FOR THE KIDS : Newbury Park to Take on Revolutionary Tone
Newbury Park High School’s athletic field will look like a war zone this weekend--Revolutionary War that is.
A group of American Revolution buffs will transform the field into an encampment of soldiers and tents. There, they will eat stew, discuss colonial politics and occasionally grab their muskets for mock battles.
The encampment will be open to the public Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults; $3 for students and seniors; children under age 5 will be admitted free. The event is a benefit for the school’s choral booster club and the Conejo Valley Genealogical Society.
For kids, it’s a glimpse of history that they won’t get from a book or a movie. This is not a Hollywood version of war 200 years ago in the rebellious Colonies.
The 20 or so soldiers bivouacking on the school grounds are members of the American Delaware Regiment and the 33rd British Regiment. Both Southern California groups are part of the Brigade of the American Revolution, a national organization dedicated to re-creating the look and experience of revolutionary soldiers.
And these history buffs are sticklers for authenticity. Their uniforms are exact replicas in every detail--down to the number of threads per square inch in the fabric.
They scour Colonial era journals and diaries for the tiniest details to ensure that their outfits are authentic. And they aren’t satisfied unless they can find two sources of documentation.
“A year’s worth of basic research goes into each uniform,” said Henry Kayser of Simi Valley who doubles as a sergeant in the Delaware Regiment. He and his wife spent a year just researching whether members of the regiment might have worn a certain style of leather cap.
Henry Kayser founded the Delaware Regiment in 1976 with four San Fernando Valley area friends who were initially motivated by the Bicentennial. The regiment they chose to replicate was a highly respected light infantry company from Delaware, established by the Continental Congress in June, 1775.
“They were the finest in the world,” Kayser said. The Delaware Regiment carries the distinction of being the only regiment in the entire Army that was never broken on the battlefield.
When Kayser and his friends applied to join the Brigade of the American Revolution, they had to research the unit and prepare a plan detailing how they would re-create the regiment’s clothing, weapons and other paraphernalia. Their research took them to libraries at the University of California, the Smithsonian Institution, the Delaware Historical Society and the brigade’s New York archives. It took 1 1/2 years, but finally they were admitted.
If the research was painstaking, making the uniforms is just as laborious. Most of the sewing is hand-stitched.
“We discourage sewing machines on anything that shows,” Kayser said. “One member did his entire uniform by hand and then he did his tent by hand.” Even the shoes have wooden-peg soles. The basic uniform and equipment make for an investment of about $1,200.
The encampment at Newbury Park High School will include a dozen or so canvas tents, replicas of those used by the Colonial and British soldiers. One will be a 13-by-19-foot reproduction of a tent used by George Washington.
Visitors will see what life was like off the battlefield. Even the food they prepare is authentic, down to the stew, beans and bread.
Wives are part of it too, since women, known as “camp followers,” actually accompanied the troops and helped with cooking and sewing. They will be dressed in period clothing and demonstrate crafts such as spinning and weaving.
The scene feels even more like a step back in time because some participants talk and answer questions as if they are really from Colonial times--avoiding contemporary subjects altogether.
“They look at things from an 18th Century point of view,” Kayser said.
The group will stage two battles each day, one based on a skirmish early in the war between the two sides in Lexington, Mass., and another based on an unsuccessful raid by the British on a Delaware camp. In addition to firing the muskets using blanks, they will fire a small cannon.
Throughout the year, the group does demonstrations for schools and organizations. During the summer, it travels east to take part in re-enactments with other members of the Brigade of the American Revolution.
The Delaware Regiment performed for Ronald Reagan in 1981 during a Bicentennial celebration in Yorktown, Pa.
* WHERE AND WHEN
This weekend, Newbury Park High School’s athletic field will be the scene of a re-enactment of an encampment of soldiers from the American Revolution. The encampment will be open to the public Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors, children under age 5 free. The school is at Reino Road and Lesser Drive.