Re-enactors refer to their roles as "impressions." While several members of Glover's Marblehead Regiment have chosen to assume the roles of specific characters of the time (such as ship's surgeon, carpenter, quartermaster, artillerist, etc.), most members present themselves as mid-18th century common sailors and/or officers.

Women play an important role. In fact, geography and the codfish economy gave birth to the "Marblehead Woman" - a tough, canny, self-sufficient partner to the men in her life. They managed 10% of the households in our fishing town. Many lost their husbands to storms and leaking ships as well to the hands of marauding French pirates.

They were known as "codfish widows" because the fishing idustry regularly removed most able-bodied men and boys from February to September to the offshore fishing grounds. For these months, the women were left to fend for themselves, raising large families and managing households. History records that Marblehead women were capable of protecting themselves and their children with their fists, clubs, and - when necessary - even with firearms. Thus, when their fishermen husbands went to war, Marblehead women often went with them.