History
By Les Jensen.
The 2nd Maryland Fifes & Drums has its origin in the Continental Boys Fifes & Drums, which started in the late 1950’s in northern Virginia. The Potomac Field Music (PFM) was formed out of the Continental Boys in the early 1960’s for the Civil War Centennial. The PFM was a fife and drum corps that appeared in mixed uniforms, US and CS, in the same corps, to represent both sides from the Civil War, and was not only a part of, but one of the main originators of the “authentic” movement.
Robert L. Miller was the sponsor and “father figure” for the PFM and the corps grew up around and was well known by the leading lights of the Company of Military Historians, including Bob Miller, Lee Wallace, one of the major National Park Service historians, and Harold Peterson. Chief Curator of the National Park Service Many of the adults who were mentors for the corps were leading collectors, including COL Jeremiah J. Reen, father of our commander, Denis E. Reen and his brother Jeremy Reen. At one time COL Reen had one of the foremost Confederate arms collections in the country.
Thus, the “authenticity” aspect was very strongly aided by the fact that the members of the PFM had ready access to some of the best collections around. Moreover, most members developed skills as tailors and leather workers, in addition to their musical talent, and became skilled at accurately reproducing Civil War uniforms and equipment long before such things became commercially available. The “authenticity” effort has been at least as big a part of the unit as the music since its inception. But, it also learned the tunes authentically, using original printed and manuscript music, including such sources as Bruce & Emmett’s 1862 Fifer’s and Drummer’s Guide, the American Veteran Fifer, and other original music to put together both a sound and a look that Civil War soldiers would have recognized. During its younger years, the PFM affiliated with the N-SSA , and became their “official” music. The unit still marches down to the line with music at every National skirmish, just as it’s done for thirty plus years.
The PFM continued through the Civil War Centennial. A number of members, including Les Jensen, the late Tom Tankersley, Charlie Breeland and Dave Cheatham, got their start as members of the Colonial Williamsburg Fife and Drum Corps . When the PFM came down to Williamsburg for one of the Colonial Williamsburg musters in 1962, an association began between the two corps that included both an exchange of people and musical influences. The PFM also provided the music for “Stonewall Jackson’s Way,” a movie filmed about this time.
When Civil War reenactments involved turning out as infantry, the PFM rallied with two other organizations; the Hog Hill Guard, made up of North Carolina boys under Luther Sowers, and the 2d North Carolina, a group centered in Philadelphia under George Gorman, but including the “Michigan crew,” another bunch of fellow Civil War fanatics from the midwest. The 2d North Carolina cultivated its image as the “bad boys” of the Centennial, but collectively, the several groups together formed the most authentic Confederate unit in existence at the time.
The end of the Civil War Centennial in 1965 started people thinking in other directions, and in 1966 the 1st Maryland Regiment (Revolutionary War) was formed by Bill Brown, Burt Kummerow, Dick Milstead, John Griffiths, Ross Kimmel and others. Many members had had some association with the 2d North Carolina, and the PFM became the music of the First Maryland. As Maryland’s official bicentennial unit, the First Maryland spent many years providing programming at Fort Frederick State Park, participated in programs, reenactments and films from Canada in 1967 to Cowpens and Yorktown in 1981, and finally, traveled to Paris, France in 1983 to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Paris.
The music continued as Revolutionary War musicians until the First Maryland officially mustered out in 1983. In keeping with the “authenticity” movement, we strove to recreate the First Maryland as authentically as we could and by adding in the 2d Pennsylvania and the 9th Virginia we created the Corps of the Continental Line, which fielded roughly 250 people for the 1976 Bicentennial parade in Philadelphia. We later fielded close to that for the Paris trip in 1983. During those years many old stalwarts came together in the First Maryland, including Larry Babits, Ross Kelbaugh, Ross Kimmel, Mike Burkey, Erik Arnessen, Fred Gaede, Jim Sanders, Jim Wareheim, Bill McIntosh, Vance Sheffer, Dave Jurgella, Les Jensen and of course, Denis and Jeremy Reen.
During this same time, a number of members served their country in the armed forces. The 2d Maryland counts a number of combat veterans of the Vietnam conflict in its ranks, nearly all from the Marine Corps, including Denis and Jeremy Reen, Jim Sanders and Jim Beale. That experience has always had an influence on the character of the unit and its ability to authentically depict the past.
Once the Bicentennial was over there was interest in getting back to our roots in the Civil War, which we had actually continued at various times throughout the bicentennial. In the early to mid 1970’s National Park Service living history programs began to create another venue and a small group of ex-Williamsburg fifers and drummers formed the 32d Virginia Fifes & Drums and were part of the first Living History camp at Chancellorsville battlefield in about 1977. They even were illustrated in a National Geographic article done about that time. Tom Tankersley, Tom Rice, Charlie Breeland, Dave Cheatham and Les Jensen were involved in that group and they eventually hooked up with the old PFM/1st Maryland. The Chancellorsville camp was a 24 hour a day, seven day a week experience.
When the 32d dropped out of the camp in 1978 because of other commitments, replacements included Charlie Childs, Vance Sheffer and Dave Jurgella. Charlie was beginning his cloth business about that time, and was always tied in with us. We went through an iteration as a Yankee unit under the name 1st Maryland Regiment, Potomac Home Brigade. The Freeze-a-Thon, our annual winter encampment in February, began about this time with authentic huts, fife & drum jam sessions and maybe less than authentic conviviality in the mountains of Maryland.
Ultimately, we began to turn out again as Confederates and so designated ourselves as the 2d Maryland. Because other 2d Marylander units also took the field during the 125th anniversary of the Civil War, we evolved to depicting Company E, the Irish company of the original 2d Maryland . During the 125th anniversary of the Civil War we allied ourselves with the 20th Tennessee under Anthony Hodges, travelling west to reenactments at Shiloh and Chickamauga, while the 20th joined us at Gettysburg, Spotsylvania and Appomattox. One of the highlights of this time was our recording of the fife and drum music for the movie “Gettysburg,” which we did together with the Camp Chase Fifes & Drum.
Since the 125th, the unit has continued as a Fife & Drum organization with infantry support from a lot of the old guys. Denis Reen had always shot rifle musket at N-SSA with the 1st Maryland (Black Hats), a unit influenced heavily by Jerry Rolph, one of the first “authentics.” Over time, many of us joined up with the shooters of the 1st Maryland, where we are today. Some decided to go to the artillery with Ross Kimmel as leader, first as Baltimore Light Artillery and now as Hardaway’s Battery. In reality, Hardaway’s and the 1st Maryland/2d Maryland are fingers of the same hand. A number of people have maintained membership in other units while also playing with us as 2d Maryland, including Gil Hocker, Alan and Lon Lacey and Jim Beale.
The unit has always had an informal tie to the Company of Military Historians. Denis Reen, Mike Burkey, Larry Babits, Juanita Leisch Jensen, Vance Sheffer, Jim Wareheim, and several others are members, and at present, Les Jensen is President. The Company has always been the leader in researching and publishing about material culture (i.e., “stuff”) of the military in the western hemisphere and its goals and ours have always been mutually sympathetic. In addition, a number of members have been professionally employed in some form of historical organization. Larry Babits is a professional archaeologist and university professor, while Ross Kimmel is a professional historian. Les Jensen, Dean Nelson, Bill Brown, Burt Kummerow, John Griffiths, Todd Groce (20th Tenn) and Myers Brown (20th Tenn) are or have been museum curators. Most Civil War historians owe a debt to Mike Musick (2d North Carolina) during the many years he was at the National Archives. Doug Cubbison (20th Tenn) was until recently the historic preservation officer at West Point and is now an Army historian. Rob Hodge has been active in the historic preservation movement. Ross Kimmel and Vance Sheffer are present or past history teachers.
These are only a few of the many that have been associated with us and have had some major part in professional history or museum activities. Although the unit has evolved over the years in various directions and under various names, the core group has always stayed together. Denis and Jeremy Reen are the real charter members since they started in 1957 or so; and Denis Reen is, and has always been, the leader! Through all of this, the main things that have distinguished the 2d Maryland and its predecessors us are our quest for good music, authenticity, research, collecting and a (sort of) intellectual approach to this business of recreating the past. Although it might sometimes seem we’re more about drinking and playing music than anything else (particularly around the campfire late at night), our deeper interest in history has always been there even if we sometimes seem to refuse to admit it!
Not many groups can say that they’ve been playing some of the best fife and drum music around for fifty years or so, but the 2d Maryland has! With luck, we’ll be at it for a while yet!
Read Les's Survey of Confederate Central Government Quatermaster Issue Jackets.
