who  are  we ?

We here at the Bureau of Military Information Living History Organization (BMI) are a group of history obsessed individuals who are dedicated in bringing to life the lesser known group of soldier and civilian scouts and spies of Colonel (and later Bvt. Major General) George H Sharpe’s Bureau of Military Information of the Army of the Potomac that existed from February 1863 to April 1865.

We are a progressive unit that does our best to faithfully depict what a camp set up from one of Sharpe’s scouting detachments was like and how it operated in the field. We were founded on the 160th anniversary of the original’s on February 11th, 2023 as a group of friends that wanted to do something different in the Civil War community and has grown steadily in numbers and partnerships with other units. Our members range from New Jersey and Northern Pennsylvania to northern Virginia and usually partake in events within that range. Our unit organization allows us to break the norms of regular reenacting units as well as allowing for a unique opportunity to those who are apart of other groups to have a chance to partake in field operations that you may not be able to do with your standard field units.

We are the proud scouting unit for the Headquarters of the 1st Regiment United States Volunteers (USV) and for its 4th Company under Cpt Bedford.

You can check out a slide show from previous event below as well as our FAQ.

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  • YES! If you are new to the hobby we can help! Need loaner gear? We can help! Need to learn the basics? You guessed it, we can help thanks to our close ties to other units like the 6th New Hampshire.

  • YES! You do not have to be a member of our group to partake in our scouting and provost operations. We regularly ask for volunteers from other units for our various duties just like Sharpe’s original organization would have.

  • While we do have the usual camp life most units have, we do have some differences. We are actively scouting, writing reports, observing opposing camps and forces, interviewing prisoners, provost duties, and compiling field maps. Our operations are active both day and night (depending on the event type). The least active times for us are doing battle scenarios at reenactments when we observe from outside the battle lines and record the movement of troops, take prisoners, inform line officers of unseen enemy movements, and however our commanders need our assistance. Never a dull moment.

  • Yes and no. During battle scenarios we are not in the battle line but are on the field in other capacities. If you would like to partake in the rank and file portion of the events you can absolutely do that whether that’s with your actual unit or with one of our partnered ones.