Weapons of Civil War fire again
Alan Robertson, 55, of Butler Township, is part of the North-South Skirmish Association.
The N-SSA, which formed in 1950, promotes the firing of Civil War firearms and artillery and encourages the preservation and display of Civil War materials, according to its website.
The N-SSA is not a re-enactment group. Teams from different areas gather to shoot live ammunition in different competitive settings.
These teams take on the name and attire of real companies that fought during the Civil War.
Robertson and his son, Matt Robertson, 24 of Columbia, Md., are members of the 12th Pennsylvania Reserves Volunteer Infantry.
“Whoever forms the team usually tries to pick some association ... either an ancestor or location,” Robertson said.
The Robertsons and the late Fred Herlinger Sr. picked that particular infantry because they had possible ancestors in the unit.
George McDowell of Slippery Rock Township joined the team in 1990 when he was looking for a new hobby that was related to history.
“I traced my ancestors back and there's been a McDowell in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War. I think we took some time off, but then World War I and World War II,” said McDowell.
The people on the team come from many different walks of life.
Robertson is a metallurgical engineer and McDowell is an administrator for Slippery Rock University.
“We have a guy who is president of an emergency ambulance corporation, another's a dentist, but the uniqueness is we're all drawn to the history of the Civil War.”
The team can dress in whatever they'd like at their competition campsites, but during the contest the attire must be accurate to what soldiers in their infantry would wear.“You can buy a complete uniform that is historically accurate with the cloth and the cut, everything,” Robertson said.At their campsites, teams can choose to live as people did during the Civil War.“At one point and time in my life I did. I stayed basically ‘in character' all the time,” Robertson said. “But as I've gotten older, I sleep in a trailer.”The teams travel to regional and national competitions to compete in musket, carbine, revolver, breechloader, artillery, smoothbore and mortar team matches.Most competitions are held at Fort Shenandoah, an approximately 600-acre shooting range and camping area in Winchester, Va., that was purchased by the N-SSA.Team members can also compete in individual competitions for hand and shoulder firearms.
The most popular competition is the team musket.In this competition, eight team members compete in five events for the best score.The team will try to shoot targets such as 32 clay pigeons on a cardboard backer, 16 hanging 4- inch by 4-inch ceramic tiles, 16 hanging clay pigeons and 16 hanging 3- inch clay flower pots at 50 yards.They will also target items such as 10 hanging 6- inch by 6-inch ceramic tiles at 100 yards.The lowest combined time for shooting all targets wins.On average it takes 400 seconds (a little under seven minutes) for the winning team to break 90 targets.Safety is of high importance in all competitions as the chance of misfire with original and replica Civil War firearms is high.“They are extremely safety conscious,” Robertson said. “There is a safety officer who is there to observe the shooters, make sure they are firing safely and also to clear the weapons.”The competitions are open to anyone 15 and older.There are also women's shooting competitions, children air rifle competitions and costume competitions.
Robertson and his team also compete in smoothbore cannon competitions.He purchased a used replica Model 1841 6 pound gun, in the fall of 1998.These replicas can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000 brand new.During cannon competition, cannon balls are shot at two targets: a bull's-eye and a drawing of a cannon.“You get one hour to fire 12 shots,” Robertson said. “They count your highest 10 and you're allowed to put no more than seven shots in either target.”The targets are placed at a distance of 200 yards on 4-foot by 8-foot sheets of drywall.The targets have a scoring system of one through five and V, the center of the bull's-eye. A perfect score is 50, 5V.Robertson's best score was a 49, 4V.
While you can purchase premade rounds for the cannon, Robertson makes his in his garage.He casts cannon balls into their rough shape and machine lathes them to the diameter of 3.615 inches, but no more than 3.618.“I go a little crazy as far as making them, but then again in the last 10 years, I've won Nationals six times,” Robertson said.Then he makes 3-inch diameter cans from alumni foil that look like 2- to 2 1/2-inch tall hockey pucks, which are his powder charge.The disc is full of gun powder that Robertson weighs to a tenth of a gram for accuracy.The cannon ball is attached to the disc with 3M strapping tape and stored in a coffee canister until competition.“To make one round to shoot takes about 2 to 2Z\x hours working time,” Robertson said.Robertson trailers his cannon and ammunition wagon to N-SSA competitions with his Chevy Suburban.“You get a lot of lookers, but not too many tailgaters.”
Robertson has been infatuated with the Civil War since he was a child.He saw Walt Disney's film “Johnny Shiloh” at age 3 or 4, and his curiosity regarding the wardrobe, weapons and everyday life of people at that time has not subsided.“I remember my neighbor had a Marx Johnny Red Toy Cannon,” Robertson said. “... We'd ride around on our bikes and we'd have it hooked up by a rope and we'd stop and pretend to defend the neighborhood.”When Robertson was a junior in high school, he convinced his parents to buy him his first replica Civil War musket.He called Herlinger, who had beenn the superintendent of his school district, then known as the Richland Township School District. He remembered when Herlinger talked to fifth graders about the Civil War and showed them his muskets.Robertson spent an entire day with Herlinger learning how to use his musket properly.“He showed me how to shoot it and load it safely and do everything as far as the safe loads go,” Robertson said.Robertson and Herlinger formed the 12th Pennsylvania Reserves Volunteer Infantry team.While Matt Robertson' finds the weapons, shooting and history interesting, he doesn't necessarily have the same drive as his father.“I don't know if I have what they call ‘the bug' or ‘the fire' or whatever lingo they use, like he does.”
