ok,  not ALL the time…but a lot.

i was personally involved in it this weekend.

but here’s a couple photos from when kevin did the living history encampment down at the old state capitol.  there weren’t gobs of guys from the 114th there, but kevin did spend the night right on the grounds.

right there where just last summer i waited for hours and hours in the blistering heat to hear obama speak…

the good part about the event at the old state capitol is that i got to go visit kevin.  we went to augie’s for dinner, and there were plenty of other reenactors eating there, too.  afterwards there was a ball out on washington street, with a good-sized civil war band playing.  quite a few spectators joined in the group dances and it did look kind of fun, and kevin kept saying “let’s join in,” and he finally said “ok, here we go,” so it didn’t seem i really had a choice in the matter.

and it was pretty fun except i felt a little bit silly in my short skirt and my purse draped over my shoulder.  but because of this, i said that maybe i’d like to go to the big ball they were going to have at the reenactment in jacksonville…

but first, there was last weekend’s reenactment at bryce’s crossing down in mississippi, where it rained most of the time.  not only was there rain and gale-force wind, but it seems to me that the southerners were showing prejudice against the north.  the southern encampment was located conveniently near the battlefield, but they still got rides on trailers back to their camp a half mile away.  kevin’s group had to walk three miles back to their camp.

they gave the union green, wet firewood making it almost impossible to start a fire.  the confederates’ firewood was dry and well-seasoned.  ice was supposed to be delivered every morning at 10 o’clock…but that’s when the south got it.  the northerners didn’t get theirs till 2:30 or three in the afternoon.  in the sweltering heat.

there were other things, too, that seemed ridiculous to me.  don’t they know THEY LOST?  or maybe because they know it, they’re still mad.  and maybe that’s why there were 4,500 rebels and only 45 union soldiers.  nobody in kevin’s group said they’d go back again because of their poor treatment, plus the general lack of organization.

this weekend, though, was in lovely jacksonville IL. Kevin went over on saturday morning and we went to see the battle take place in the afternoon and it was VERY VERY HOT.  and we weren’t running around a sunny field in wool uniforms.

we kept saying “where’s kevin?” but it was hard to spot him because they all kind of looked alike.  the union guys, anyway.  i finally found him, and i zoomed in on this photo.

he’s there on the far right, loading his musket.  it was very smokey as you can see, and very loud with the cannons going off as well as all the shots being fired.  the calvalry was racing back and forth on the field, too.

here’s a shot of the caution tape that enclosed the battle.  people brought their lawn chairs to sit and watch.  a few people brought their dogs, and one poor dog kept barking and barking and trying to run away, clearly frightened of the noise, but they people didn’t take him away.  bad people.

here are some of the many horses tied up during the day.

i have photos of the ball that night which we attended but i literally must walk out of the door right now.  more later,

ok then,

grace in a hurry.