The Adventures of a Novice Historian

Prior to going back to school in 2014 I was kind of lost, I did not know what I wanted to do with my life. I developed a love for history, when I was about twelve. It began when I watched a National Geographic documentary about Egyptian history, and it just snowballed from there. When I was 13, my mother pulled me out of public school and began to home-school me which is when my passion was allowed to flourish. Every time I went somewhere historic with my family, I had to know everything I could before our visit and when people came to see us I had to play tour guide. At the time it never occurred to me that I could apply both my passion for history and my need to tell people what I knew together.  When I started at UNCA, I could not have imagined I would have had an opportunity to put those two things together. So, when I began my internship at Vance over the summer, I didn't know what to expect. Which is understandable given that I had never done anything like it before.  ...

This weekend at Vance was their annual Militia Muster. The Militia Muster is a living history and reenactment event that simulates what life would have been like during an 18th century encampment. According to reenactor Cody Fox, "a Militia Muster was a gathering of small community minute men who were required by law to gather six times a year to practice their skills and get up to date on Militia law. Two time a year they would get together with other militias to form a regiment then once a year they would gather with all the militias in the region to form a brigade." These bigger, once a year, events would include the minute men's families, Similar to the old clan gatherings in Scotland. Things that would go on during these muster events were the forming of the Militia company and reading of the Militia law. Mustering, Inspection of the men and their weapons, payment for service, and drills and fire practice.  For my part of the event, on Saturday, I was stationed ...