Sunday, August 9, 2009

Civil War reinactment

Today I took my uncle to the Civil War reinactment at Hale Farm and Village, the same one we went to last year. As I said yesterday, the weather ruined the plans to go yesterday, so we headed out today around 11:30. While the reinacment and all was fun, it was miserable outside. VERY hot and humid. The outdoor temp reading in the car when we left read 104. That is incredibly high for Ohio. Insane my hats stickint to my head hot.
There are always lots of people set up to talk, to show off their collectables, to get people involved in groups and other reinactments, and of course plenty of vendors to visit. We walked around most of it, though we didn't visit the main part of the village and the church we intended to, it was just too hot to walk all of it. Butch got himself a cavalry hat that he wanted, and I got Lisa an old reproduction cookbook. We watched part of a small scurmish near the village and the main battle before leaving. I can imagine those guys in full dress were roasting out there in the field.


This Gatlin gun was built by a gunsmith in southern Ohio. (thats him in the suspenders with his head cut off, lol oops) It's built entirely on the origional plans and fully functional. The first picture is of it at his booth with some other origional rifles, and the second is when they actually fired it. He actually got the one from the old John Wayne movie "Rooster Cogburn" and completely restored it, since anyone that has seen the movie knows it fell off a boat and into a fast running river. The restored rifle was also the one that was in "The Last Samuri". What a great story, and piece of not only American history, but also Hollywood. Apparantly there is only one known origional Gatlin left in working order and it sets in a museum, but I forget where he said it was. This guy restores Civil War era rifles, and also occasionaly sells a few that he manages to get his hand on. Butch wants to give him one to restore and also wants to buy one. Soooo........it looks like one of these days I will be taking him on a ride.......a 3 hour ride to this guys shop.



In between talking to a vendor and going to watch the battle, we were stopped by some ladies to visit their tent. Low and behold, something that wasn't there last year....a brothel! Now of course we didn't get the usual brothel treatment, but we got cold towels on our necks, a cold glass of lemonade, and a back massage. It was fun, relaxing, and the tips go to the reinactors. I *HAD* to get a picture of this, lol. (No idea who the guy is on my left, he was just someone else who sat down for the treatment)
Below I'll just post some random pictures of the small skurmish and main battle. Enjoy!







5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great posts! loved the pictures. I went to my first enactment last year and really liked it - I posted it last aug or sept...can't remember. It had been raining then too! muddy and chilly!...debbie

Jen said...

Im glad you got away for a while and got yer lil man-war fix. Thanks fer sharing the pics and it did look like fun. ~jen

Chris W said...

LOL chainsaw....errr, jen. That reinacment isn't really my thing, it's my uncles. He's been sort-of a collector for years, so I knew it was something that would interest him. None of his friends are into it and wouldn't want to go, so I just offered to take him again. He's 73, never married, and doesn't get out much other than flea markets. I like taking him there and seeing him enjoy himself. Too bad my own dad wont get off the damn couch and do anything like this anymore...ah well.

AutumnRose said...

Looks like it was a great time! Although the civil war era is not my cup of tea, I understand the fun--I live for the Ohio Renaissance Festival in Harveysburg every year....this will be my 18th year in attendance. You two are a great-looking couple :-)

Chris W said...

Rose, we went to the Rennissance Faire near Geneva 2 weeks ago, lots of fun! We're thinking of putting together outfits for next year...why not,lol.

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