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The Confederate States Marine Corps, Company B, Ohio River Detachment is a reenactment group for the War Between The States, also known as the War of Northern Aggression, or more commonly the Civil War. Based in the Greater Cincinnati area, we are a family oriented group that travels mainly to reenactments in the Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana area. The main mission of our group is to have fun. We portray a Confederate Marine Corps Company during the Early War period that may have been detached to the Ohio River to man Confederate Artillery positions to attack Union Gunboats; guard Generals or persons of importance; act as sharpshooters for a Regular Army unit; or to act as an independent infantry group for special missions.

Roger Pruitt, a United States Marine veteran, in Middletown, Ohio, formed the Company B around 1965. It was a loosely organized outfit made up mostly of Mr. Pruitt’s co-workers from Armco Steel, friends, and family. At the time it was most probably the only Civil War reenactment group in the Tri-State area. The excitement created by the 100- year anniversary of the Civil War had ignited a firebrand of interest in Civil War during the 1960s, and the Confederate States Marine Corps became the parent reenactment group from which spawned many of the founding members of many other present day Union and Confederate reenactment groups in the Cincinnati area.

The Confederate States Marine Corps, Company B, reenacted mostly artillery because they had made a 3/4 scale, 3-inch Ordinance Rifle at Armco Steel, affectionately known as Revelations. (It was the Civil War practice to name cannons). Revelations was made similar to an actual Confederate Mountain Rifle. The barrel was a steel-lined smooth bore for safety but Company legend is that it won an award for accuracy on the Kentucky River sometime in the 1970s (Tom Henson dec’d.)

The legend also is that sometime in the 1970s that Roger Pruitt found a Civil War era 3-inch Ordinance Rifle barrel buried in the back of a chicken coop and purchased it from the farmer. The barrel was mounted on a carriage and christened Genesis. This was the main gun of the unit until Mr. Pruitt’s death in 1989. Genesis was also sleeved with steel for safety but supposedly had been documented as having served as a Union artillery piece in the Battle of Gettysburg. Sadly, the cannon was sold to a private collector and has been lost to reenactment. The unit purchased a used full-scale reproduction 3-inch Ordinance Rifle with ammunition carriage in Bedford, Indiana in 2003. We travel to events with both Alpha-Omega and Revelations.

Today, the CSMC, Co. B, ORD is comprised of approximately 15 men and women that act as CSMC artillerists, infantry, and camp followers. Led by Captain Mike White since 2008, the CSMC has distinguished itself as one of the oldest, continuing reenactment units in Cincinnati. We camp in period canvas tents at battle sites, cook our food over an open fire, and tell stories of how it used to be…….last week, last year, or over one hundred years ago. For the faint of heart there is usually a motel nearby. We travel to events with both Alpha-Omega and Revelations. Come out and help us spread the word, one cannon shot at a time.

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