Author:
Captain Leon Harrison, G.C.M.
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Date Posted: 21:30:21 09/12/08 Fri
In reply to:
Captain Leon Harrison, G.C.M.
's message, ""Sgt. Harrison fights three Reynoldsburg battles"" on 00:10:46 09/12/08 Fri
http://www.topix.com/album/reynoldsburg-oh
>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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HERE ARE SOME PICTURES!