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4th Maine Infantry Regiment, Company B
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4th Maine Infantry Regiment

Company B

Reenacting and living history

History of the 4th Maine Infantry Regiment, Company B

1993

Company B was an active unit in Germany for only a short time. In that time we grew from just two husbands and wives, with five children between us, to a group of almost twenty soldiers, several wives and a water bucket full of children. As I remember it, in 1993 the Rhein Neckar Military Historical Society had been operating out of Worms, Germany , as an approved US Army private organization, for the past 2-3 years. By this time the club had acquired the use of two buildings, at Turley Barracks in Mannheim, as a place to use as a club house and museum. In late summer or early fall, a meeting of the RNMHS was held. Under "new business" ideas were discussed covering additional activities that the club could be involved in. The club had several members from Belgium and one of these, Guys Meysmanns, suggested trying to do some American Civil War reenacting with a club in Germany. Guy and I talked further and decided that we would put a Civil War kit together and portray Union soldiers at some of our living history exhibits. Over the winter we gathered the uniforms and gear that we needed.

1994

At some point in early 1994 I received a call from Cherri Kimerer, working for the Child and Youth Services program at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. She told me that she was being assigned to run a child care center in Darmstadt, where Inge and I was now l were now living, and found out about our club through Teri Viedt, of the Darmstadt Public Affairs Office. Cherri let me know that she was actively involved in Civil War reenacting at Ft. Leavenworth and would be interested in it. My mind immediately jumped to all sorts of ideas and told Cherri what Guy and I were doing in the arena. We agreed to meet when she arrived in Darmstadt, which we did. Cherri, and her son Kevin, joined our merry band and became our reenacting guru.
I believe that Guy found out about a German reenacting club and we made arrangements to attend a reenactment at a German training area in Tauberbischofsheim in the fall. By this time we had a couple of wall tents, that were set up near the camp of a Confederate parrot gun crew. We set up our camp and it did not look too bad. It was a great weekend although a little chilly in the morning and at night. Except for an incident involving the gun crew, we were very impressed with the reenactment and we later made the decision to form our own unit.
The incident was very serious one. During the night before the battle the gun crew had a huge drinking party. Guy and I could not see the incident but we heard a small explosion, a scream and then saw a lot of commotion to our front. Suddenly a man on a horse raced quickly to the scene of the explosion. Within a very short time a medivac chopper was on the scene, loaded someone and took off again. We learned later that the swabber for the gun crew did not do his job well enough. When the load was rammed down the barrel of the gun there had to have been hot embers still in the barrel. charge exploded, taking one of the rammers hands. We assumed the party the crew had the night before contributed to the accident.

Private Meysmans and Cherri Verschraegen working on the fire for breakfast.

Quartermaster Sergeant Robinson and his wife Inge at the Tauberbischofsheim reenactment.

Private Meysmans, Alexander Robinson and Kevin Kimerer in camp.

QM Sergeant Robinson, Cherri Verschraegen, Private Meysmans and Maggy Meysmans preparing breakfast.

Maggy Meysmans and Inge Robinson busy with camp work.

Joining a Union unit in the field before the battle.

Joining a Union unit in the field before the battle. Guy and I did not participate in the battle.

Guy Meysmans, Maggy Meysmans, and Cherri Verschraegen around the fire at night.

QM Sergeant Robinson and Private Meysmans trying to stay warm.

1995

Over the winter of 1994-95 plans were made to form a unit of Union infantry. Guy and I knew that we had three other soldiers we could enlist, Leo Regemortels and Roger Verschraegen, from Belgium, and Fred Marsy, a US soldier who got out of the service and stayed in Germany. This core became good friends and Cherri ended up marrying Roger just a few years later.

4th Maine Infantry Regiment

Company B Reenacting and living history

Company B

Reenacting and living history