Author:
Captain Leon Harrison, G.C.M.
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Date Posted: 00:10:46 09/12/08 Fri
Leon Harrison
West Carrollton, Ohio
Thursday, September 11, 2008
To: The Editor, Neighbors Dayton Daily News
Subject: Leon Harrison reenacts Civil War at Reynoldsburg,
Ohio
“Sgt. Harrison fights three Reynoldsburg battles”
During the recent, annual Reynoldsburg [Ohio] Tomato Festival, Captain [dance rank only] Leon Harrison once again met and mingled with Civil War reenactor/reenactress acquaintences and friends; including Robert Mergel, a Reynoldsburg resident and festival organizer. These people had traveled and gathered to encamp [Confederate or Union], participate, perform and fight the Civil War in front of audiences. They and their children also enjoyed walking around outside, eating the festival food, playing the games of chance and riding the rides. Captain Harrison and his two fellow Harlan County [KY] Battalion brothers, General Cassius Marcellus Clay and Major Ronald Cornett, were also recruiting for the upcoming [Oct. 24-26] annual battle of Leatherwood at Cornettsville, Kentucky. At these family-friendly events, everybody exchanges their various encampment, fair, festival and reenactment invites and flyers. Their children also enjoy reenacting and dress in period attire. Some of those womenfolk wore long dresses and bonnets while others wore warm woolen uniforms to fight with the guys. PFC Amber Miracle was wearing a camouflage BDU and recruiting with and for the Ohio Army National Guard.
Even within this heart at the heart of Ohio, the Union troops were still outnumbered by Buckeye units of riffraff-rebel-rabble Confederates on Saturday and Sunday [Sept. 6&7]. The Union infantry commander was a big young First Sergeant. On Saturday morning, Sergeant Harrison recruited a local 14-year-old boy, loaning him a blue [2nd Lieutenant] jacket, a kepi/cap, and one of his pawnshop Hawken rifles. Sgt. Harrison and other reenactors taught him and other youngsters how to safely load and shoot loud smokey black-powder rifles and pistols, in addition to doing some marching “drill”.
The reenactors also talked with the vistors and media people who were touring the camps and looking at the cannons, guns, tents, equipment and the horse. General Clay/Colonel Combs/Paul David Taulbee is the publisher and CEO of East Kentucky Magazine; Captain/Lieutenant/Sergeant/Private Leon Harrison is his Buckeye Bureau Chief. Therefore, pictures of some of these people may soon be seen printed within and upon the pages of a forthcoming issue of East Kentucky Magazine. Some reenactors enjoy cooking over open fires, but Sgt. Harrison prefers eating catered or festival food with lemonade or soda pop. There was a plentiful supply of free water and tomato juice. Reenactors are humble, modest and shy, but will still occasionally perform for movies and pose for pictures, especially with pretty young beauty queens. Sgt. Harrison and his young [demoted on Sunday] private protégé cared more about having fun with guns.
After the opening artillery duel, the handsome heroic Sgt. Harrison died gloriously during the first noontime Saturday battle, after running in retreat and standing to shoot, being sword stabbed [for the first time] by the solitary mounted turncoat Confederate cavalryman. After resurrecting and resting for a few hours, Sgt. Harrison [and the younger First Sergeant in command] also had fun leading these too few Yankee troops to victory during the second battle.
On Sunday afternoon, there was only a squad of blue-clad Union soldiers remaining to fight and be defeated by a company of gray-clad Confederates, during the one and only battle of the day. After retreating back across the grassy battlefield and taking a “hit” from a rebel rifle shot, Sgt. Harrison dramatically died and flopped across a hay bale near the audience that was sitting on benches and bleachers and cheering, jeering, laughing, taking pictures and making movies. These appreciative audiences always applaud and cheer after “resurrection”, when the battle ends and the dead of both sides arise to help each other get up and shake hands as friends and as brothers and sisters once more.
Leon Harrison
West Carrollton, Ohio
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"Sgt. Harrison fights three Reynoldsburg battles"