohio — the northwest corner of the early United States.
But Deputy Krznarich and his fellow summer soldiers find any excuse to meet and live out their favorite historical period. On eight weekends, he and his family drive all over the region to live in a small white tent as part of a mock army camp that resembles a miniature Valley Forge.
Everything must be authentic, he said. His friends comb through journals of the era to design their uniforms. They memorize the military maneuvers of the day and the Hessian regiments yell commands in old German.
Families wear 18th century civilian clothing and cook stews in old iron pots over open fires.
“People take this very seriously,” Deputy Krznarich said. “I have to salute my superior officers, because someone can get into charac ter on me and chew me out.”
He said he began reading about early American history as a child. Three years ago, he took his passion one step further by acting it out.
When he searched the Internet, he found hundreds of re-enactment clubs around the country, including some that travel to Europe to re- live battles such as Waterloo. He found a regiment he liked.
He chose the heavily armed cavalry because he had a horse and wanted to use him in re-enactments.
His verisimilitude has won him an invitation to be an extra in a Mel Gibson film about the same era, he said.
“You name any battle or war, and someone is re-enacting it now,” Deputy Krznarich said. “They're even re-enacting the Vietnam War.”
He knows the history of his regiment, which fought in Pennsylvania and Virginia. His uniform is an exact match, down to his Colonial pocket watch and 1700s-style fanny pack.
That obsession is mild compared with others' commitments.
“The real hard-cores pick an actual historical person and act out all his mannerisms,” said Wally Richardson of Columbus, the commander of the British forces during the weekend. “They'll talk like it's 200 years ago, and you can't even understand them. And when they die, they foam at the mouth and do amazing pratfalls.”
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