Blue and Gray Day

We went with some friends to the Civil War Expo at Olustee Battlefield near Lake City. We have been to the battle reenactment in February a few times over the years and this was a similar event on a much smaller scale---sans battle.

There were cannons from Fort Clinch, along with uniformed soldiers to demonstrate and fire them. This particular one has been live fired at Camp Blanding.

 

This is the size of one projectile that could be fired.

Some gave little lectures. It was interesting to hear that sometimes history is being revised as people post on the Internet letters from family members during that period.

 

There were infantry drills...

 

And cavalry drills.

 

 

There were cooking demonstrations...

 

And period music and stories.

 

This little darling tugged at my heart as she so charmingly peeked out of her tent. The one foot on top the other was her own pose.

 

I was amused by the contrast of the scene below as a modern truck pulled a trailer with civil war artillery pieces on it. The monument in the park can be seen in the background, centered between the two.

There were two black men in the group: one appeared as a pastor from Massachusetts and the other had a relative who was a confederate soldier.

Another thing we noticed that was interesting was that in this relatively small group of historical interpreters, there were two men who were missing fingers on their right hand. Perhaps this is rather risky hobby.