Game slides history lesson into 1859 fair
September 14, 2009 12:36 am
BY CHELYEN DAVIS
In September 1859, there were still slaves in Spotsylvania. Virginia hadn't yet seceded. John Brown's raid in Harper's Ferry was a month off. The Montpelier Guard militia was as much a social club as a fighting force. No one had heard of the Confederacy, nor made distinctions between who wore blue and who wore gray.
It was a time Spotsylvania County tried to re-create, in small part, this weekend with the first "Past in the Present" fair.
The fair, held Saturday and Sunday in the courthouse area, was part of the state's commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Speakers enacted political debates of the time, including a debate over potential secession. A man sang slave songs. A medicine show entertained old and young alike.
Those who came Sunday might have seen two club nines use a willow to hit the apple then leg it around the bases for an ace.
It was vintage baseball, which comes with its own terms, and rules, circa 1864.
That meant three balls were a walk, and if a ball was caught after one bounce, it was still an out. Pitches (from the "hurler") were underhanded.
"Before TV, million-dollar contracts, and gloves," is how Bruce Leith described the vintage game. Leith is from of the Eclipse Base Ball Club of Elkton, Md., one of the teams playing.
Leith said his group is a reconstitution of a club that was formed in 1866.
The team plays with wooden bats and wears uniforms that look like those of the era--long-sleeved woolen shirts and knickers.
Leith said in the 19th century, chambers of commerce would outfit the local team, trying to make them look as spiffy as possible because when they traveled, they were walking billboards to lure tourists to their hometown.
Leith said the team travels the East Coast, mostly D.C. and north, to play other vintage teams.
Their opponents yesterday were the newly-formed Pastime Base Ball Club of Williamsburg, who were playing their first game.
Team member Stephan Zacharias said most of the team members work at Colonial Williamsburg, so historical reenactment "is a field we're all familiar with."
For them, Zacharias said, playing vintage baseball isn't just about the sport.
"This is more about the history of the sport for us," he said. "It is an educational opportunity as well as an opportunity to have some fun."
In another field were members of the Montpelier Guard, a military reenactment group.
They said the Montpelier Guard was a pre-Civil War militia group that later became the 13th Virginia Infantry, Company A, when the war started.
In 1859, though, they were men in blue uniforms--something they said startles people, who don't realize that blue was a popular military color in both the North and South before the war, and was standard for Virginia militias.
"A lot of people come up to us and say, 'Oh, you're Yankees' because we're wearing blue," said Steve Blancard of Fredericksburg.
Blancard actually wasn't wearing blue; he was dressed in period clothing, but was portraying a new recruit, one who might have shown up to the militia with his grandfather's Revolutionary War-era flintlock musket (which Blancard was carrying).
With him were Guy Tirk of King George and Rich Rossmiller of southern Stafford.
They said the Montpelier Guard helped provide security for John Brown's trial and helped escort him to his hanging.
Normally, the men's re-enactment activities are more centered on the war itself. But they said portraying the time right before war started is a good way to educate the public.
"It gives us a chance to step back and start telling the history of before the war," Blancard said, a history that is "often overlooked."
Next year Spotsylvania will hold an 1860 fair, and will continue annual fairs during the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the war.
"Right now we're building awareness," said Rachel DeLooze, the county's tourism and marketing coordinator, who helped organize the fair.
She estimated Saturday attendance at around 1,000, saying all the food vendors ran out of food.
"It's been a really good turnout, especially for a first year," DeLooze said.
She plans similar activities for next year's fair, and hopes there might be interest in forming a local vintage baseball team.
spotsylvania.org/150CW.htm.
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
 Stephan Zacharias (left) of the Pastime Base Ball Club of Williamsburg and Glyn Richards of the Eclipse Base Ball Club of Elkton, Md., perform a bat toss before their game at Spotsylvania's 1859 county fair yesterday. Val Povinelli tries to slide into first base against Glyn Richards during the vintage baseball game held at Spotsylvania's |
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