1st Illinois Battalion

Meet the Principal Musician

Dr. Steve Smunt - I am a native of northern Illinois.  I live in St. Charles, about 40 miles west of Chicago, with my wife, Mary Ann, and four children.  I am a licensed, practicing dentist in St. Charles, having graduated from the University of Illinois Medical Center in 1980.  I have always loved history, especially that of the 19th century.

I started playing civil war period music on the clarinet about 1996, but I could not find any local musicians interested in forming a period band.  Then I witnessed a fife & drum unit at a Revolutionary War reenactment, and decided to get into reenacting as a field musician.  In 1997, I purchased both a folk and a military fife from the Sweetheart Flute Co.  I was fortunate to meet a drummer who was organizing a fife & drum unit with Austin’s Battalion, CSA.  I joined up and began diligently learning, practicing, and memorizing.  I continued to meet new musicians at reenactments and living history programs,  and so we formed the Mississippi Valley Fife & Drum corps.  We do federal, confederate,  and civilian impressions.  This allows for a larger group of musicians to belong to an umbrella organization while still participating with their own favorite reenactment companies.

In 1998,  I participated with the Independent Guard Battalion, CSA, at my first national reenactment for the 135th anniversary of Gettysburg,  PA., and my second one at Chickamauga, GA. in 1999.  In 2000, our corps began participating with the Ist Illinois Battalion at local events.

In early 2002, I was invited to join the battalion staff as 2nd Principal Musician responsible for fife and drum field music.  The integration of the Mississippi Valley Fife & Drum Corps into the battalion has proceeded smoothly into a sharing, learning, and entertaining experience.

e-mail:  swsmunt@sbcglobal.net