Photo By Jefferson Wolfe | U.S. Army Reserve Col. Paul Rosewitz, left, is given guidance by his sergeant major,...... read more read more
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WATERLOO, Belgium – More than 150,000 people descended on this town of fewer than 30,000 residents to celebrate and re-enact the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s defeat.
U.S. Army Reserve Col. Paul Rosewitz and his daughters, Emily, 20, and Kathryn, 19, were among the re-enactors. Rosewitz, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the deputy director of the Army Reserve Engagement Cell at U.S. Army Europe.
The event took place from June 18-21, and royalty from across Europe attended in the town less than 20 miles from Brussels.
There were more than 5,000 re-enactors and 300 horses in an area equivalent in size to 22 soccer fields, according to the event’s website, waterloo2015.org.
The re-enactment required 3,500 kilograms of gunpowder, 100 canons, 100 bales of straw and hay, the site stated. People from 52 countries were represented.
“People came from all over the world,” said Paul, who played a Soldier in the 21st Regiment of French Line Infantry, one of the actual units in Napoleon’s French Army that fought at Waterloo.
R-eenactors come from all over the globe and all different life paths and backgrounds, Kathryn said.
“Despite being military children and moving all over, re-enacting gives us the chance to meet people we would never meet otherwise,” she said. “Getting to dress up and be people from another time is great and taking pride in projects after they're completed and getting to show them off is one thing, but the best thing about it is the people.”
The number of re-enactors and spectators was astounding, Kathryn said.
Before the battle
At their table for the re-enactment of the Duchess of Richmond Ball, the guests were from five nations. Paul noted he was seated between one woman from England, and another from Moscow.
The Wednesday evening ball mirrored the actual historical gala that took place before the original battle, Paul said. The duchess hosted the ball for British and Allied officers in Brussels. The re-created ball was held in the Chateau St. Anne and everyone attended in period clothing and ate similar food.
“That was kind of our way to start out in the same vein as what they did,” he said.
The next day, they packed up and left Brussels for Waterloo.
Emily and Kathryn portrayed camp followers.
“One of the officers in our unit actually looked into the records of the 21st regiment of the line for the camp followers and the soldiers and put together little profiles for some of them and handed them out to us,” Kathryn said.
“Emily was a cantinière and I was a vivandiere. The difference is minimal. They were both women who followed the soldiers as sutlers [civilian merchants] and canteen fillers. They sold things to the soldiers and sometimes gave free food and such to the soldiers during battle. There are multiple records of these women actually taking up arms and fighting alongside the men.”
Their characters were based on real people.
Emily portrayed Madame du Bois, who was a cantinière du guard who was with the troops on their march to Waterloo, Kathryn said. On the way, she was severed in half by a cannonball.
“The entire regiment stopped along the path to bury her,” she said. “The grave marker is still there, but we never made it out to see it.”
Kathryn portrayed Catherine Beguin, vivandiere of the 14th Legere, a Bavarian.
“She carried a wounded man five miles from the front lines using her cart as an ambulance,” she said.
There was a wide variety of people from the local population who got wrapped up in the camps and then in the battle, Paul said.
Drilling
They bivouacked on the battlefield the next day, between the house that was Napoleon’s original headquarters and the crossroads at the center of the battlefield, Paul said.
“We set up camp and reconnected with some friends from all over the world that made up our unit,” Kathryn said. “Friday we went to imperial shops and to the Allied bivouac to do some shopping and talk to some friends.”
Once in the camp, the re-enactors portraying Soldiers started working on their drill. Paul’s group had members from France, the U.S., England, Germany, Estonia and Holland.
“It doesn’t matter where they’re from, as long as they understand the drill,” Paul said. “It was all in French.”
They drill by squad, company, demi battalion, and then full battalion, he said. Then, the battalions came together to work as regiments.
During the drills, they practiced with field music from drums and fifes. They were fairly far away from the other encampments.
“We had to march everywhere we were going,” he said. “We had to march 8-10-12 kilometers a day.”
Kathryn and Emily had a similar experience in their roles.
“One thing that we will definitely always remember is how much walking we did,” Kathryn said. “We easily covered 50 kilometers in the five days we were at camp.”
First battle
The first day’s re-enactment, portrayed events that happened in the evening of the original battle. It took place between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday while daylight lasted, Paul said.
The organizers re-created the structures that were on the field, including the farmhouses, he added.
The battle had Soldiers all maneuvering in the farm fields, which was somewhat difficult.
“The field was all barley, and it was over knee high,” Paul said.
The 21st had 150 men, two ranks deep, who had to stay in alignment through the barley.
“A lot of it was just getting set up and maneuvering, just like they had to do,” he said.
The unit attacked down a hill and engaged the farmhouse.
“We attacked as the British defended Hougoumont,” Paul said. They spent a lot of time fighting in the area, but never managed to get into the farmhouse.
The unit did not take heavy casualties during that phase of the battle.
“We were bloodied a bit, but we got through,” Paul said.
As it got dark, they fell back into their reserve positions, broke off the fight and moved back into their original camps.
Second battle
The next day, Saturday, the Soldiers began with some light drill to work out some challenges from the day before, Paul said.
“We got up and everybody was relatively tired from the day before,” he said.
The Soldiers also got some time off Saturday to look around at the battlefield and the area.
“As much as we were participants, we were also spectators,” Paul said.
Kathryn and Emily spent most of Saturday in the camp.
“The men did drills, I did some laundry and some sewing,” Kathryn said. “We gathered up some wood and did some water runs for our camp. I went back to the shops with a friend from camp. Saturday evening was the second battle.”
The 21st attacked La Haye Sainte, a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of a steep slope, that evening. The unit had to storm the structure.
“That was some pretty heavy fighting in there,” Paul said. They were in about the same place as the 21st attacked in the original battle.
As casualties mounted, Napoleon committed his imperial guard forward, past the 21st.
“We were to the left of the guard as they went in,” he said. “The battalion front took heavy casualties.”
When fighting started, the actual regiment had 1,057 soldiers with bayonets, but they came out with only 12 officers and 187 enlisted soldiers, Paul said.
“Day two, we were pretty much all a casualty of some sort,” he said.
At the end of the battle, the role players had to regroup as it was getting dark and a misty rain was starting to fall. This weather was very similar to the original battle, he added.
“A Soldier is only as good as their weapon,” he said. That’s the first thing we did when we got back to camp was clean our weapons.”
Weapons cleaning was a priority because the black powder and the elements could make the muskets rust and stop working. Every morning, the re-enactors, like the original Soldiers, got up, and cleaned the rust off their muskets while boiling coffee, he added.
Reflections
After participating in a lot of living history reenactments, the universal experience of the Soldiers is still pretty much the same, even though weapons and tactics change, Paul said. Soldiers still follow set routines and follow the direction of their leaders.
“There’s a common experience there that they go through,” he said. “And, a lot of it is under pretty miserable conditions.”
Starting while stationed in the U.S., Rosewitz has been a re-enactor for many years. He started out role playing a Soldier from various periods including the Civil War and the war of 1812.
As an 1812 Soldier, he was as a volunteer at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Through that unit, he met some of the people involved with the 21st in 2004, and has continued to participate since.
“We have been re-enacting since we were infants so we've never really known anything different,” Kathryn said.
The Rosewitz family has been involved in many events including the 200th anniversary of the Austerlitz Battle in the Czech Republic in 2005, the Battle of Jena in 2006, the Battle of Leipzig in 2013 and Napoleon’s exile on the Island of Elbe in 2014.
“Re-enacting is not just a hobby for adults and older people who have been doing it forever,” Kathryn said. “It is something that anyone of any age who respects history can do. Something I've noticed since we've been doing events with the 21st regiment here in Europe is the number of young people in comparison to in the States.”
There are considerably more young people reenacting in the European groups than in the U.S., she said. The 21st consists of four companies. In 1st and 3rd companies, there are ten participants under the age of 25, with the youngest being 16, she added.
“It is really nice to go out there and have other people around our age that we can identify with and who enjoy doing the same kind of things we do,” she said.
“Re-enacting is very much a family friendly hobby. Even after all of the freezing nights, cold and hard grounds, pouring down rains, and scalding hot days in the sun, it is definitely something we will be doing for the rest of our lives.”
Re-enacting has other benefits, too.
The family has learned the value of modern amenities, from vaccines and antibiotics to hot running water, Kathryn said.
“If it was ever truly needed of us, we would know how to handle living without electricity or having to heat water or cook over an open fire,” she said. “A few years back we were in Virginia for the big hurricane and made dinner in our fireplace and were able to collect water and candles that we knew we would need for the few days the power was out. I've impressed my friends multiple times by being able to pitch a tent mostly by myself in the dark and also by being able to start a fire and keep it going in the rain.”
For more information about the event, check out https://www.waterloo2015.org/en
| Date Taken: | 06.20.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.30.2015 03:45 |
| Story ID: | 168562 |
| Location: | WATERLOO, BE |
| Hometown: | ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, US |
| Hometown: | STAFFORD, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | TULSA, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 194 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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