Drill Sergeants in Dresses

This week is the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Stoney Creek! Like, to the day!

To catch you up: 200 years ago, there was a war going on between the British and Americans, known as the War of 1812. There were several reasons why it started. Most notably, the British navy was still bossing around the American navy, even after the US gained their independence in the Revolutionary War; and the Americans wanted to control all of North America (incl. Canada), and the British didn't like that idea. The Native Americans, who were allied to the British through trade, DEFINITELY didn't like that idea.

The battles largely took place on Canadian soil, and one of the crucial ones, the Battle of Stoney Creek, took place where I live and work. In 1813, the American army were camped at the Gage farm in Stoney Creek, Ontario, waiting for a chance to invade further into Canada. The British army, camped at what is now Dundurn Castle, initiated a sneak attack on the Americans in the early hours of June 6. They were badly outnumbered, but the shock of surprise and the illusion of a larger British force thanks to smart leadership by John Harvey led to a British win.

Battlefield House museum sits on the site of the Battle of Stoney Creek, in the Gage house where the Americans were camped. This weekend, they have a huge re-enactment, with merchants, children's activities, fireworks, cannons, old-timey food, British, Native, and American encampments, etc. etc. Fun stuff.

Yesterday was the day for school groups to come and see the transformed park. As employees at other civic museums in Hamilton, staff from Dundurn and the Military Museum led a mock-battle activity for the 2000-odd visiting students. This involved a cannon demonstration (with real gunpowder, but without a cannonball), and large-scale broom drill battles.

To fit in with the reenactors, we came dressed in historic costume, of course - so the majority of our commanding officers were dressed like proper new world Edwardian ladies (we had a few gentlemen as well). And our job was to scream (in good fun) at children about how to form lines, fire and load their muskets (brooms) in an orderly fashion.

It was a brutally hot day, but I think generally everyone had fun. For me, this was the first time I got to wear my 1812 costume (a dark red, empire-waist dress), so I was pretty excited to run around in my skirts being all hard-boiled drill sergeant-y.

Don't be deceived by the dress; I'll make you do push ups

Butts on the Ground!

Today at the Military Museum, we had a school program with students in Grades 1, 2, and 3 - and because the weather is now sunny and warm, we were finally able to run an outdoor activity as part of our programming: Practising 1812 military drills, using a kid-size corn broom in place of a musket! (We call them 'Broom Drills')

This is actually something that was done in Canadian schools in the 1800's - should the military require your help in an emergency, all students would practice the basic procedures for loading and firing a musket, using brooms as stand-ins for real guns.

This was my first time running Broom Drills, and I was pretty excited. For the most part, my group was very good at listening and responding to my commands of "SHOULDER - ARMS!" "MAKE - READY!" and "COMPANY - FIRE!," amongst other orders. 

But the highlight was definitely the phrase I used to describe the proper resting position, to the command "ORDER - ARMS!" This command asks soldiers to place their muskets vertically, with the base resting on the ground beside their right foot. At first, 'ORDER - ARMS' was a little too confusing for these young kids. Now, the real name the base of the musket is called the 'butt' (one of several cheekily-named musket parts - we've already discussed the "Cocking mechanism"), so I started following up the ORDER ARMS command with "Butts on the ground! Butts on the ground!"  

This became the catch-phrase of the day. Even when we were done the Broom Drills, the kids kept repeating "Butts on the Ground!" to their friends. My apologies to their teachers who may be hearing this phrase the entire bus ride back to school.