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Your both ideas concerning the reenacting are interesting.

I only want to note that it’s difficult to create a typical Romanian warriors unit of XVII-th century, particularly on that area of today Romania. From the end of XVI-th century, armies were mainly composed of companies of mercenaries and professional soldiers that “sold” their services & skills to the princes and kings who intended to raise a military force. Typical for that period and Central European region were the Hungarian/Transylvanian and Polish armies. The polish army during that “golden age” was composed of a mixture of western (“german”) military units: dragoons, trabants, musketeers, and eastern military units: hussars, seymens, hayduks, janissaries, tartars, kosaks. These warriors were dressed in their traditional/national costumes, brought their own weapons and used traditional tactics.

It’s difficult to speak about a Romanian military tradition and fashion except the Wallachian Dorobantzes (Trabanten) and Calarashi (horsemen) in mid. XVII-th century. Unfortunately, there is no information and serious studies concerning the dress, tactics, weapons of these units, but they should fallow the fashion of the East/Central European costume.

You said that your ancestor was awarded with a nobility rank for his military service. It’s difficult to say if he belonged to a Romanian/Wallachian unit fighting for the Prince of Transylvania or he joined other local or foreign unit.

There are a few medieval reenactment groups in Hungary that remembrer the Hungarian/Central European style of warfare (see their portal: http://katonaihagyomany.lap.hu/ ). There are also some medieval reenacting groups in Romania: The Knights of Medias, of Sibiu, of Sighisoara, etc. that participate at the medieval festivals such as the famous event of Sighisoara. I’m not very much satisfied by the quality of their performance because they simply copied the western style of chivalry that was not specific for the eastern part of Europe, not even for the german area of Transylvania . In this region was a mixture of western and eastern styles of armours, weapons and tactics.

Another solution is to select a Romanian military unit of the modern times, that was located in Oradea since 1918. After WW1 in Oradea was set up the 17th Infantry Division , with the 17th Infantry Brigade - Oradea ( 85th and 86th infantry regiments) and the 47th Infantry Brigade – Cluj (83rd and 98th infantry regiments). After the Arbitration/Dictate of Vienna, of August 1940, some Romanian units, such as the 17th Infantry Division , were disbanded.

After WW2, in Oradea was located the 18th Infantry Division (90th, 91st and 92nd infantry regiments). This great unit was numbered the 35th, and in 1951was relocated in Banat, to face the menace of Tito’s Yugoslavia.

In 1949, from the 2nd Infantry Division (Craiova) was set up the 11th Infantry Division (Oradea), composed of the 3rd, 14th and 36th infantry regiments. In 1951 the 11th Infantry Division was numbered the 95th Infantry Division (composed of 285th, 199th and 104th infantry regiments). In 1959 the division regains its old number, the 18th, and the 285th infantry became the 21st Infantry Mechanized Regiment. In 1994 this regiment was transformed in the 21st Infantry Battalion “General Traian Mosoiu”.

In 1959, the 21st Infantry Regiment/Battalion took the traditions of the 3rd Dorobantzes Regiment “Olt”, that was set up on 1st January 1877, and have participated at all the major campaigns of the Romanian army.

It was not a good idea to give the number 21st to the infantry regiment of Oradea and adopt the traditions of the 3rd Dorobantzes “Olt” , because the 21st infantry had its own tradition in the Romanian army and was one of the oldest units (set up in 1830 as the first infantry regiment in Moldavia, became the 4th line infantry in 1859 and the 21st infantry in 1890). Unfortunately nobody cared about traditions in 1959.

Personally I would prefer a local (Oradea) or Transylvanian unit, maybe an Austrian regiment with a major Romanian presence. For example the 50th KuK Infantry Regiment of Alba Iulia, raised in 1850, with 71 % Romanian manpower in 1914, bore the traditions of the 2nd Wallachian Frontier Regiment of Nasaud (set up in 1764). In 1919, in Alba Iulia was set up the 91st Infantry Regiment “King Ferdinand”, that was supposed to continue the great military traditions of the 50th KuK regt.

Finally it’s up to you to decide what is the best unit to reenact, in order to establish the “story” of your group, make the right uniforms, etc.

Concerning the fire weapons, this is another story. We still use the rifles borrowed from the military museum, as we co-operate with them for the shows. Some of us are fire weapons collectors, and participate at the shows with their own arms, but it’s difficult to amass a great quantity of rifles of the same type. As I told you, it might be a possibility to cooperate with the military museum of Oradea for some shows, and borrow their weapons for those events. As far as I know, Colonel Mosincat used some old weapons and uniforms of the museum during the historical events.