Civil War: A Harvest Festival Retrospective
“Get on line! Keep moving fella’s! We need to push them out in the open and win this fight once and for all!”
Born from a fiery gospel writ from burnished rows of steel. Smoke lay heavy under the canopy of the trees and confusion was rampant. The order to “Fire at Will” was given, and shots rang out from all directions. It was difficult to see who was on your left and right. All you had to follow were the commands from the Captain, barely audible and muffled by the sound of rifles firing.
This is what we’ve been training for.
The endless drills, practice and the small skirmishes have given us the knowledge to perform our duties. When the whirlwind of battle has taken us up, the confusion didn’t matter. We knew what we were fighting for, and what we had to do.
I didn’t even realize it had happened, I just knew I was laying in the brush, unsure of the cause. I could sense was that it was all over. The line had broken, the commands were constant, but to no avail. We had lost the battle. Those of us still alive were about to be taken prisoner, certainly to die of starvation in some prison camp far from home.
You may think the above is an account from an aged Civil War diary or a letter archived in some remote institution. However, it’s an experience shared by many reenactors, both confederate and union, and is a direct account of a brief moment of the Civil War Reenactment at the 48th Annual Harvest Festival held at the Greene County Historical Society Museum in 2019.
Perhaps the most anticipated part of the festival, the Civil War Reenactments draw in large crowds and a very engaged audience anxious to see just a brief glimpse of what life may have been like for a small unit engaged in a battle at any point during the American Civil War.
If you are looking for a little bit of excitement or if you have a Civil War Ancestor yourself (and I bet you do!), make sure to attend the Civil War Reenactments at the annual Harvest Festival at the Greene County Historical Society. It’s an experience you’ll be sure to remember!
Harvest Festival
READ MORE about the annual Harvest Festival.
