D Company Fights in Europe

Popov "Sees the Elephant"

D Company’s Brevet 4^th Sargent Max Popov sends the following report of his first major re-enactment event. He definitely "has seen the elephant" and is a veteran soldier now.

"Well, I would like to share some of my memories with you. We went to Czechia [Editor’s note: a portion of the former Czechoslovakia] on September 7th by train and arrived the next day at the

Ukrainian/Slovakian border. That was really funny. Our Customs officials started to check our luggage - American Civil War uniforms, shirts, equipment, etc. After a few minutes they said: "All of you are guys are crazy so you can go without checking:-)

"The train brought us and our luggage to Koshice (Slovakia) and later to Praga (Czechia). Praga is a great city. I was really impressed of its beauty. It was Joanna's first trip abroad so she walked with opened mouth and I couldn't close it:-)

But as you probably know something will happen if everything is OK for a long time...That worked again - When we were ready to continue to move to another town in Czechia (where we had to have our battle) we were surrounded by Ukrainian Mafia (Yes, Mafia!!!). Near the railway station, They told us that we have to pay money because we were Ukrainians and they would "defend" us in Praga. We tried to refuse and call the Police, but the Police looked as though they didn't hear us and the Mafia guys became very angry with us. To tell the truth, I was scared because I had more than 300 bucks in my wallet...But I was also scared for my lovely Honey. Our group had only three men and two women but Mafia guys had more than 10 assholes/gorillas...We decided to pay and avoid any problems. The "tax" wasn't very high - 50 bucks. [Editor's note: It may or may not have comforted Sgt. Popov, but he has been assured that in New York City, it would have been far worse.]

Our battle was a great one especially for me as a "new fish". We portrayed the Battle of Glendale (Frazier's Farm) part of Seven days Battle, 30 June 1862. Later I'll ask other guys who were there about all the units that were there, but as I remember, the was the 2nd South Carolina, 5th Texas, 7th Georgia Cavalry, Washington Artillery, 1st South Carolina Cavalry, 4th Texas Infantry and two cannons which I don't remember the unit number on Confederate side. The Yankees had 1st and 2nd US Cavalry, 1st US Sharpshooters, 3rd Michigan, 18th Missouri, 5th New Your Zouaves, and 79th New York "Highlanders". There were several more on each side but I don't remember numbers. All Cavalry units were dismounted. We even had a guy in British Army uniform, who was an advisor as it was in the real Civil War.

I was with the 4th Texas, Company K. To tell you the truth, there was a 5^th Texas, Company D (yes Company D!!) from Czechia, but I saw they weren't very serious, so I decided to be with 4th Texas, especially since their commander, Lt. Vieregg (German) loaned me a rifle and tent. So I had fall in with his unit. .I will act as a separate unit when I have recruited more guys but I'm alone now so I have to be under somebody else’s command.

It was my first real battle where I was shooting, marching, eating etc in my American Civil War uniform. Oh, man, it was very impressive. We had only two battles because of limited time. The first one was during the night and I can't tell you anything because I was so scared :-) - it was my first battle and I didn't know how to fire, how to act, etc. Well, let me remember - It wasn't a real battle it was a skirmish. I was in first platoon, front rank. We attacked and retreated. I used more than 10 rounds in the 30 minute skirmish. When we retreated, we waited for the second platoon but it got lost somewhere so Lt. Vieregg decided to attack again. We came under heavy fire from a full Federal company (they combined two platoons in one company)...A few minutes later we had heard shots from our second platoon, and they arrived in time to support us.

The Second battle was ~3-4 hours, I don't remember exactly because I didn't have a time-piece. The Confederate company was cut into 2 platoons. First platoon came under the Company Commander (Cpt. Chumbers from 7^th Georgia Cavalry) and consisted of German troops. Second Platoon came under Lt. Vieregg and consisted of Germans, Austrians, Czechs - and me:-). There were three cannons, one on a hill and two on the field where we were going to fight. When First Platoon retreated, we began to attack. We lost three guys in that attack. We took them from the field and by the Captain's command were sent to retreat. The Artillery didn't stop on minute, just firing and firing (it was look like they had tons of black powder:-) The next attack we were involved had fatal end for me. We fired some shots, attacked, fired a few more shots, and went to hand-to-hand battle where I was killed by Federal a soldier. The platoon moved back and gave covering fire during that movement while the "killed" guys came back to the ranks.

During our rest in rear, Zouaves tried to attack us, and that was a great moment. Five Zoauves ran toward us and Lt. Vieregg commanded

"Load, Aim, Fire"...and five bodies lay on the field:-) (Later in camp a Zouave told me that he saw me shoot him and he fell down, so he was mine:-). During the next attack from the Federals, we retreated and lost one cannon but we took a prisoner – a full major!!!!! In last the attack, the Lt. was killed and we were left without NCOs or officers at that time (Our Serge had Asthma so he went out of the battle before). We went into a hand-to-hand attack again - I was lucky enough to kill a Federal Soldier, but was killed too by a US Sharpshooter (a friend of mine from Ukraine).

I've made a lot of good contacts with other guys from Germany, Austria and Czechia. We had a good "after-battle" evening with beer were we shared our thoughts about battle. I fought under the Texas flag and felt myself as a real Rebel.! My Platoon leader was Lt. Vieregg and he was a good officer on that battle. Sorry, but I had to cut my sergeant stripes because I acted as a private.

Sad, but battle is behind and I'm again doing my routine work.I want to tell all of you that I would like to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with you in the line and I missed my real Company at that event.

Your friend,

Max Popov

Company D, 5th Texas Volunteer Infantry