Battle of Cedar Creek

In October, the boys and I headed back towards my parents to experience a Civil War reenactment. Living in this area, there are reenactments everywhere. Thankfully, the one we were going to was not too far from their house.

We were so excited to pick up an extra special person on our trip, Lgirl. She’s from Minnesota and is Doodle’s age. They went to school together and right now they’re out here with her sister’s deployment. I figured we needed to snatch her up and spend time with her while we had the opportunity!

Off we went in the direction of Winchester to spend the weekend at my parents and experience the Civil War with Lgirl in tow!

When we got to the reenactment, there were people dressed up in Civil War era clothing and there were white tents as far as the eye could see. It was amazing that so many people are so into this kind of thing. The guys got something to eat and Lgirl and I went to the front lines to see if anything had started.

People were walking on the field so I figured we could do the same thing, right? I wasn’t sure what we’d see, but how cool to walk an actual battlefield. They had the fencing up that would protect them as they battled. As luck would have it, as we reached the fencing, we saw the Union soldiers marching towards us. Turns out most of the battle happens near the Confederate camp. No one told us to leave, but as soon as I saw the horses from the Confederate side beginning to block off our exit, we decided to hightail it out of there!

We made it back to the guys just before the battle started. Once the battle started, we were pretty much all fascinated with the scene unfolding before us. It was so amazing how involved these men get into the battle! I have no idea how long they prepare for the battle, but they were extremely well organized! They yelled commands, ran into battle, and fought proudly!

After quite some time of standing and watching the battle, a lull came and I asked Lgirl if she wanted to go walk around the tents and see what “goods” were there take home for a memento. There were cool dresses, plume hats, toy rifles, everything you could possibly imagine from that era.

Lgirl had so much fun trying on the hats and playing with the toys. Turned out the boys had decided to go look around the tents as well. Of course, they wanted a gun. Thankfully we already have our Daisy rifle with us so we don’t need a toy one!

After we got done looking through the tents, we walked around the camp. These people seriously live like they did back in Civil War days. They embrace this life while they’re reenacting it! They also stay in character while they’re walking around their camps. They eat from food cooked on campfires, sleep on cots, and sleep in tents.

After we got done looking through the living quarters for the Confederates, we wanted to head back and watch more of the battle. We were surprised to find more troops coming to the battle right in front of us. They were marching and chanting marching calls. Again, so cool to see it happening so up close!

One cool element is the ladies holding down the fort while the men are out battling the enemy. When men come off the battlefield to rest, the women will meet the men with food, like apples. Once the battle is done for the day, the men can also go replenish their supplies that are available for free!

We grabbed the boys up after they got done with their game of checkers and headed back to mom and dad’s for dinner and a relaxing rest of our weekend.

Oh, and the boys went home with their first Jacob’s Ladder. They’d never seen one before. How that’s possible, I’m not sure. They were, and still are pretty fascinated! One of the things I wish I had done was price compare because there was another Jacob’s Ladder about $3 cheaper in another tent. Seems you needed to do price comparisons back in Civil War times.

We had a really great time and I’m hoping we’ll get to experience more next year! Have you ever gone to a reenactment?