Come watch me shoot some people

 

I’m going to get my gun, shoot some people, and have fun doing it.

You should come and watch!

More specifically, my gun is a replica Brown Bess muzzleloading flintlock. I shoot blanks at fellow Texas Revolution reenactors. They shoot back at me, too. Sometimes I die and sometimes I don’t. Most of the time there are big, loud cannons involved.

Anyone who knows their Texas history knows that most of the Texas Revolution took place in the spring of 1836. As a reenactor, the next two months are going to be very busy. I’m a colonel in the Texas Army, the state’s official ceremonial Army of 1836. We and other reenactment groups go to each of the major historical sites and do reenactments on the anniversary of each battle.

Normally we would be at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site the first weekend in March to fire salutes in honor of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence, but the site is under construction and the celebration has been scaled down to a small event at the Barrington Plantation there. It’s a good, local event and I encourage anyone interested to attend the free festival.

Before the celebration was announced, however, the Texas Army committed to a Texas Independence Day celebration at George Ranch in Richmond. It will run Feb. 28 and March 1. Most of the events we participate in at George Ranch are pretty laid back and very accessible to the public.

In the past, the festival at Washington-on-the-Brazos frequently conflicted with the battle reenactment at the Alamo. That reenactment isn’t done anymore. Instead, the Alamo holds commemorations each day of the 13-day siege, capped off with a very solemn Dawn at the Alamo ceremony at 6 a.m. March 6. That event is too small, too early, and too far away for most of us to make it, but a few do. Musket volleys are fired to honor the Alamo’s fallen and wreaths placed by various groups.

Up next after that, on March 29-30, is the biggest and best of all the reenactments we do. If you don’t mind the 3 1/2-hour drive to Goliad, the reenactments of the Battle of Coleto Creek and the Goliad Massacre are incredible. Presidio La Bahia, dubbed Fort Defiance by Col. James Fannin, is rebuilt on the spot of the original compound and it’s a great experience to go there. The church is the only part of the original structure left, and it has been used as a church all this time.

Three battles are usually reenacted throughout the day on Saturday, concluding with the capture of Fannin and his men. Saturday evening is a ticketed candlelight tour, where visitors are guided through the compound where they watch vignettes of historic events that occurred there. Sunday morning the captured Texians are marched out and executed in a nearby field.

The Runaway Scrape is memorialized and reenacted at various sites, but the one the Texas Army traditionally does is at George Ranch. This year it will be held April 11-12. The first day is for schoolchildren and the second for the general public. We usually stage an invasion by the Mexican army at the 1830s cabin twice a day.

The Runaway Scrape leads to the final, decisive battle of the revolution at San Jacinto. The reenactment will be held April 25-26 at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic site. This used to be a massive reenactment involving more than 100 reenactors and an audience of tens of thousands. A few years ago the Texas Historical Commission took control of the event and shaved it down to a few vignettes and participation by reenactors and visitors dwindled significantly. Still, it’s usually a fun, entertaining, and educational day.

Most of our reenactment activities quiet down after that until the first weekend in October when we gather in Gonzales for the annual Come and Take It Festival. That is followed in December with a newer event in San Antonio depicting the Siege of Bexar.

So there you have it. That’s pretty much the rundown of the major reenactments of the Texas Revolution for the year. If you have any interest in Texas history, free (or mostly free) events, or just an enjoyable weekend getaway, I encourage you to put these on your calendar and come watch us shoot each other up.

And as always, remember the Alamo!