Wareham's 2014 Summer of Celebration will feature six weeks of fun, including a reenactment of the British invasion of Wareham during the war of 1812. First, though, the "soldiers" need to learn how to shoot.

With rifles in hand, a reenactment training session took place on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 1 p.m. at the Old Methodist Meeting House on Main Street.

The Wareham Minutemen and Militia were trained  by three people from the Rehoboth Minute Company 13th Continental Regiment.

The regiment will also be sponsoring the 1812 encampment taking place on June 14 and 15 during the 2014 Summer of Celebration.

"Anyone who is interested can feel free to stop by and learn with us," Wareham resident Mack Phinney said.

The first day of training featured no live firing, though trainees were shown how to properly load and shoot their rifles.

“We want to be as safe as possible,” Phinney explained. “If we make a mistake, it reflects poorly on the whole re-enactment society.”

Because of this, a safety check was one of the first processes explained. Firing and marching formalities were also explained.

“You don’t need to be smart, you can just be in the back and follow the smart guys,” the Rehoboth regiment’s Lloyd Lesperance explained.

Among other important topics explored was the rifle cleaning process. Soldiers can clean their weapons with a combination of Murphy’s oil soap, warm water and Hydrogen peroxide.

While there was much to learn for the Wareham Minutemen and Militia, the group is not new, but renewed.

"We're reformed from the bicentennial, when we reenacted the War of 1812 and Revolutionary War," Phinney explained.

John Carr, of the Rehoboth regiment, has been doing reenactments since 1996.

“I used to watch parades and say, ‘wow that’s cool,’ but I never knew how to get into it,” Carr said. “History was one of my favorite subjects in school, and my second wife was already in the group and got me into it.”