165th Antietam Sutler Registration & Requirements
September![]()
3–5, 2027
Homespun Historical Ventures Inc.
Homespun Historical Ventures is pleased to welcome professional sutlers, makers, craftsmen, and vendors to the 165th Anniversary Antietam Campaign.
Our goal is simple: we want participants to have access to high-quality, historically documented goods from the people and businesses who support serious Civil War living history.
The 165th Antietam will place a strong emphasis on documented, regiment-specific impressions, and we want Sutler Row to support those efforts.
SUTLER REGISTRATION IS FREE
There will be NO SUTLER FEE for the 165th Anniversary Antietam Campaign.
Professional sutlers wishing to attend must register through the official Homespun Historical Ventures Zeffy Sutler Registration.
There is no charge to register and no charge for your vendor space.
Registration allows HHV to know who is attending, determine space requirements, organize Sutler Row, and provide vendors with arrival and setup information.
The registration will request basic information including:
- Business or sutler name
- Primary contact
- Email address
- Phone number
- Website and/or social media page
- General description of merchandise
- Approximate space requirements
- Tent or canopy dimensions
- Any special setup requirements
WHY ARE WE NOT CHARGING A SUTLER FEE?
A designated Trade Blanket Area will be located close to Sutler Row.
This will be an informal area where reenactors can lay out their used gear and sell, swap, or trade among themselves.
We want our professional sutlers to know in advance that the Trade Blanket will be taking place nearby.
Because participants will have an informal opportunity to buy and sell used equipment, HHV does not believe it is appropriate to charge professional sutlers for the privilege of attending the event and providing new merchandise to our participants.
We recognize the investment professional sutlers make in:
- Inventory
- Travel
- Fuel
- Lodging
- Setup
- Staffing
- Spending an entire weekend at an event
The Trade Blanket will simply provide reenactors with a place to move their used personal gear.
Professional sutlers will not be charged to attend.
REGISTERED SUTLERS WILL BE ADVERTISED BY HHV
We want the relationship between HHV and our sutlers to be mutually beneficial.
Once your Sutler Registration has been received and approved, your business will be advertised on the HHV website as an attending sutler for the 165th Anniversary Antietam Campaign.
Your listing may include:
- Business or sutler name
- Description of merchandise
- Website
- Facebook or other business page
- Contact information
This will allow participants to see which sutlers are attending and what they offer before arriving at the event.
If your business accepts advance orders for event pickup, participants will also be able to use the website or contact information you provide to reach you directly.
There is no charge for this advertising.
We want to promote the businesses supporting this event and give participants the opportunity to shop with you both before and during the weekend.
SUTLER ROW LOCATION
Sutler Row will be located close to the event parking area and outside the primary immersive historical area.
Because of this location, professional sutlers are:
NOT required to dress in period clothing.
NOT required to maintain a period-style sutler setup.
Modern business equipment is perfectly acceptable, including:
- Pop-up canopies
- Modern tables
- Business signage
- Credit-card readers
- Electronic payment systems
- Cell phones
- Modern storage
- Other equipment normally required to operate your business
We would rather concentrate our requirements on the historical quality of the merchandise being offered than require our vendors to invest in period storefronts.
MERCHANDISE REQUIREMENTS
This is where our standards are important.
Merchandise represented as historically authentic must be based upon documented Civil War or mid-19th-century material culture.
Documentation may include:
- Surviving original artifacts
- Museum collections
- Period photographs
- Quartermaster specifications
- Ordnance records
- Period advertisements
- Period catalogs
- Archaeological evidence
- Documented private collections
- Other credible historical sources
Our standard is straightforward:
If you are selling something as an authentic historical reproduction, there needs to be historical documentation behind it.
Something being commonly used within the reenacting community does not automatically make it historically correct.
APPROPRIATE MERCHANDISE
We welcome vendors offering quality reproductions of items such as:
- Federal and Confederate military clothing
- Civilian clothing
- Hats and headwear
- Shoes and boots
- Leather accoutrements
- Cartridge boxes and cap boxes
- Belts and buckles
- Bayonet scabbards
- Knapsacks
- Haversacks
- Canteens
- Blankets
- Ground cloths
- Camp equipment
- Tinware
- Cookware
- Fabrics
- Buttons
- Patterns
- Sewing supplies
- Civilian accessories
- Personal items
- Books
- Historical research materials
- Reproduction documents
- Period stationery
- Other documented Civil War-era material culture
We particularly welcome craftsmen and vendors whose products are copied directly from surviving originals or based upon strong historical documentation.
NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE ANTETAM-SPECIFIC
We understand that professional sutlers serve the entire Civil War living-history community.
You are not limited to selling merchandise appropriate only to September 1862.
Items appropriate to other periods of the Civil War are welcome.
We simply ask that an item not be represented to a participant as appropriate for Antietam or the September 1862 Maryland Campaign when it is not.
Something may be an excellent reproduction and completely authentic to the Civil War while still being inappropriate for a particular:
- Year
- Regiment
- Army
- Branch of service
- Theater
- Impression
We encourage our sutlers to help participants understand those distinctions.
REPRODUCTION VS. PERIOD-INSPIRED
We recognize that there is a difference between an exact historical reproduction and an item that is merely inspired by the period.
Period-inspired merchandise may be acceptable.
We simply ask that it be honestly represented for what it is.
A modern interpretation should not knowingly be advertised as an exact reproduction of an historical artifact when it is not.
Be honest with the customer about what they are purchasing.
SUPPORTING OUR REGIMENTAL AUTHENTICITY STANDARDS
The 165th Anniversary Antietam Campaign is being organized around specific historical regiments and documented impressions.
Our participants are being provided detailed authenticity standards covering uniforms, equipment, arms, baggage, headgear, footwear, and other aspects of their impressions.
We strongly encourage our attending sutlers to familiarize themselves with those published standards.
Participants may arrive at Sutler Row looking for very specific equipment.
An item can be perfectly authentic to the Civil War and still be wrong for the particular regiment that participant is portraying.
We would love to have sutlers who can say:
“Yes, this is correct for your impression.”
or just as importantly:
“This is a good reproduction, but it isn't correct for what you're portraying at Antietam.”
That level of knowledge benefits the vendor, the participant, and the event.
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
HHV is not interested in turning Sutler Row into a general flea market.
We want professional vendors who support the living-history community and take historical accuracy seriously.
Costume-quality, fantasy, theatrical, or historically unsupported merchandise should not be represented as authentic Civil War reproduction material.
Examples would include:
- Costume-quality uniforms represented as authentic
- Fantasy Confederate equipment
- Fantasy Federal equipment
- Modern cowboy hats represented as Civil War hats
- Historically unsupported insignia represented as authentic
- Modern clothing represented as reproduction clothing
- Modern quilting fabrics represented as documented Civil War fabrics
- Historically unsupported accoutrements represented as authentic reproductions
If an item is being marketed as historically authentic, it should be defensible through historical documentation.
VENDOR APPROVAL
Submitting the free Zeffy Sutler Registration allows HHV to review attending vendors and organize Sutler Row.
HHV reserves the right to decline a vendor or require the removal of merchandise that is clearly inconsistent with the historical standards and purpose of the event.
If there is ever a question about a particular product, we would much rather discuss it with you beforehand.
Our goal is not to make things difficult for our sutlers.
Our goal is to establish a level of confidence where participants know that the professional vendors attending the 165th Antietam take historical accuracy seriously.
THE TRADE BLANKET
A Trade Blanket Area will be located close to Sutler Row.
This will simply be an informal place for reenactors to bring used personal gear they would like to sell, swap, or trade.
It is not intended to replace Sutler Row or compete with our professional vendors.
We are letting our sutlers know about it beforehand because we believe in being transparent about what will be taking place around the vendor area.
It is also one of the reasons we have decided:
There will be no Sutler Fee for this event.
OUR COMMITMENT TO OUR SUTLERS
Professional sutlers, makers, and craftsmen are an important part of the Civil War living-history community.
Many of the impressions being assembled for this event would not be possible without people researching original artifacts and producing quality reproductions.
For the 165th Antietam, HHV intends to support those businesses rather than charge them simply for showing up.
Therefore:
Sutler Registration is FREE.
Sutler space is FREE.
Registered sutlers will be advertised on the HHV website FREE of charge.
We will provide a direct link to your website and/or contact information so participants can find your business before the event.
In return, we ask our professional sutlers to support the historical standards of the event by offering quality, honestly represented, documented goods.
THE STANDARD
Our expectations can be summarized very simply:
You do not have to dress like it is 1862.
Your booth does not have to look like it is 1862.
You do not have to pay HHV to set up.
But:
If you sell something as historically authentic, it needs to be documented.
Our participants are investing significant time, research, and money into creating historically accurate impressions for the 165th Anniversary Antietam Campaign.
We want them to be able to walk through Sutler Row with confidence.
And we want the professional sutlers who make that possible to know that HHV appreciates having you there.
We look forward to welcoming you to the 165th Anniversary Antietam Campaign — September 3–5, 2027.