Civil War Reenactment

This afternoon I took Gaby to a Civil War reenactment in Leesburg, VA. Several hundred volunteers reenacted the battle of Ball's Bluff on the same battlefield where it occurred exactly 150 years ago.

I have read books and seen several documentaries on the Civil War, but walking through a replica of an encampment with rows of white, A-framed tents, smelling camp fires, and seeing Civil War-era clothing and artifacts throughout the camp really made me feel like I had been transported to the 1860s.

The reenacted battle was also amazingly realistic. The organizers had recreated the battle in just about every way conceivable. There were all the actors from front-line privates to messenger to medics. Officers were yelling orders and trying to orchestrate a chaotic scene. The sound of canons and rifles being fired simultaneously was almost deafening. Also true to the actual event, in addition to the central battle being fought in an open field, scrimmages between Confederate and Union troops were being fought in the woods all around us.

Gaby was the perfect partner for this outing. Unlike her brothers, especially Colin, who would have been enamored with the battle and eager to get his hands on a gun and a uniform, Gaby realized that the men lying in the field represented actual people who died for a cause they believed in. She seemed to understand the tragedy, heroism, and higher purpose of the Civil War.