This weekend was kind of symbolic. Bubby has been involved with Boy Scouts since he was a Tiger cub. Since he joined he has always wanted to become an Eagle Scout like his grandpa Ducky. This year has held some drastic changes with our pack and our troop is battling our way up from bare bones to even stay in existence. In order to garner some excitement, the parents have been trying to find some pretty exciting things to build our boys up with Scouting interest while holding on to our dwindling numbers. The first thing that came to our attention was this super cool reenactment of a pre-Civil War battle that had been held for the past couple of years close to the nearby town of Baldwin, Kansas. This Battle of Blackjack took place between pro-slavery and free-state forces (led by John Brown and crew) in 1856 and was a result of the rising tensions of the time. Through some wonderful connections we made we not only received an invite to the event, but also offers of mentorship for our troop! What a blessing!
One of the things that they needed to take with them was a mock-gun because real guns were not allowed. One of our good buddies helped cut the gun forms out for the boys (Bubby got to assist) and then the boys were able to detail them.
The boys had arrived to the Blackjack battlegrounds on Friday, and while the main event didn't take place until the next day, they participated in "raids" on the other camps all evening and were up by 5am on Saturday morning raiding the other camps then too!
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| looking over the schedule |
They broke out into groups on Saturday and rotated through different stations which included listening to a talk by a John Brown reenactor...
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| John Brown watching his battle (center) |
a reenactor portraying Henry Pate who led the pro-slavery forces, a tour of a Civil War encampment and learned about some period historic artifacts...
The main event was the reenactment. The boys were divided up and preformed the battle two times. It was complete with sound effects of gun shots and smoke machines!
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| Bubby waiting for his turn |
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| Someone wishing he could join Bubby in battle |
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| the conquering heroes |
The weekend was a complete success! The boys got a second weekend of two night camping under their belts (last weekend it was camping at a black powder rendezvous), cooked some great food in the open air and had a ton of fun and made some new friends too! While we still have a ways to go as a troop, the future looks bright and our Scouts are happy Scouts :)
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