SEEING THE ELEPHANT-PART 3 The day was hot for the first weekend in December. It was one of those freak hot spells we sometimes get in Arkansas. I had been drinking from my canteen and it was about half full. I was sweating profusely, but was feeling like a kid in a candy store. We marched off to the battlefield …
THE PATH The Path is a walkway, a very narrow lane Between where we are and where we are going. It is unique for everyone who wants to grow. It is dynamic for each one who wants life to flow. We peel away the layers of our life’s story and begin to learn who we are and what we’re meant …
SEEING THE ELEPHANT-PART 2 Saturday morning a few of the unit member’s wives cooked us breakfast of bacon, eggs, and bread along with steaming hot coffee. Food cooked over a fire in a camp setting seemed to bring out more favors in anything you eat. I was stuffed to the gills and loving it. After breakfast Pard and I looked …
SEEING THE ELEPHANT-Part 1 Seeing the Elephant is a weird expression. During the Civil War and in today’s Civil War Reenacting it means participating in your first battle. I remember the first Civil War Battle for me was the first weekend in December, 1994, at Prairie Grove Battlefield in Northwest Arkansas. The reenactment commemorated an 1862 battle that confirmed Missouri …
“FIX BAYONETS” If there is any order we receive in reenacting that sends a chill up my back, it is this order, “Fix Bayonets.” I guess it is because pulling a 12 inch Civil War bayonet out of its scabbard and attaching to the end of your musket seems to make it more of a lethal weapon. Only about 6% …
A CIVIL WAR REENACTOR’S HIGH Let me say that after 18 years in the Infantry ranks I still get a natural high when we come marching onto a field of battle and view the spectators. Many times they cheer or look at us with awe. I know they wonder what it would be like to be out there with us. …
THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862: THROUGH ARKANSAS EYES I have walked the part of the charge route of the 3rd Arkansas and 27th North Carolina that is still open to the public and have placed small Confederate flags in Mumma’s Lane to commemorate their valor many times. Since I reenact with the 3rd Arkansas I feel a special affinity with …
THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862: THROUGH ARKANSAS EYES The 3rd Arkansas, 27th North Carolina and Cobb’s Brigade had turned from an easterly advance to a southerly advance. There were probably two reasons for this. One was Col. Cooke’s order to his color bearer. And two, since entering Mumma’s Swale, the 3rd Arkansas had been in serious fight with the 1st …
THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862: THROUGH ARKANSAS EYES Can you imagine thescene the Union Forces witnessed when they finally overran the Sunken Road? It was said you could walk from the beginning of the lane to the end without touching the ground. You would be walking on the bodies of the Confederate dead and wounded. Can you imagine the scene …
THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF 1862: THROUGH ARKANSAS EYES Colonel Cooke saw his chance; ordered his regiments up; and put them into battle line with the 3rd Arkansas on the right and the 27th NC on the left. At that time one of the weirdest exchanges in the Civil War took place. A 3rd Arkansas soldier approached the Colonel with a …