Hi gents,
As you may have guessed from the College Square Society disbanding announcement last month on this forum, many in the Hard Heads are in the process of re-vamping an old progressive group most of us were proud to be in called the Citizens Guard. Due to some recent preservation developments and the need to potentially raise funds, our mess is getting reinvested in the group along with former College Square Society members. Due to this, we are opening up an invitation to the re-vamped Citizens Guard for our brothers in the ONV whom are looking for a preservation outlet and that want to attend a few local offerings not on the ONV schedule.
The Preservation concept:
Our mess and former College Square Society chums have been in contact with the Adopt a Site program coordinator at Gettysburg National Military Park and we have been granted the opportunity to take care of the Company “G” 1st United States Sharpshooters monument (Wisconsin) that has strong ties to Fox Lake, Wisconsin. As many of you know, we have held a series of high quality living histories and marches representing militia & veteran soldiers of the Citizens Guard in Fox Lake over the past ten years. For those that attended our Preservation March & Living History in 2008, you know all the history of the Fox Lake community and that Charles A. Stevens (brother to George H. Stevens founder of the Citizens Guard) was a 1st Lt. in the Sharpshooters and also a prominent militia member in the Citizens Guard from 1860-1861. Charles is also the low key author of the book Berdan’s United States Sharpshooters in the Army of the Potomac under the name of C.A. Stevens.
We will be taking care of a monument that over 20 men from Fox Lake served in along with several that were part of the Citizens Guard in the militia and 90 day service term. We will be doing work at the National Military Park both in Spring and Fall as a preservation project we feel is our way of giving back to the men from Fox Lake and Wisconsin whom served from 1860-1865. The benefits of our liability insurance & 501c3 tax status will help us greatly to keep this preservation project feasible and to spread the wealth working among comrades. We may participate in a few local fundraising events to defray costs of our preservation work that we are excited to be involved in.
Local Events:
We will also be hosting a series of high quality living history experiences in the Fox Lake region starting again later this summer or fall hosted by the Citizens Guard. I will have more details to follow but we are looking at some time in late August to mid September to re-create some 150th militia events the Citizens Guard was involved in. We may also be looking at other high quality venues as well to host living history events and marches as we have done in the past. I will try to have a few weeks window past Holler’s militia event next year to have our Citizens Guard Preservation March in May 2011.
Also as noted in an AC thread John Wickett started, we will also a few times per year work at a local LH or reenactment in where we can work one on one with gents that want to improve but do not have the mentoring available currently to learn the hobby in better detail. I have been in touch a group of gents that wants to improve but needs some guidance from gents that care about attention to detail and an overall accurate impression. We will be working with the Poor Boys Mess a few times during the year and help the next generation of c/p/h living historians on how to do it right. It should be a rewarding experience and perhaps some ONV members in the works. They are under the guidance of ONV member Pete Seilestad.
Level of Interpretation:
As we have prided ourselves over the years, our overall impression standards will be accurate no matter what we are doing – period. Over the years we have lived by our Authenticity Guide Standards and those will be the norm for any one considering membership in the group. These are almost exactly the same as the ONV standards as the same the author with the help of his comrades had a good hand in both documents – yours truly.
Membership:
Membership is by invite only as we want gents that care about their impression, have a great attitude, love preservation work, and a few times each year want to help those that are desiring our help to improve. We emphasize good kits, good research, good attitude as the expectation. Our current Website is at
hardheadmess.org/CitizensGuard/
and we will be updating it as time allows.
If the following description sounds like something you want to be a part of and have an interest in the re-vamped Citizens Guard, please feel free to let me know. Our dues are $20.00 per year along with several benefits of having 501c3 tax status. Again we are not looking for quantity, but the quality of gents that wants to make a difference in the authentic wing of the hobby in many different ways.
Thanks for your attention gents and if I can answer any questions, please let me know.
Tom Klas
