Civil War Re-enactors To Wed During Freedom Festival

U.S. Civil War re-enactors Mary Beth Menold and Matt Walker are forming a union that no confederate can do apart on Sept 18.

The couple will be married following the

Battle of Osawatomie reenactment during Freedom Festival. The nuptials will take place in the gazebo near Adair cabin in John Brown Memorial Park. And Freedom Festival-goers are invited to attend.

“We participate in a lot of Civil War reenactments in Missouri, but we wanted to get married in Kansas,” Mary Beth said.

The pair are members of the Colorado Volunteers, a Union force made up of McLain’s Independent Battery and the Second Colorado Cavalry. Mary Beth, who participates sometimes dressed as a male soldier named Joe, is with the artillery battery while Matt is a private in the cavalry unit. When she’s not dressed as a soldier, Mary Beth can be seen among the womenfolk who travel with the soldiers.

“The Colorado Volunteers were primarily made up of miners who lived in tents (while working their claims), so there weren’t homes to leave the women and children behind in,” said Diane Seba, a charter member of the Colorado Volunteers re-enactors group and the maid of honor who helped organize the upcoming ceremony.

“Women and children often traveled with the soldiers, so they had family encampments,” said Seba, whose husband, Don, and several of her children are also re-enactors. “It’s a true family affair for us.”

So it would not be unusual for Mary Beth to follow Matt wherever the Colorado Second Cavalry traveled into battle.

The couple, which currently live in Morrill, Kan., north of Topeka, participated in a Civil War re-enactment at Freedom Festival a couple of years ago and fell in love with the place.

“It’s a beautiful setting, and the people are really friendly,” Matt said. “We enjoyed being in Osawatomie.”

And both re-enactors, who will be married in period costume, said they couldn’t ask for a better setting for a 1860s wedding than in the town known as the “Cradle of the Civil War.”

“Some people asked me why we didn’t get married at Forbes Field (Topeka) closer to our home,” Matt said. “But I wanted to get married in my Civil War uniform and Mary Beth wanted to be in a wedding dress from the period. And if we were going to be married in period costume, I didn’t want a tank in the background.”

The significance wasn’t lost on Seba, either, as she helped plan the wedding.

“I think it was really important for them to get married in Kansas. Even though there were no major battles fought on Kansas soil, the state still sent a great number of soldiers into battle, more so than some other states,” Seba said.

The couple has been dating for six years in between workday jobs and weekend skirmishes with Johnny Reb.

They met one night in Topeka.

“I was out with some friends and we were chatting and having fun, and I saw Mary Beth sitting alone, and I asked her if she wanted to join us,” Matt said. “A few minutes later, she did, and then my friends got up and it ended up just being the two of us, and we talked a long time. My mom owned a couple of country bars, so I grew up in a bar. I learned how to make paper roses out of napkins, so I made Mary Beth 13 paper roses that night.”

Growing up in west Texas, a couple of hours north of the Mexican border, Matt was a bull rider and worked in the oilfields. He also got his first taste of reenactments with a Confederate unit: The Ninth Texas Cavalry. Coincidentally, the Second Colorado Cavalry fought against the Ninth Texas Cavalry at the battle of Mine Creek in Linn County.

“It’s fun to think that Matt has actually been on both sides of that battle,” Mary Beth said.

Mary Beth grew up near Albany, Kan. The town’s founder, W.B. Lawrence, moved to Colorado and joined the Colorado Volunteers during the Civil War.

“We both have connections to the Colorado Volunteers,” she said.

The couple joined the Colorado Volunteers four years ago. Before they joined up, their first visit brought them to a re-enactment in Graham, Mo., where Mary Beth played a bushwhacker and Matt was a Union cavalry soldier. Nowadays, they enjoy being on the same side. And they are eager to make it permanent.

Mary Beth will be married in a light green dress with mother of pearl silver buttons and gold undersleeves. The dress, which will include a floral pattern in the same light green shade, is being made from drapery material – in keeping with the style of the times.

“Most women did not get married in white dresses during that time period,” Mary Beth said. “White material would have been much too expensive. You would have to be a high-ranking officer like a major to be able to afford white material. Wedding dresses in those days were usually colorful.”

Matt will be decked out in his blue dress uniform with yellow piping.

The wedding will include numerous male and female re-enactors as bridesmaids and groomsmen.

“It wasn’t unusual to have up to nine bridesmaids in those days, so we could have a large wedding party,” Mary Beth said.

The couple will eat their supper over a campfire and spend their wedding night in the encampment, just as their descendents would have done more than 100 years ago during the Civil War.

“Being a re-enactor really gets into your blood,” Mary Beth said. “We love it more than anything else.”

The re-enactments help Matt forget his troubles.

“Once you put on the uniform and you get the camp set up, you are in the period,” he said. “You leave the modern world behind.”

Diane Seba arranged for Osawatomie Nazarene minister Raymond Brunet to officiate the ceremony.

Mary Beth said the only detail now is finding someone in Osawatomie to make the wedding cake. And the couple is hopeful a large crowd will be on hand to hear them exchange their vows.

“We thought a Civil War wedding would be unique and wonderful,” she said. “We are looking forward to it.”

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Posted by Doug on Sep 8 2010. Filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry