Civil War Reenactment

A few weekends ago, we headed over to Galesburg, IL for a Civil War reenactment and rendezvous called, Heritage Days. The Civil War battle was a reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh. The rendezvous was basically, people dressed in pre-civil war period clothing and living according to those times. They had small communities set up throughout the park with their living spaces (tents or tepees) and different shops to "make their living". Apparently these re-enactors travel all over the world attending rendezvous and recreating Civil War battles. It was very entertaining for us and a great way to spend a Saturday.


Fried bread with ham and cheese. Yum-o! One of the "shops" was selling fried bread with a variety of garnishes. Jaxon had fried bread with cinnamon and sugar.



Tasting a piece of the fried bread for the first time. He wasn't quite sure what to think. It was very HOT, so we had to wait quite awhile for it to cool enough for him to taste it. In the end, he preferred licking the cinnamon and sugar off and handing the (now) soggy bread to me.



A little band from the St. Louis, MO area.



After checking out the campsites and shops at the rendezvous, we headed over to the Civil War side to see the soldiers. One of the Confederate soldiers saw Jason admiring the guns and came over to chat. He even let Jason and me hold the gun. I was amazed at how heavy they are, and to think about the way the soldiers carried them and how far they carried them. Wow! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I did ask this soldier a burning question I've had since we lived in the south; "How do re-enactors decide which side of the war to fight for?" He said a lot of them portray family members or an actual soldier they've studied.




Here's Jax posing by some Confederate soldiers' guns. I was just praying that he wouldn't back in to them and knock them down while I was taking the picture!




The Battle:

Here come the soldiers.



Ready for the battle to begin.


Sitting pretty while we wait for the battle.





The US Cavalry.



Talk about loud! The north had three of these cannons and they were going off throughout the entire battle.