Events - Sewerby Hall, 2006

A beautiful stately home and grounds near Bridlington. Sewerby Hall is a nice place to be, though a long away away. There's a little zoo, there's craft shops, there's a lovely house (with real loos!), and there's a Noddy train into Bridlington. The battlefield is tiny, but that means the audience can see better. And we got to put our guns on the terrace, with no possibility of moving them during the battle.

The battle was based on a real one: Fredericksburg. This was particularly interesting for us, as the Washington really were present at the real battle. There's a good description of the battle on Wikipedia. The bit we concentrated on was the assault on Marye's Heights: some hills above the city held by the Confederates. A quick summary: Union attack across open ground (and a sunken road) under heavy fire, get slaughtered. Since that obviously didn't work, General Burnside tries it again. And again. And again. 14 charges and 9000 dead Union troops later, his subordinates persuaded him to stop. Yes, he did get court-marshalled. The version as presented by our commentators dwelt on the heroism of the Union troops, and of various individuals who went out into the open to tend the wounded, despite orders to the contrary. And quite right too.

Personal LiveJournal report can be found here (and a lot of the above text was taken from it)

and this year the photos are being hosted on Flickr. Click on the thumbnail to see the full-size version and description.

The re-enactment:
The real place, as it is now.