Author:
EKMBBC Captain Leon Harrison, G.C.M.
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Date Posted: 20:49:08 05/31/07 Thu
Leon Harrison
West Carrollton, Ohio
Thursday, May 31, 2007
To: The Editor
Subject: May 19 & 20 Sharon Woods Park Reenactment
“With My Apologies To Real Soldiers”
Thursday, May 31, 2007, 10:35 a.m.
With my sincere apologies to real soldiers, active and retired military members, real war veterans, and their families, friends, kin and survivors, I will once again relive, review, rewrite and improve my participation and performance at yet another Civil War weekend reenactment: this most recent fun one happening inside Sharon Woods Park at the Heritage Village Museum, May 19 & 20.
I am listening to and learning from Neil Boortz’s talk-radio show; his good best-selling book, “SOMEBODY’S GOTTA SAY IT”, is on this end table. This sunny warm spring morning [here at the Buckeye Bureau, in West Carrollton, Ohio], I am sitting barefooted and wearing shorts, of course, with my windows open and fans running, cooling and moving the interior air that came from out there. At 88 degrees F., it would be too warm for me to “walk-on”, while wearing a warm woolen uniform, at a Civil War history event. Active/real military members do not have this luxury, at least in the Middle East. According to USA TODAY: 3,452 U.S. service members have died during the ongoing war in Iraq.
During the 1960s, coinciding with Civil War centennial [100th anniversary] commemorations, celebrations and Bruce Catton books, basic modern reenacting began; with the tourism made possible by post-World War Two prosperity, the interstate highway system, and air conditioning. At $3.50-plus per gallon, gasoline and travel expenses are starting to restrict the range of reenactors and force them to choose between or stop driving to distant events; especially those more authentic hardcore people who have to use trucks and trailers to transport their tents, equipment, guns, cannon and horses, of course.
At Sharon Woods Park, a Vietnam Veteran/artillery commander told us that reenacting had been much-needed therapy for him and many of his Vietnam War brothers [like Dent “Wild Man” Myers of Kennesaw, Georgia]. Many Vietnam Veterans had also joined the National Guard and Reserves for similar nostalgic and professional reasons [or just to have FREE fun with guns], like those men and friends whom I had served and soldiered with.
In addition to performing and posing for the public: reenactors and reenactresses likewise enjoy the camaraderie/brotherhood/sisterhood/fellowship; with the nostalgic sense of history as they honor their ancestors by accurately, authentically and respectfully reenacting. They enjoy educating, demonstrating, enlightening and entertaining the public, especially the young ones, just for fun. They enjoy taking pictures, and making smoke and noise with the big girls and boys, fun with guns for everyone. For a weekend or a few hours, we reenactors and our guests and spectators can escape and travel back in time to the Civil War, or to when we were younger [dumber?] bolder soldiers who were more healthy than wealthy, making it easier for us to remember and relate to relevant books, movies and TV shows.
With the sights and sounds, smoke and smells, before and after “resurrection”, we can likewise sense the serious smelly hell of those old battlefields, hospitals, prison camps and campgrounds. Now, there are no scary scenes or sad frightening sights at those nice safe clean green landscaped parkland historic sites: where actions and attacks have been marked by markers and plaques and a few old photographs. Now, you have to beware of armed thugs with drugs, lurking inside these parks when you camp or park, especially after dark.
At some point, regular reenactors have to quit buying, picking up, taking, saving, sharing and storing books, booklets, papers, pamphlets, pictures, postcards, posters, knickknacks, mementos and souvenirs…at least HERE! Well, I do need these because relevant East Kentucky Magazine-research never hurts.
Before this Sharon Woods Park reenactment, at the Heritage Village Museum, I had never driven off of I-75 or I-275 to the northern Cincinnati suburb of Sharonville, Ohio. During the sunny spring afternoon of Friday, May 18, Sergeant Harrison left the Buckeye Bureau and West Carrollton, Ohio, driving south on I-75 to Sharonville, entering the park to scout out and reconnoiter the battlefield.
As your humble EKM Buckeye Bureau Chief may have mentioned [without bitchi…uh, complaining]: he is sort of a third-class soft-core walk-on reenactor, who prefers camping out inside climate-controlled motel rooms [like those at The Boone] that are conveniently located close to bars and restaurants…if only to perk up the local economy.
So far, Sgt./Lt./Captain Harrison resists sleeping out inside his brand-new Kmart tent. After leaving the park, Sgt. Harrison turned left and drove to the Sharon Villa Motel nearby. It was run by Indians [not “Injuns”] and was reasonably clean and cheap, good enough for him and his stuff. Here, after the Saturday battle, Sgt. Harrison returned to clean his gun, leaning it against a split-rail fence while younger men played soccer on a nearby field.
On Friday and Saturday [evening], I walked and drove around old downtown Sharonville, dining at a local restaurant, viewing and listening to sports on TVs inside a bar/restaurant, while doing more thinking than drinking. I also drove by those post-WWII plats and plazas that have covered the countryside around I-75 and I-275. Okay, since it was Friday, I drove to see “Spiderman III” at a local matinee picture show…for further research.
Rush’s radio show is on at 12:34 p.m. Take a break, I have to walk outside and check my mailbox. There may be a communiqué from Corporate H.Q. I have just received my third Owen Parry, Civil War novel, “Call Each River Jordan”. After I finished reading “Shadows of Glory” at Sharon Woods, I gave it to a friendly Heritage Village Museum impressionist, inside his doctor’s office, the reenactment having made it a better book.
Saturday morning, May 19, 2007
Sgt. Harrison registered at a table with Lisa Egan and paid his registration fee to participate, signing his name to that liability release form. Lisa is one of the Heritage Village volunteers who worked hard to set up and sponsor this reenactment. The weather was perfect for one and all, the temperature being just about right. The Confederate camp was located between the barn, split-rail fence and big white Tara-like mansion, with pillars on the large front porch, the Hayner House. Officers Call [for planning and preparation] was mandatory and held early each morning at the Hayner House. Cannons were set up at both ends of a nearby field, a woodlot at the Confederate end. Sutlers tents were set up along the long gravel driveway, a large open-sided food tent and picnic tables had been set up across said drive from some of them. We early birds got FREE coffee and donuts. There was no lack of soda pop, water, potato chips, hamburgers, hotdogs or bratwursts. On Saturday evening, we reenactors got a nice dinner, before the ball that was held inside that nice big white Hayner House.
The Union camp was separated from the Confederates, set up among the old buildings of the history village, cooled and shaded by the breeze that rustled the thick green leaves of those many tall old trees. The cavalry horses were tethered on ropes that had been hung and strung under the trees, between the edge of the village and the dense green undergrowth nearby.
Earlier, I had met and chatted with some Kentucky Confederates who had invaded Ohio; as hundreds of thousands of them and their kin [including my parents] had done after the big war. With 20-million illegal-alien invaders, we may one day be reenacting the Mexican War, once more. We made or renewed acquaintances and friendships with people we either knew or remembered from past battles and events, discussing them and people not present, those folks who we either used to know or who were no longer alive or able to drive, or were otherwise unable to participate. Stanley A. Wernz was ably portraying President Abraham Lincoln. I had previously talked with and seen that General Robert E. Lee at the Dayton VA Memorial Day, last year.
NOTE: Women were also serving in all three branches. One older lady, her husband and her son had been in cannon crews for over twenty years, even shooting at each other during battles from years gone by; they had fun shooting and demonstrating their guns. One lovely little blue-clad blonde infantry babe was figuratively fighting with her boyfriend. These girls do the drills and are more athletic, energetic and enthusiastic than many of their older fellow soldiers, and can likewise ride horses, of course. Womenfolk were also reenacting as mothers and wives with children at the campsites, cooking and demonstrating arts, crafts and chores. One couple made cream inside a glass jar by shaking it back and forth.
Time travel, back to the distant past: There were musicians playing and singing old songs, the breeze bringing and sharing the sounds their music with those coming from campsites, the clop-clop of horse hooves, the thunk of wood chopping, the rattle of buggies and wagons, chattering laughing children at play, dogs barking, horses neighing, snorting and whinnying, conversations, jokes and laughter mingling with the smells of horse shi, uh…crap and wood smoke, cooking meat, potatoes and beans, the clicking, clacking and clanging of metal implements and squeaking leather harnesses and accoutrements.
It was quieter and cooler inside those old historic buildings, wherein informative volunteer impressionists, dressed in proper period attire, educated and informed with professional but entertaining or humorous presentations; thus showing us their old stuff, with furniture and furnishings, pictures and papers, telling us about facts, figures and statistics with short stories that were not boring, thereby encouraging and enabling us to see how normal everyday life used to be for most folks way back when.
We all had time to prepare there, walking and talking, browsing and buying, taking and posing for pictures and digital images. During this weekend, a WPTO/PBS Channel 14/16 camera crew and interviewer were doing interviews and recording this event, as did similar media members and press people, including yours truly for East Kentucky Magazine. Although most reenactors/reenactresses are camera shy, humble and modest, and hate to perform and pose for pictures, Sgt. Harrison did not hide or boohoo or threaten to sue any of these many picture takers and photographers who captured his image. As he roamed around, Sgt. Harrison would discreetly take digital images with his little camera, hiding it inside a trouser pocket or his black canvas haversack. He even paused to professionally perform and politely pose for some people, demonstrating and explaining the loading and firing of his rifle with one shot, after showing them his one big heavy shiny .58 caliber minie-ball bullet…that he hopes he NEVER loads.
Near noon, Sgt. Harrison fell in at Order Arms, at the left end of the 4th Ohio Volunteer Infantry’s Company B. Their captain was a drillmaster who knew his stuff, as Captain Harrison is likewise supposed to know, like ya know. He started with basic rifle drill…with ”Open ranks, march!…Inspection, arms!”…checking weapons…followed by facing and marching, knocking off the rust and giving those first rookie-recruit reenactment lessons, forming his unit into two ranks and then reforming it into a column of four; to repeat and remember and perform once more, time after time. They were building unit cohesion while making mistakes, getting some laughs and catcalls from inside and outside the ranks. Cavalry units were likewise practicing upon that wide green grassy field between the guns, just for fun. They all started looking pretty good. As a sergeant at the left end of the second rank, Sgt. Harrison got to be a “leaner”, leaning his Springfield rifle, with fixed bayonet, onto that last stack of rifles without locking it within the nest of the rest of them.
As two o’clock approached, the sense of anticipation and preparation started building with the audience that had gathered along the fences and fenced-off spectator safety areas. There were several hundred troops on both sides, comprised of various infantry, cavalry and artillery units. Sgt. Harrison was hanging out at the 6th Indiana Volunteer Infantry camp when he was asked to join them for the upcoming battle; he did so because they were a smaller unit and needed him more. Captain Jeff Stein had been a Master Sergeant at Camp Wildcat, a couple of years before, when Sgt. Harrison had last served with him and some of these other men.
“Fall in!” was called throughout the encampments and all along the road. “Front!” making us face the right way while standing in line along the road. It grew quiet as the spectators watched and listened to the commands echoing through the trees. Cavalry riding past into action fast as those first loud distant cannon shots were exchanged… ”BOOM!…BOOM!…BOOM!…BOOM!” Boohoo, the Union was to lose and retreat in defeat, the invading Confederate forces infiltrated in formation, to start their attack at the end of the village and the Union encampment.
Captain Stein got them in line, marching and moving them out with the battalion, the 4th Ohio following behind and fighting on their left flank. Despite Captain Crabtree and his repeating Henry rifle unit, the rebels advanced and pressed the rest of the Union line that had to slowly back up, firing as units and as a battalion: “Prepare to fire by volley!…Readyyy!…Aimmm!…FIRE!” Thunderous volleys from hundreds of guns. “Prepare to fire by file from the left!…Readyyy!…Aimmm!…FIRE!” Crack! Crack! Crack! Crank! Left and right, up and down the lines, time after time. Smoke and sweat and swearing with catcalls and laughter, cussin’ and fussin’, dropping caps and cartridges, nobody much wearing earplugs, forgotten or neglected or lost once again. Confusion of battle herding troops like deafened cattle, the Chester Park Train Station on the right flank, experience and practice paying off, instinctively following and reforming under the trees with the rebels still firing away.
Younger lighter more energetic enthusiastic troops “taking hits” and being moved and rescued as wounded, performing for the public. Retreating from under the trees, being forced back around the fence and into the field, slowly backing up, working hard. His fellow sergeant taking a hit and going down nearby, a nice veteran left lying behind. Alas, Sergeant Harrison finally took a hit and decided to likewise lie down and quit: as sad and spectacular death scene as anyone had ever seen, the brave courageous handsome heroic valiant Sergeant Harrison getting hit and falling flat on his back upon the sun-warmed spring grass, squinting up into the warm bright sunlight above. Sgt. Harrison heard the shouted commands coming from those advancing ranks of riffraff rebel rabble as they continued to shoot around and above their fallen bodies, moving closer and closer…”Watch out for the wounded! Watch where you’re walkin’!”…until they finally passed him by. He listened to and quietly chuckled at their happy catcalls and chatter, their muted conversations diminishing with distance toward that popping and cracking of gunfire that could be heard across the field.
A black-clad Chaplain Dan Mason knelt above Sergeant Harrison, putting his kepi over his eyes and placing his hand upon his chest as he gave him a much-needed and appreciated prayer there, for which he was sincerely thanked after resurrection. No doubt these were touching scenes, in that quiet time just after the end of battle, as the smoke settled and everyone grew solemn and silent.
“Resurrection!” There was appreciative applause from the audience as the dead and wounded got up and gave them smiles and waves with a nod and a tip of the cap. Drinking water from canteens. “Fall in!…Front!” Running and walking to reform into units, to march past the audience in review, no doubt a stirring sight in the sunlight, great pictures taken and movies made. Separating to fire a couple of caps to make sure weapons were empty and safe. Marching back into encampments. “Company, halt!…Left, face!…Order, arms!…Break ranks, march!” Emptying canteens by drinking water and pouring it over your head, soaking your sweaty hair there. Drifting off to visit, relive and review this latest if not greatest reenacting experience, adding these memories to those that occurred before.
Sunday, April 20, 2007
After Chaplain Dan Mason’s Sunday-morning church service, followed by Captain Stein’s humorous “Drunken Duel” skit, Union and Confederate units traded sides, prior to the two-o’clock battle. This time, Sergeant Harrison would survive to lead the Union to victory, attacking and advancing to defeat the rebels and make them retreat across the field to halt at the side in front of a gun. They never surrendered. Then, after exchanging and saying his goodbyes, he walked back to the parking lot and reloaded his vehicle, before driving directly back to West Carrollton and the 21st century…at least for a while.
EKMBBC Captain Leon Harrison, G.C.M.
Duke of Hazard/Appalachian-American Ambassador
EKM Buckeye Bureau
West Carrollton, Ohio
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"With My Apologies To Reals Soldiers"