The battle reenactment, a spectacle of action, noise, smoke and pageantry to be presented this year by a cast of 350 in blue and gray or butternut uniforms, is the main event of the weekend. The Union and Confederate units both employ tactics and formations used in the Civil War. Artillery pieces belch flame and white smoke from the perimeter of the battlefield. Prisoners are taken. Officers shout and are obeyed or ignored.
Casualties fall, and the wounded are carried to a field hospital for care by surgeons and nurses.
The 60-minute reenactment is staged on Saturday and Sunday. Although it is an orchestrated presentation, it is nevertheless inherently chaotic as all battlefields, even reenacted battlefields, must be. Spectators come away infused with the heady, distinctive bouquet of black powder smoke, but more significantly, with a greater understanding of what Civil War soldiers might have experienced in combat, minus the real suffering, grief and fear. Spectators who invest a few minutes before and after the battle also can learn something of army life off the battlefield during the Civil War period. Before and after each day s battle, reenactors demonstrate period military skills and equipment in their camps and on the battlefield.