They Do It All for a Moment in History

Radford Polinsky recalls his moment of “living history” last June with an awe reserved for life’s milestones or spiritual revelations.

There he was, clad in a replica of the uniform of an 18th-Century British officer--every detail, down to the number of threads per square inch, documented as historically accurate--re-enacting a Revolutionary War battle in Evesham, N.J. He and his redcoat companions advanced in lock step down a hot, dusty road when they broke into a rendition of the regiment’s somber marching tune.

He lived at Troutbeck for many a day

And now he has gone far, far away

That we’ll ne’er hear his horn in the morning .

“The 20th Century melted away, and for those few moments I was in the 18th Century,” Polinsky said. “Moments like that justify the whole darn hobby.”

Polinsky, 34, is a West Hollywood movie and television costumer who moonlights as a corporal in the British 33rd Regiment of Foot in Colonial America. Periodically, he and eight Southern Californian comrades in arms engage in a kind of time travel, back to an era when the pace was slower, hardships many and the fate of the rebellious Colonies was at stake on the battlefield.

They are among an estimated 50,000 weekend warriors nationwide who spend thousands of dollars and untold hours re-creating the sights, sounds, crafts, folklore and feel of a particular epoch. Several hundred groups of these gung-ho recruits re-enact nearly every period of American military history--the Vietnam War is one exception--as well as earlier eras, such as the Middle Ages.

“What motivates otherwise normal people to don neolithic furs, medieval armor, buck-ram shirts, or brain-tanned skins and dash into the time warp of living history?” wrote fellow historical re-enactor Jay Anderson in his 1984 book “Time Machine--The World of Living History.”

His answer: a desire to escape the hustle and bustle of 20th-Century life; a “nostalgic preference for the past--usually a particular epoch, and a curiosity about the nitty-gritty nature of everyday life in a specific historical period.”

Polinsky belongs to the Brigade of the American Revolution, the largest group in the nation specializing in 18th-Century living history. Founded in 1962, the brigade is dedicated to re-creating the look and experience of common Revolutionary soldiers. Its 1,700 members--more than 200 of them from other nations--drill regularly, stage mock battles, march in parades and set up weekend encampments.

At the bivouacs, members, their wives and children cast pewter, carve wooden utensils, weave clothing and cook over open fires, all the while attired in Colonial garb. Talk of contemporary issues is taboo, though they do talk about sex in a bygone time and have “great” discussions of “period religion and period politics,” Polinsky said.

The history buffs are such sticklers for authenticity that even the stews, beans and other foods they eat reflect 18th-Century fare--up to a point.

“The park systems get upset with you if you start shooting their squirrels out of the trees to make a stew,” said Hank Kayser, 42, a Simi Valley operating engineer who has doubled as a sergeant in an American regiment for the past 12 years.

Historians generally praise the brigade efforts to educate the public about the texture and tastes of the revolution even if, as one said, “They’re not scholars. They’re enthusiasts.”

John Dederer, a professor of military and strategic history at Yale University, relishes the atmosphere they create: “Just to see the black powder explode, the fog of battle--with even a small squad, the amount of smoke is just incredible. It gives you a real feel for the period and a respect for the toughness of the people.”

Most of the brigade’s 100-plus “reactivated” units nationwide replicate the ranks of Americans. But there are British, Hessian and French regiments, giving the Americans realistic-looking opponents at the mock battles.

‘Everything Is Documented’

“We try to get away from the Hollywood image of what an 18th-Century soldier looked like,” said William Radford, an industrial supplies salesman from Glenmore, Pa., and the brigade’s national commander. “The equipment, the uniforms, the clothing that the women wear--everything is documented by more than one piece of information.”

Two of the units are in California, which was being colonized by the Spanish at the time of the American Revolution. Both of them--Kayser’s nine-member American Delaware Regiment and Polinsky’s 33rd British Regiment--conduct twice monthly marching and musket drills at Los Encinos State Historic Park in Encino.

There on Super Bowl Sunday, the American and British regiments--in red, white and blue--precisely crisscrossed a parched field under sunny skies. The backdrop included an orange grove, prickly pear cactus and a 1849 adobe house that was once the homestead for a longhorn cattle ranch.

In a final drill before a dozen onlookers, the regiments took the field to the staccato bursts of the American drummer, and, stone-faced, marched toward each other behind bayonets menacingly extended on their muskets. This was not a matter of “shoot when you see the whites of their eyes”--the bayonet charge stopped only when the opposing forces were yards apart.

Moments later, as the 20th Century noisily intruded overhead in the form of a circling police helicopter, the Delawares chanted, “Hip, hip, huzzah!” and dispersed.

Modern-Day Birthday

The 33rd, meanwhile, dropped its military mien to celebrate a member’s real birthday with a modern cake on a picnic table.

The Californians have done programs at Knotts Berry Farm, appeared at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and marched in Memorial Day and Veterans Day parades. Members also speak to school and community groups; two are history teachers who use their outfits and period equipment in class.

“Students learn so much more from them other than just reading,” said Jeff Garcia, 32, an American history teacher at Garfield High and a member of the brigade’s 33rd Regiment. At various time, he has shown up in his East Los Angeles classroom dressed as a Civil War soldier, a mountain man and a World War I combatant--as well as a redcoat.

As a British recruit, he said, he can convey that there are two sides to every conflict; the youngsters gain empathy for individuals from various historical periods.

The Delaware Regiment was founded in 1976 by Kayser and four San Fernando Valley area friends who were initially motivated by the Bicentennial. Several are craftsmen who were drawn to a period when everything was still made by hand.

The regiment they chose to replicate was a highly respected light infantry company from Delaware. It was established by the Continental Congress in June, 1775.

“The Delawares are the only regiment in the entire Army that never broke on the battlefield,” said Don E. Dooley, a 20th-Century recruit from Huntington Beach whose sense of pride and use of present tense befits an original regiment member. “It’s probably one of the two top units of the revolution.”

Unit Researched

When the men applied to join the brigade, they undertook a time-consuming process of researching the unit, preparing a plan to re-create its clothing, weapons and other artifacts. It took them 1 1/2 years to be admitted.

Documentation was found in libraries at the University of California, the Smithsonian Institution, the Delaware Historical Society and the brigade’s New York archives.

The clothing is accurate to the thread count, Kayser said, explaining, “You have to use a micrometer and a ruler and a needle to make sure that you can match what is in the museum.” He is an expert, working with his wife to make historical costumes for exhibits and living history groups.

The Delawares’ elaborate basic wardrobe: black shoes with a brass buckle; high white wool socks supported by a black garter; blue wool breeches with pewter buttons; a long-sleeve wool vest; a blue coat with a red collar and lapels; a scabbard for the bayonet; and a distinctive high black leather Delaware hat with a painted yellow insignia.

“It drives me crazy,” said Dooley, 22, a city planning intern who admits to harboring a near-obsession to obtain the right stuff. “I want to know exactly what they looked like.”

He said he plans to discard his $90 shoes because he found a cobbler who “makes the shoe the way it’s supposed to be made.” He is seeking someone to sew his wool socks because his pair’s pedigree is unacceptable: They’re machine-made.

Verisimilitude has its price. An enlisted man’s outfit costs $1,200 or more to make. Most unit members have several costumes. Polinsky, whose elaborate British uniform is more expensive, values his outfits from the Revolutionary War and World Wars I and II in excess of $7,000.

Members also carry British-, Italian- or Japanese-made reproductions of a Brown Bess musket, accurate only within 100 yards. They start at $250 and run into thousands of dollars.

Then there are the tents, utensils and personal gear that make up an encampment. An industry has cropped up nationwide to supply historical re-enactors with such items.

Collectively, the nine Delaware members and their six wives estimate that they have spent $200,000 on uniforms and gear, Kayser said. Cross-country trips, of course, have their costs.

Both units also pay annual dues: $22.50 for the Delawares, $30 for the 33rd. The first $15 goes to the national brigade; the rest pays to publish monthly newsletters and buy black powder.

All Walks of Life

The two California units have a professional cross-section, including two research biologists, an economist, a banking executive, a plant foreman, a dietitian, a truck driver, an aerospace engineer, a television producer and a warehouse worker. They range in age from 25 to 60--most in their 30s and 40s--and travel from as far as San Diego to take up arms.

There are Latinos but no blacks. This may reflect the reality that, most African-Americans were slaves in the Revolutionary Era, though some blacks did fight in the war.

Not everyone familiar with the revolutionary re-creations approves of them. The Delaware Regiment’s leader, a San Fernando Valley man, asked that his name not be disclosed because his employer “feels it’s a waste of my time.”

Polinsky acknowledged that the public perception of the hobby in some quarters is one of yahoos running around shooting old guns.

In fact, the brigade has tough safety rules: Men cannot affix bayonets for mock battles and muskets never are loaded with anything but blanks; they are elevated whenever fired. Musket sparks and artillery mishaps have caused injuries but no brigade member has been seriously hurt in recent years, national commander Radford said.

On occasion, brigade participants are accused of glorifying war. Their response is that tactical military demonstrations are only part of their activities. They add that wars have been an important part of American history.

The Californians are a novelty in the brigade’s ranks since most units are based in the Northeast, where much of the Revolutionary War was fought. When Dooley goes east for re-enactments, “People are always surprised when they hear I’m from California. They say, ‘They know about the revolution out there?’ ”

Surrender at Yorktown

Recently he traveled to Washington Crossing, Pa., to participate in the annual re-enactment of George Washington’s Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware River. Dooley would have prefered greater realism: crossing at night as Washington did rather than at midday and amid snow and hail instead of under the sunny skies that greeted the 1988 contingent.

Dooley and others who live history most cherish the moments that author Anderson calls a “secular mystical experience”--the feeling that they have actually re-entered the 18th Century. For many, this occurred in 1981 at Yorktown, Va., when 2,500 re-enactors restaged the Battle of Yorktown for President Reagan and French President Francois Mitterrand.

For history teacher Garcia, it happened in 1987 at a re-enactment of the Battle of White Plains in New York. After a weekend living in a wooded encampment, he participated in a British bayonet charge, sans bayonets, at a line of Colonial soldiers and canon.

“Everybody just got carried into that moment,” Garcia said. “We were thrust back into what possibly a charge have would have felt like.”

Of course, here too, the practical limitations were significant: Garcia did not face real bullets or canon fire as he raced across the field.

The brigade seeks to reflect the violence of war even if it does so without bloodshed.