The Darby Creek Boys

Welcome to the homepage of the Darby Creek Boys. We are a progressive mess from Ohio that is open to those wanting to improve their impression as a Federal infantryman in the Civil War.  While we strive to continually improve our impressions we are also understanding and will gladly help someone new or someone who has been in the hobby a while develop a better looking kit and impression. The key thing is to have the right attitude and the rest will follow.

What is a mess? Messes were groups of men who ate and lived together in the Civil War. Messes usually ranged from 4 to 12 men and were pretty much self-sufficient units, comprised of men from the same company. Mess names came from three general sources of inspiration: self-effacing or informal fancy (e.g. Shirkers, Slackers, etc.), associated objects (e.g. Buckeye, Dipping Gourd, etc.), places of origin (e.g. Newark, Kent, etc.), or the names or titles of prominent Mess members (e.g. Garfield's Mess, McKinley's Mess, etc.). With many re-enacting messes we mostly see the first variety, and too few of the other types. Which is why we chose our name after Big Darby Creek, a southerly flowing river in western Franklin County, Ohio.

The Darby Creek Boys also hold memberships with re-enacting units throughout Ohio, some of which are the 4th, 9th and 30th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. However we formed the Darby Creek Boys because there are times where we choose to go to events separate from our units due to our desire to more accurately experience the life of a soldier in the field. We are proud to announce that we have joined the Western Federal Blues so that we can attend these events with likeminded progressive re-enactors enjoying the experience with a larger force.