Dual To The Death
I did the coolest thing last weekend. I went to a Civil War reenactment and festival. When I got there early in the morning, I thought is was going to be pretty boring because not many people were there. As it turns out, most of the reenactment actors were still sleeping in their tents. They weren’t even nice tents. They were tarps similar to what was used in the 1800’s. As one actor crawled out of his tent, I could see he didn’t even have a sleeping bag. He slept on hay and blankets. These actors really take it seriously. They’d been camping there for three rainy days.
After an hour or so, it got a little more lively because a lot of people showed up.
There were lots of craftsmen demonstrating their skills. There was a guy shaping metal with hot coals and a hammer. There was a guy embalming another person pretending to be dead. Embalming is a process where a dead person is preserved for a while so they can stay “in tact” for the burial. There was a guy making pottery by hand.
The guy who talked the most to me was a music instrument builder. He had instruments I had never even heard of. They sort of looked like a cross between a banjo and a harp. He builds them by hand. He explained how the different wood makes a different sound.
One of the coolest things was a mansion tour. The mansion was built in 1866 by a Confederate General. An unrelated family lives there now but they have only modernized part of the kitchen. A weird thing in the house was that there is a sink in the corner of every room. I think that is a great idea! There are still pictures of the General in the house. The whole place is just like it was during the Civil War. The original chandeliers and some furniture is still in the house.
I met an Abraham Lincoln impersonator who recited the Gettysburg address.
I watched a gentlemen’s dual to the death. Each “gentleman” walks twenty paces and turns to shoot the other. Unfortunately, both of these guys lost.
A man who owns a stage coach gave me a ride around the fairgrounds. Later in the day that same stage coach was robbed by “Jesse James” and his gang. That was fun to watch.
The last event of the day was the Civil War battle reenactment. No one actually got shot because they didn’t use real bullets but they sure used real guns and cannons. They are so loud! My heart jumped every time they fired. The Union soldiers won the battle by capturing the Confederate flag. It was sort of like sitting in the bleachers at a football game except these “players” were trying to shoot each other.
The festival was fun and I learned a lot. If you are interested in the Civil War, you should find one of these festivals and go experience what life was like in the 1800s.
Have you done something interesting lately, let me know. I may mention it in an upcoming issue. YOU can respond by sending an email to ben@todaysadvantage.com. There are many kids like us looking for fun things to do and cool places to go.
This is Ben Thayer and I’ve done that.
