2016 New Jersey Living History Fair- The reenacting season has begun!

Saturday, May 14, 2016 I attended the Spirit of the Jerseys N.J. State Living History Fair and kicked off my reenacting season, such as it is. (There isn't much in the way of events that fit my impression, but they're all in the warm months, so...)

I was ambitious this year- I debuted not one but two new impressions, both of them New Jersey State Prison Deputies, one circa 1862- 78, the other 1898- 1910.

The 1862 fell together quickly, with only a hat needed to be custom made for the outfit. I had almost everything else already with the exception of an inexpensive Civil War era vest and some leather goods. The biggest difficulty was the cap device. Unlike the later formal uniform hats, the 1862 is an all cloth piece, requiring sewn on embroidered devices and lettering. The circa 1862- 1878 NJSP Deputy Keeper needed only the correct 1861 Springfield rifle musket and bayonet that was the standard issue arm that the Deputies at NJSP used in that time period and some more or less generic leather gear to round out the look.

The 1862 cap is an example of how you can plan months ahead, make all the right moves and still be left without a crucial component that your look depends upon to make you distinctive and provide identification of your subject. Months back I had worked with someone who runs a patch and custom embroidery business as a sideline. In the past I got excellent service and great cooperation. After we had worked together to design the cap device I needed, the maker had a health problem that went from a temporary setback to having to take some time off to apparently dropping the business altogether.

Hey, these things happen. I'm not mad. I was, however, left scrambling to finish off the cap that I had waited for Dirty Billy in Gettysburg to custom make for me with a color and brim that are unique to my needs. As I hit the two week mark before the Fair I had to admit that the cap was not going to look the way I planned it to. A tough choice had to be made- Go with a plain cap with no device and lettering (I really didn't want to do that because with no State Prison lettering I was going to be correcting people all day long who would see me as a sailor) or find some other design option that could provide an acceptable cap device in time for the Fair.

Luckily, when I was ordering the vest that I was going to wear as part of the 1862 impression, I saw some embroidered wreaths that were worn on Union Army Officer's hats and caps in the catalog, and I bought one each of the large and small patches. When I matched up the large patch to the cap, the size was just right. A trip to the uniform shop to have some other work done allowed me to have them make up an embroidered patch with the words STATE PRISON along the bottom and the wreathed cap patch sewn to it, with N.J. added to the center of the wreath. Not the elaborate embroidered device I wanted, but more than good enough for the Fair. My biggest headache was sitting down and sewing this all onto the cap myself with needle and thread. I am many things, and I may be a decent reenactor, but as a tailor I am a miserable flop! I'm glad nobody spotted how abysmally bad the stitching on that hat was!

While I was at the uniform shop I also had them sew N.J. State buttons onto the reproduction U.S. 1887 Fatigue Blouse that I had sourced for the 1898-1910 impression. I was surprised to find that I could purchase a reasonably priced generic uniform item as part of a State Prison impression. After viewing photographs in the 1906 Rahway Reformatory Annual Report that depicted many of the line Officers wearing U.S. Model 1887 Blouses as daily uniform items, and then finding a supplier that sells that blouse at a very reasonable price I rolled a circa 1898-1910 impression using everything I already had as part of the 1880's outfit by substituting the 1887 Blouse for the 1880 Frock Coat and changing out the 1880's firearms for a U.S. Model 1898 Springfield- Krag .30-40 infantry rifle, a Colt Army Special in .38spl and period correct antique handcuffs and leg irons from my collection of keys and restraints, all from 1898 and later and all of which I had on hand.

The Living History Fair was a blast! I decided for family reasons not to put up a table display under a tent fly as I did last year. I missed so much of the fair last year by being tied to a table that I wanted to try the one-man roving impression thing, as I saw several people do last year. One fellow in particular, Rip Diringer, who does a very nice Spanish-American War soldier impression inspired me to try it this year. He takes his impression everywhere, talks to everyone, checks out all of the camps and displays and in so doing he sees the entire fair. That's for me!

I wore the 1862 the first three hours of the fair, changed out and wore the 1898 for the rest of the day, and walked around the whole place wearing both. The 1862 didn't draw too much attention, but the 1898 really turned heads. The big tin star and leg shackles swinging from my belt really shouted Lawman well in advance as I moved around.

And that's the biggest piece of information I came away with from the 2016 N.J. Living History Fair: You can have a meticulous and well put together look, but if you have some sort of accent piece as part of your outfit that proves to be an eye-opener, be it a live tiger, a very real looking head on a pike, or in my case a tin star and antique leg shackles hanging out front where everyone can see them you stand a much better chance of sparking interest from viewers and fellow presenters alike.