Back when I used to read Clive Cussler books (before I twigged to the fact that they were all the same book, just with the names changed), there was a cool scene with some Civil War reenactors who got 'drafted' by his hero Dirk Pitt to help chase down some terrorists. It turned out (at least in that novel) that a Napoleon firing beer cans full of concrete put some real serious holes through the tugboat the terrorists were fleeing in . . .

ObTrav: The PCs find themselves shipless at the local upport, watching as their quarry's ship undocks and gathers way. Just then, the somewhat tipsy crew of the ISS Empress Regnant - a meticulously-restored Civil-War-era Cobra-class close escort maintained by the local subsector navy as a recruiting vessel - staggers into the corridor intersection. This group of retired senior non-comms can be overheard moaning to one another about how this year's Arbellatra Commemorative Gala is so horribly boring . . .