One very popular reenactment period is the French & Indian War. This was our nations equivalent of the Seven Years’ War. The two main enemies in this war were the British: the royal French forces and the various American Indian tribes that were allied with them.
This was the fourth colonial war between the kingdoms of France and Great Britain. It resulted in the British conquest of al of the New France east of the Mississippi River, as well as Spanish Florida.
The American Revolutionary War
This war was between 1775-1783. It was the culmination of the political American Revolution. The colonist overthrew British rule. In 1775, Revolutionaries seized control of each of the thirteen colonial governments. They set up the Second Continental Congress and formed a Continental Army.
The next year, they formally declared their independence as a new nation, the United States of America. Early in 1778, shortly after the American victory at Saratoga which resulted in the surrender of an entire British army, France signed treaties of alliance with the new nation. Was was declared on Britain that summer. Spain and the Dutch Republic also went to war with Britain over the next two years.
The War of 1812
he War of 1812 lasted for two-and-a-half years, between the United States and the United Kingdom, its North American colonies and its American Indian allies. The war resolved many issues which remained from the American Revolutionary War but involved no boundary changes. The United States declared war for several reasons, including trade restrictions brought about by the British war with France, the impressment of American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy, British support of Indian tribes against American expansion, outrage over insults to national honor after humiliations on the high seas and possible American interest in annexing British North American territory (part of modern-day Canada).
Mountain Man Fur Trade Era, Frontiersmen, Longhunters & Trekkers
Early North American history revolved around trade for animal skins. The vast terrtory of the United States and Canada was explored, ware had been fought, and Indian cutlures were destroydin the pursuit of the Mountain Man Indian Fur Trade.
Despite the European fur trade encompassing a wide variety of fur bearing animals and a much wider time line, mountain men and the mountain man rendezvous are often synonymous with beaver and the Rocky Mountain rendezvous held between 1825 and 1840.
A Longhunter was an 18th-century explorer and hunter who made expeditions into the American frontier wilderness for as much as six months at a time. Parties of two or three men (rarely more) usually started their hunts in October and ended toward the end of March or early in April. Information gathered by longhunters in the 1760s and 1770s proved critical to the early settlement of Tennessee and Kentucky. Many longhunters were employed by land surveyors seeking to take advantage of the departure of the French from the Ohio Valley at the end of the Seven Years War. Some later helped guide settlers to Middle Tennessee and southeastern Kentucky.
Period trekking is a phrase recently coined to describe the act of a person going into the woods on a camping-like adventure using only items that would have been available to their specific time period.
The American Civil War
Reenacting the Civil War began in earnest during the 1961-1965 Civil War centennial commemorations. These battles and events found a receptive audience, but public interest in reenactments faded by the late 1960s. Living history reenacting later grew due to the popularity of the 125th Anniversary Battles series (1986-1990) and the 130th Anniversary Battles series (1991-1995). Many historic battles and events were re-created during the 140th Anniversary Battles series (2001-2005), as well as the (2006-2010) 145th Battles Anniversary series which included more realistic reenactments of major battles such as Antietam and Gettysburg.