Purpose of Event: To educate the public on the daily tasks of a frontier fort and focus on what life for soldiers and all residents of Fort Concho would have been like on a regular duty day on post. The secondary purpose of this event is to train and drill new volunteers over Upton’s Infantry Tactics and other 19th Century Military Customs, in order to prepare them for future living history events.

Length of Event: This would be a three day event, starting Friday Afternoon and ending on Sunday Afternoon at 3PM, similar to Christmas at Fort Concho.

Event Layout: The event itself will consist of four major aspects of the fort, The Enlisted Barracks, Headquarters, Hospital and Officers Quarters. Stationed at each of these areas of the fort will be volunteers portraying one of the following roles, Enlisted Man, Officer, Officer’s Wife, or Hospital Staff. Rather than having a standing display similar to how we conduct most living history events, most stations would actively be doing some sort of task that is relevant to what their role would have been doing when Fort Concho was active, examples being the Enlisted Men stationed at the barracks conducting drill, or the post commander at headquarters building filing paperwork and issuing orders. While volunteers would still be welcome to answer questions to the public and interact with them, the event would lean more towards the public observing what the fort would have been like during a regular duty day.

Time Period: September 1882

Officers: 1876 Officer’s Fatigue Blouse, 1876 or 1861 Trousers, 1872 Officer’s Kepi, 1872 or 1874 Belt

Women: chemise, corset, petticoats, bustled dress. For servants: cotton dresses. For wives and upper class: silks and wool dresses with a wrapper (house dress), a day dress, and an evening dress

Enlisted: see below

BARRACKS FIVE: Barracks Five will be the Enlisted Personnel station, located there will be volunteers portraying a company of 16th Infantry Enlisted Men. Throughout the event volunteers at this station will be conducting duties that would have been fitting to their role during Fort Concho’s activation. These duties would consist of, but are not limited to, Morning Parade, Drill, Church, Mess Detail, Guard Duty and much more.

HEADQUARTERS: The Post Commander, Adjutant and orderly staff will be located at headquarters. Their duties would consist of schedule planning for the fort, planning campaigns, issuing post wide orders, conducting court martials and sounding post wide bugle calls for the garrison.

HOSPITAL: Surgeon and Hospital staff will demonstrate to the public the day to day tasks of a Frontier Fort Hospital.

QUARTERMASTER: distribution of uniforms and location of canvas to be organized for following its distribution to Ben Ficklin

OFFICER’S ROW: Volunteers will portray officer wives and demonstrate to the public the day to day tasks an officer wife and her servants would go through, while their husbands and enlisted personnel were on duty.

1872 Kepi: We are portraying Company F of the 16th Infantry Regiment, we would prefer you put the insignia on the kepi for the unit if you are able. Insignia would be the number 16, cross rifles, and the letter F in a top-to-bottom order.

1874 Fatigue Blouse: Make sure the 74 blouse you are using has the blue trim for Infantry, as we are not portraying cavalry or artillery. There may be exceptions for Hospital staff, however, I will get with Sarah Ross and provide more info on the Hospital staff uniforms later in the future.

1876 Trousers: If you do not own 1876 trousers, but only have 61′ Trousers, then that will work. Soldiers did not like 1876 Trousers, as they would constantly fall down below the waist, and were difficult to get suspenders onto. Because of this, many soldiers would either make alterations to said trousers or just go back to wearing leftover 61′ trousers. It is preferred you do not wear 72′ Trousers, as those were only experimental, and never got issued to soldiers on the frontier, however, if you have already purchased the 72′ trousers, then we will not stop you from wearing them if that is all you have.

1872 or 1874 belt, Mckeever Box, and trapdoor bayonet & frog: The 1874 belt is preferred, but if all you have is the 72′ belt, then that is fine. While Mills Belts were being used, according to the inspection reports, soldiers in 16th Infantry Company F were wearing Mckeever Boxes in garrison. Since the Mills Belt cannot fit a Mckeever Box, it would make sense they were wearing the above-listed belts.

Brogans or 1876 shoes

Trapdoor Springfield: Fort Concho is able to lend a small amount of Trapdoor Springfields, however if you are able to bring your own that would be helpful. Enlisted personnel will need trapdoors for conducting drill and other duties such as guard.

For a full schedule of each day, CLICK HERE! 

TOTAL NEEDED EVENT POSITIONS:

Private 33
Trumpeter/Musician 1
Corporal 3
Sergeant 4
Surgeon 1
Hospital Staff 3
Cook 2
First Sergeant 1
Sergeant Major 1
1st Lieutenant 1
2nd Lieutenant 1
Lt. Colonel 1
Officer Wives 3
Officer Wive’s Servants 5

PREFERRED TOTAL VOLUNTEERS: 60