I reenacted 18th century Ohio River Valley/Kentucky history etc.....Had a bad experience at the Battle of Blue Licks....I was portraying Matthew Elliot, a British Indian Agent who sided with the natives and the contingent of Butler's Rangers...The folks playing the Kentuckians were a "Buckskinning" group who some (apparently) didn't know much about reenacting (or how the Battle of Blue Licks ended)...A buddy and I had "fixed" Bayonets and were marching toward the Kentucky line( who were to be retreating...)One young man in his late teens, early twenties decided he was going to change the course of history...My buddy and I were kind of trying to tell the young man to please retreat as there are a thousand tourists watching...We had wooden cartridge boxes on our belts with a dozen or so 100 grain blanks in the.....At approximately 7 yards from my buddy he lowered his long rifle and fired directly at my buddy's gut (where his cartridge box was...) The young mans flintlock misfired (thank Goodness) and my buddy, a Vietnam veteran, grabbed the young man's long rifle, gently laid him to the ground and said, "Do not move.." We spoke to the park ranger who took the young man back to their camp for an explanation...He had never been in an event and his dad wanted him to participate so his girl or somebody could see him out on the field...It was weird...
And thus ended my "Playing Longhunter and Indian" Days.....