Northwest Department
The Department | Member
Units | Contacts | Board
of Directors | Event Calendar
The remains of the Music Bastion of Ft. Pitt may be destroyed. Please note the website http://www.savefortpitt.org/index.php/1 for details and sign the on-line petition. Let's try to keep another piece of our history from being lost to us.
Thaks for your help, Bob Cairns and Fred Schneider
In the late ‘60’s, if you listened carefully, you could already hear Revolutionary
War rumblings in and around Ohio; by 1970 there were four Brigade units
in the heartland. An informal network naturally arose among the Brigade
units and others in the region and in June, 1973 they first performed together
at Point Pleasant, W.Va.
Now, a trip to a Brigade show in New England
entails some serious time and expense, but Point Pleasant is only six hours
away from people in Michigan and Fort Laurens is only five hours away from people
in Cincinnati. In 1973, therefore, we were eager to develop a Revolutionary
War program in the Midwest. The Brigade was receptive. The solution was
the Northwest Department (NWD). Negotiation and procrastination kept us busy
from 1973 to 1980, when the Northwest Department’s B.A.R. charter was suddenly
made official. In the meantime, with the Brigade’s blessing, we began
what has been a 27-year success story. We have grown from a handful of member
units in 1973 to 25 today. There are over 500 soldier and civilian members on
our roster
The Northwest Department’s Charter gives us
considerable autonomy in promoting and performing shows in its own territory.
The territory can be flexibly defined as west of the Alleghenies but not as
far west as the Western Department nor as far south as the Southern Department.
Although it administers its own program, conducts elections, keeps an operating
budget and publishes its own newsletter (the B.A.R. Shot), the Northwest
Department is governed by the constitution and bylaws of the B.A.R. Our Board
of Directors is like the Main Department’s, except that our officers’ military
ranks are one grade lower. Our operating budget is a product of our own efforts.
No Brigade dues flow into the Northwest Department treasury. Northwest
Department members are Brigade members; its performances are Brigade
performances and its events are open to all Brigade members.
The Northwest Department is a family within a family. We treasure
our personal relationships within the Brigade at large, but we also feel
pride in our “Northwest family.” We charter busses to distant events. We have
our own peculiar “style” of mock battle (officially named “Tactical Weapons
Demonstration”) that stresses speed and flexibility. We are very adaptable:
one of our regular Northwest Department shows requires that we all—“Crown” and
“Colonial” soldiers alike—portray militiamen of exactly 200 years ago. Once
a small mob of Northwest Department soldiers went en masse to an event
as woodland Indians.
Our event schedule appears nearby in the
B.A.R. website. You can contact the Brigade via the Brigade Public
Information Officer for specific details on the B.A.R. Northwest Department,
email Wally Richardson, Northwest
Department Deputy Commander.
Each unit listed below is a member of this department. Those units having their own web site are hyperlinked. If a unit that you are interested in does not have a link, please contact the Public Information Officer for more information.
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Requests Regarding:
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Contact:
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NWD Adjutant |
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Public Information Officer |
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Brigade
Webmistress |
| The members of the Brigade of the American Revolution (BAR) are all volunteers so please be patient with our replies. Cheers, |
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Follow the above link to the 2006 NWD Board of Directors.
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