- September 04, 2026
- By Sala Levin ’10
FOR DECADES, up and down the Eastern Seaboard, Larry Babits ’69, M.A. ’74 transformed time and again into a stranger he knew intimately: a nameless rear rank private in the First Maryland Regiment, fighting the British for American independence.
Nurturing an interest initially sparked while a UMD undergraduate, Babits has taken part in some 200 living history events: shooting competitions and Revolutionary and Civil War reenactments, a hobby that both influenced and was influenced by his work as an archaeologist specializing in American battlefields and sunken military ships.
“My work made the details of the reenactments better,” says Babits, now a retired professor of maritime studies at East Carolina University. “You look for patterns in the artifacts, and you can extrapolate from that to reproduce things that enable you to better interpret what you’re doing.”
Babits, known for his seminal book “A Devil of a Whipping,” on the critical 1781 Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina, was particularly curious about the daily lives of low-ranking soldiers. For reenactments, Babits’ wife sewed his uniforms, and he carried a historically accurate weapon; his first gun, a flintlock musket, was an original that he bought from the descendants of a Revolutionary War soldier.
“He’s like a dog on a bone when he’s researching,” says a friend, former Maryland Historical Society President Burt Kummerow. “He’s done really important stuff for the community that’s interested in that subject matter.”
A favorite battle to reenact, Babits says, was Antietam. “We were in the sunken lane, where the Irish Brigade came up over the hill, and you could see their flagstaffs
before they came up, and then you could see their bayonets come up, and then you could see the men come up,” he says. “That’s something people hadn’t remarked on in their letters about the battle.”
During a reenactment to mark the Battle of Cowpens’ 200th anniversary, Babits took note of an anachronism that might have changed the course of history—someone had turned up with a highly decorated long rifle.
When the sun emerged from behind the clouds, its flash on the rifle’s silver was visible even 50 yards away. “That’s one thing you wouldn’t have seen in the Revolution, because it gave away a man’s position.”
Babits still participates in uniformed shooting competitions but gave up reenacting in 1995, when his age started to make his portrayal of a low-ranking soldier unrealistic, in his detail-oriented historian’s view.
“A lot of reenactors don’t stop, but their bent shoulders, potbellies and gray hair show they are not front-line infantrymen.”
Larry Babits
Babits holds the Maryland flag during a Revolutionary War reenactment.
Issue
Fall 2026Types
Post-GradTags
America 250