~ The Bean's 1st NJV Page ~


God save the King!

Hi! I'm Eileen "the Bean" Eggert. This is my unofficial page about the Loyalist Revolutionary War re-enactment group I belong to, the 1st Batallion New Jersey Volunteers (or just "the 1st NJV" for short). This page is primarily intended to be about my experiences with the 1st NJV and is more or less written from the point of view of a musician in the group. The content of this page does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the leaders of the 1st NJV.

Looking for a re-enactment group to join? Why not us? We're especially looking for fifers for re-enactments or a fife and drum band we'd like to start. If you're at all interested, please visit my recruitment page.

About the 1st NJV:

The 1st NJV was started in the late 1980's and is based in Camden County, NJ (though many of our members live elsewhere). The group usually re-enacts battles in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania but we do travel quite far for big events. We musicians go up to a fife and drum muster in Deep River, Connecticut every year and the whole group went to Canada (Quebec) one year for the annual "Brigade Event" hosted by the Brigade of the American Revolution.

The 1st NJV represents American colonists who wished to remain loyal to their government and King George III. Because we are provincials, we can get away with looking a little scruffier than the British regulars. We allow women to portray soldiers and don't require the men to shave. Our emphasis is on performance. We don't want to just stand around looking polished and superior. Instead we try our hardest to out gun the other groups and put on the best show we know how. We just wan't to kick butt and have fun doing it. Besides, looks aren't what's important from a distance on the battle field.

Need to know what Loyalists were all about?
Click here to read about the Loyalist point of view.

Where You Can See Us:

Other 1st NJV Related Activities:


This is a picture of me when our Drum Major, Dave and I were on Good Day Philadelphia with some "rebel" friends. I'm in the middle, Dave is to the left and that's one of our rebel friends, Kim, to the right. For some reason they do this sort of thing in New Hope, Pennsylvania every Halloween and one year we got ourselves invited.

Browne Jenkyn:

This is my traditional Celtic band, Browne Jenkyn. The members of the band are me, my husband, Del Merritt and the 1st NJV Drum Major, Dave Merritt. We play music from the Revolutionary War period and before so we like to hang out and play at re-enactments.

Del's not an army kind of guy (not even for pretend) so he dresses up and plays the part of a privateer or highwayman as the mood strikes him. Of course he has to spend most of his day trying to explain that to people.

All three members of Browne Jenkyn are drummers but in the band I play tin whistle, Del plays mandolin and Dave plays Bodhran (an Irish drum) and Hammered Dulcimer. For more information about Browne Jenkyn, click on the link below.


E-mail me

The Official 1st NJV Page

To Browne Jenkyn's Homepage

To The Bean's Little Cyber World

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