It was a long, hot, fun weekend. I am now tired and hopefully will manage to make this an interesting AAR. I am going to do this perhaps a little differently than usual.

Thursday: We arrived at the park around 4:30-ish, if I recall correctly, and as we began to unload, with some slight assistance from Josh, Luke and Abigail arrived with their tent fly and wall for us to borrow again (our tent is a leaker, so the fly actually served as an extra roof). The finished set up looked like this:

Our next door neighbors on our right were, by choice, Hawk and Jill...and they had a new set-up!! What do you think?

We hung out under their fly and got eaten alive by skeeters...but still had fun.

Friday: Being School Day we prepped for the kids to walk through. Once again, we weren't official presenters, but were open to questions. A little over half way through the day, I suddenly realized why people kept asking about candles....

We made some new friends, due in part to a baby's bottle needing to be warmed and we having a close at hand fire...

Josh "strutted" around in his new Captain's uniform... ;)

Abigail and Grace came over Friday evening for supper and to spend the night crammed into our tent with us. Before heading off to the Land of Nod, we ended up photo-spreeing...

Furthermore, Obadiah was called in to play "Taps". Now technically, "Taps" is to be played at 10 pm, but it was probably more like 7 or 8 pm...but it is a reenactment....

Saturday: The big day...the day when the whole K. family turned out for the fun...and Mom and Dad came up for the afternoon!! :)

From my vantage point, the battle was sub-spectacular...not bad, but nothing uber exciting. Luke got hit twice (in the same knee). He said later the first hit was because he forgot to put in his ear-plugs and he wanted to put them in. Ethan got hit in the leg too, and later "died" and Andrew and Obadiah got into the action as well.

After the battle, Obadiah played "Taps"...

Troop photos (plus a few of the girls cheering them on)...

Random shots from the day:

Throughout the course of the day, music was played. In fact, we had an official request from General Lee to surround his tent and play. There are no photos of that, since the camerawomen were playing. Luke's accordion fell apart on him, which was really sad. 

The folks left sometime after the K's did and so Katherine and I sat around with Hawk and Jill for awhile, just relaxing and listening to the music from the ball (we didn't go for a number of reasons, one of which was my feet and legs were so tired), and wondering what was up "over yonder". Turns out a youngster had a 45 minute long nosebleed that led to a trip to the ER. He was apparently fine the next day because he was running around playing with other boys.

Sunday: A fairly peaceful day. Hot and humid. Hawk preached a good sermon out of John 4 (the Samaritan woman at the well), which just so happens to be where Pastor is preaching from at church. 

There wasn't a huge amount of interaction with spectators on this day, but we talked to friends and watched the battle which took it's toll on the Confederates. After that we watched the medical demonstration led by Mr. G (who is friends with the K's, sings "Messiah"...and has defeated Lyme disease himself). 

Something almost funny happened at this point. This lady I have been talking to at events on and off for the past two years came up behind me and re-introduced herself...and then asked a mutual friend/acquaintance, Lydia to introduce us girls to her four sons, as her daughter needed to use the ladies... It was a bit awkward, strolling with a girl in a Union artillery uniform into the Confederate artillery camp to meet the four boys. I remember all their names but one. (Philip, Nate, Curtiss...?) Anyway, I really kind of like Mrs. W. and she seems to like me. She asked how old I was and when I said, "26", her voice and body language seemed to say, "Oh...too old for my boys." :D 

We began to break camp not long after the battle and headed to the K's for Sunday evening church. Various people were taking walks or having naps when we got there, so I ended up standing in the kitchen drinking several mugs of water and talking to Luke for fifteen to twenty minutes while Katherine (poor abandoned dear!) rested herself on the front porch, alone. 

After church, some new friends of the K's arrived and we had popcorn and watermelon out doors.

We all spent the night because we were going to join them in/for the local Memorial Day ceremonies and parade. I know Abigail got photos, but we did not...and since I forgot to take my computer with me, I wasn't able to get any of her's. Therefore, no pictures.

Anyway, Katherine and I marched in our first ever parade. :) We were not too far from the head of it; the local High School band was in the lead, with something between them and Mr. S's (a WWII vet) 1939 Buick which we were behind, in the following order: Grace on a vintage bike, Luke and Abigail, then Katherine and I on either side of Obadiah. Behind us was Josiah on his unicycle. Isaac was supposed to drive his little red tractor, but it conked on him just before parade time. :( Poor thing, he was really disappointed (not that I blame him!) All of us, except Josiah were in 1940's dress (more or less), Luke decked out in his seaman's uniform. Andrew and Ethan did a fly-over in a Husky.

Before the parade though was a ceremony. Then after the parade was two ceremonies--one in each cemetery--on opposite sides of the main road. There was music and speeches and prayers which were Christian. Before the third ceremony, as people were mingling around, I accosted a WWII-vet and was allowed to plant a kiss on his cheek. I left red lipstick on his face, which he left there. The American Legion post was handing out plaques of recognition and he was one of the recipients. As it turns out, he was a sailor!! As he was coming up for his plaque, I heard Mrs. K saying something about the lipstick on his face and I leaned over and grinning said, "That's mine..." She laughed. 

Returning to the house and while waiting for lunch, Josiah and I  went out to look at his bees. In under five minutes, I had been stung twice. Once on the neck and once on the chin...so I about faced and headed in, with Josiah right behind me for ice and lavender oil. Next time, I'm taking my own bee helmet. 

After lunch, during which I bit down on my somewhat swollen lip, we talked and played our various instruments and just had a down right enjoyable time. We were the last to leave...we left around 9 pm, tired and worn out, but with another bucket full of memories. 

What do you know? Only five General Jones! (To go back to the end of the last post.)

​General Thomas Jordan was apparently in charge of some Confederate espionage and (according to Wiki) Rose O'Neal Greenhow's, I quote, "handler". Very interesting...

There were six general Lees:

I'll leave you with the Lee's this evening....

Now here's an interesting fact. Mrs. Abe Lincoln had a half sister married to a Confederate General--Benjamin Hardin Helm. 

​I wonder if General Theophilus H. Holmes was acquainted with some of my cousins?? He was born in Sampson County, North Carolina where some of my folks hailed from pre-war....

There were SIX Confederate General Jacksons:

And here we have General Adam Rankin Johnson (one of four CS Gen'l Johnsons). He acquired the nickname "Stovepipe" in the following fashion:

"He was well respected for his bravado, once capturing the town of Newburgh, Indiana from a large Union unit with only twelve men and a length of stovepipe mounted to a wagon. The Union soldiers, fearing the "cannon" surrendered..." (from his Find-a-Grave page)

Now...I wonder how many General Jones there were...I guess I'll find out soon! :D

Maybe you'll find a few more tidbits over here tomorrow...but that's all for today! 

I think that I just must make this a series...  "Musket Echoes: Historical Teasers from the War Between the States". 

Anyway...the episode was actually compiled over two days. I am just doing "skimming" sort of research at the moment, so nothing overly spectacular is going to show here. I'm rather running down three main separate, but oh-so-interconnected things right now...I'm practically living and breathing Civil War/Confederate history when my brain is moving at all.

Or, random findings on the War Between the States that I find interesting. If you don't care for such random things, don't bother reading this! :)

• The Army of Tennessee, at the Battle of Atlanta. Hardee had one Corp, comprised of four divisions. Of those, one was commanded by Major General William B. Bate. Bate's Division comprised three Brigades--one of those was the Florida Brigade under Brigadier General Jesse J. Finley. The Florida Brigade had the following regiments: 1st-3rd Florida Infantry (Captain Matthew Strain), 1st Florida Cavalry (dismounted) and 4th Florida Infantry (Lt. Col. Edward Badger), 6th Florida Infantry (Lt. Col. Daniel L. Kenan), and 7th Florida Infantry (Lt. Col. Robert Bullock). 
  
  For explanation of why that interested me, note first the 4th Fl. Inf. Co. K of the 4th Florida was originally (if I recall correctly) the 20th Florida Militia--which was the unit that my g-g-great grandfather was commissioned Lt. Col. of in 186--2, I believe it was.
  
  Secondly, take a look at that last one, the 7th Fl. Inf. I had three great-uncles (at least) in that regiment. Two were the sons of my g-g-great grandmother from her first marriage, before she married the Colonel (see previous paragraph). Both were killed in Kentucky, and I think, quite likely, without going back to check, dead by the time of the Battle of Atlanta. The third, might not have been there either due to being detailed to collect cattle. He was one the Colonel's sons.
  
  Here's the line-up for the Battle of Nashville, Dec. 10, 1864: http://www.civilwarhome.com/confederateornashville.html 
  
  
• Did you know that General Bernard Bee had a brother? I didn't...his name was Hamilton Prioleau Bee.

Ah...thank-you for putting up with me. :) I got all the way through the "B's" in Generals in Gray today. I'm actually not really researching the generals so much as their wives--for my next film project. There is no way, of course, that I could cover them all, but I've found a few interesting ladies with enough information (probably) to work with, so I'll just keep plowing through here and then decide which of the general's ladies will make the final cut....

You may get a similar post at some other date in the future, so hang in there! ;)