The 2nd Colorado Ellen Williams Society

 

             The Ellen Williams Society is a special facet of our unit providing organizational support for 19th century civilian Reenactors. While many of our civilians are the wives and family members of our soldiers we welcome all interested civilian Reenactors to join us. We offer a wide variety of activities for our civilian Reenactors in fact they tend to out pace the infantrymen of the Second on activity!

             The name sake of the society is Mrs. Ellen Williams a who followed her husband and the Second Colorado all the way from Colorado to Fort Scott Kansas along with many other wives and family members of the Second. After the war Mrs. Williams wrote “Three Years and a Half in the Army; or, History of the Second Colorados” the definitive work for studying this regiment.

             Many of the events we attend feature large civilian encampments or Civilian Life Living History Programs and are always in need of good impressions of period life. In addition several large Regional and National Events have activities that need participants but are located far from where the Second is encamped. Our Civilian Corps can attend these functions and Programs on behalf of the organization while our infantrymen are in the field.

             Not all Second Colorado Events are appropriate for Civilian Corps Participation. When the Second Colorado is participating in a field campaign style event then having civilian visitors would be inaccurate. However a good portion of the events we attend are either heavy camping events (indicating an army encamped near a town or railhead for many days) or take place at a fort (indicating an extended time of garrison duty). In these cases civilian visitors would be possible and therefore appropriate for the event.

             The Ellen Williams Society has an active Living History Program and speakers are available for your classroom or community group. Email us today!

Our Civilian members assist the 2nd Colorado in fund raising and by attending event functions that our men in the field can’t easily get to.

When  encamped or serving Garrison duties the men of the Second enjoy a nice visit from our families.