1st Illinois Battalion

Meet the Adjutant

Adjutant, Captain Steve Fratt - 

Steve received an appointment to West Point in 1972 but was not able to go due to illness.  He instead went to Westmont College, Fuller Seminary, and UC Santa Barbara earning a Master’s and Doctorate in History.  All the while he stayed interested in military history topics.  He wrote a 200-page honors project on the Waterloo campaign at Westmont and since that time has contributed articles to Strategy and Tactics Magazine, the Indiana Military History Journal, and, has been a consultant to several books on military history, most notably Paddy Griffith’s Battle Tactics in the American Civil War.  His “Guns of Gettysburg” article in North and South Magazine demonstrated how muzzle-loading Civil War artillery should be properly understood as augmented Napoleonic artillery rather than a radically new technology.

Steve was promoted to full professor in 2007 and currently serves as History Department chair at Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois.  Besides serving as the European historian, Steve oversees the History Major with Military History emphasis and the Minor in Military History.  He incorporates wargaming extensively in his courses which even includes the History of Middle Earth.  In the spring of 2008, Steve received the President’s Prize for Distinguished Performance as a Full Professor for his 18 years at Trinity College.

In 1980, Steve began as a medieval re-enactor in Santa Barbara and served as Isles Knight Marshal in the Society for Creative Anachronism.  He also taught sabre fencing at UC Santa Barbara and Westmont College.  His first experience with Civil War re-enacting was after moving to Chicago in 1990. After seeing the movie Gettysburg, Steve signed up in 1994 with the 7^th Virginia Infantry and served for two years.  In 1996, he joined up with Austin’s Battalion, Company B, serving as corporal and acting second sergeant.  Some of his favorite re-enacting moments were at the 135^th Sharpsburg (cornfield, sunken road) and 135^th Gettysburg (Pickett’s Charge).

In the spring of 2001, Steve was asked to command Company A, 19^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry [The Chicago Zouaves].  As the 19^th  was new unit and still low in numbers, it has often folded into the 104^th Illinois.  In the fall of 2001 at Minooka, Steve volunteered to serve as temporary battalion adjutant and rather liked the assignment.  During the 2002 season, Steve began serving the 1^st Illinois Battalion as Adjutant on a regular basis.  In the fall of 2007 he was promoted to Captain.  

e-mail:  fratthaus@comcast.net