Finding Family in the 7th Missouri Brigade of Civil War Re-Enactors

Junior Kelsey Christensen could always spot her dad easily — if it wasn’t the full captain’s outfit and sword that he was brandishing, it was the look of pure enthusiasm that he wore as he stood slightly apart from the line of uniformed men yelling orders. If he saw her among the crowd of spectators watching the re-enactment, he always broke character for a second to smile at her.

But then Kevin Christensen’s mind would return to figuring out how he would get his 15-or-so buddies decked out in Civil War era gear into the next maneuver.

He’d known the people standing by him for 15 years. When he first joined the 7th Missouri Brigade of Civil War Re-enactors, he wasn’t sure he had much in common with them other than a love for “1863 U.S. Infantry Tactics” and the fact that they both donned Union navy-blue uniforms every other weekend. But when he saw the members genuinely caring for each other, he and Kelsey grew to care for them too.

Kevin went from being the new private in the unit to its captain. The 7th Missouri became their support system, their family. Family that every few weeks drove hours to Chickamauga or Gettysburg and re-enacted scenes from the Civil War together.

Kelsey used to go to every re-enactment with her dad — every few weeks they would cram poles, canvas tents and other equipment into their car as soon as Kelsey got out of school on Friday, and drive to the scene they were re-enacting. Kevin planned the battle scenes with his buddies while Kelsey practiced sewing with the wives or played in the creek with the other children. They were miles away from any problems at home they’d been dealing with that week. Something about being out in the middle of nowhere replaced every worry.

“It’s the marching,” Kevin said. “It’s singing songs. It’s being hot and sweaty and freezing cold. It’s bitching and moaning to your buddies […] It’s that camaraderie.”

Those were the good times, but the bad mattered even more to Kevin. The unit stuck with each other when rain that had poured all night on the campsite seeped through their tents. But more importantly, when someone was in between jobs and couldn’t afford the cost of the next event, a member would volunteer to drive them and the unit would cover the costs.

When one member of the unit’s wife passed away, he was left with unfinished house projects that had piled up while she had been sick. So the 7th Missouri pulled together a caravan of cars, packed up tools and headed to the hardware store. They spent the weekend doing yard projects, replacing windows, reframing doors and rewiring part of the electrical system.

The unit began to become more important to Kevin — and to Kelsey. 

One of Kevin’s best friends Mike had a daughter named Clair who went to all the events, and Kelsey began to ask about her before every re-enactment. Julia, whose husband Paul re-enacted with Kevin, became Kelsey’s go-to consultant whenever she found daddy long-legs in her tent — Julia always put on a brave face and “did battle” with the spiders, as Kevin put it. They started to see that it was a community, not just strangers who shared a common interest.

And when Julia got cancer, the unit set up a fundraiser website to raise thousands of dollars in support. 

Natasha Thomas | The Harbinger Online

After Julia’s diagnosis, Kevin and his friends put on bright pink “Team Julia” T-Shirts underneath their uniforms before lining up to role call at that weekend’s re-enactment. When Julia came up to them, the row of men took off their jackets. Julia cried, and she never cries.

Kesley later found out that Julia had a severe fear of spiders, although she never let on when she went to fight them out of Kesley’s tent that day.

Kevin was always amazed at the closeness of the group — he loved that whenever Kelsey ran up to his buddies huddling around the fire, they dropped their conversation to tease her and get her to smile. That this unit had made him feel like he would do anything for the other members. Then the day came that he needed it too.

Driving back from a re-enactment, Kevin remembers the conversation he’d had with Paul.

“I knew my marriage was on the outs. It was probably the first time that I ever actually told anybody where things were. It was…” Kevin paused, and let out a long sigh. “Just to be able to tell that somebody was there for you, and understood, and didn’t judge.”

Kevin and Kelsey were struggling, but not alone. Mike and his daughter Clair were there to support them, offering help even when they didn’t ask for it. Clair was a friend for Kelsey to confide in, and their home was a place for Kevin and Kelsey to come when they needed to get away from it all. When their real family was struggling, their other family stepped in.

Kesley got older and got busy with volleyball and homework, and started going to fewer and fewer re-enactments. Now that she’s a junior in high school, it’s been a while since her last weekend with the unit. Kevin, once captain of the unit, demoted himself to private to trade some of the event trips for Kelsey’s weekend volleyball tournaments. But they still think about the 7th Missouri Unit in its heyday — all that it’s given them, and all the friends that they’ve made.

It’s why Kelsey can’t help but smile when she unrolls the sewing kit that the wives in the group had fruitlessly attempted to teach her to use. Kevin wears a proud smile when he recalls the days that he was the captain, the days that he and Kesley never missed a re-enactment. But they also know that the people they love are only a call away.

Kevin and his buddies still frequently go out for a beer, and Paul takes care of Kesley’s pet ferret over spring break — they give him a gift card, though he always tries to refuse. Even though Kevin only goes to a few events a year now, the 7th Missouri remains a family no matter how long its been since they’ve marched together.