Civil War Weekend

Life continues to move at an incredibly fast pace, and I can confidently say this "immersion week" in Virginia has been an unbelievable experience. Over the past week, we have done and seen some spectacular things. However, I don't think any of them were approached with the anticipation of this next adventure. This time, we were going back in time to the most remembered era of American history - an event that defind Southern culture as we know it today. This weekend, AdventureVA was all about Civil War Weekend.

Civil War Weekend is an annual event hosted by Pamplin Historical Park in Petersburg, Virginia, and destiny had in store for Petersburg to be the soil for my first ever Civil War reenactment. After reading the book "Confederates in the Attic", there was nothing I wanted to do more since getting here than experience a hardcore Civil War reenactment. I had read about the legendary stories of the most "way hardcore" reenactor, Rob Hodge, and nothing was going to stop me from getting to Petersburg to embrace my Civil War craving.

Arriving at the park was at first a bit disappointing, however. There was a very small crowd, and the event looked more like a tourist act than it did the hardcore reenactments I had read about. The crowd was small, and the Confederate encampments were thin. The Union encampments were nowhere to be found.

We did end up seeing a demonstration, among a few other things. I don't need to go into extravagant detail of the day itself, but I do want to make note of the fact that there is a significant difference between a demostration and a reenactment. Demonstrations usually contain only a small handful of park rangers shooting a few cannons and guns. A reenactment contains sometimes hundreds of reenactors, from both armies, acting out a battle with the integrity of historical preservation in mind. So when you decide to take on your first Civil War experience, just make sure you are seeing a reenactment instead of a demonstration.

Reenactment versus demonstration set aside, the demo was still actually pretty cool. The park rangers-turned Confederate soldiers shot cannons and rifles, which was exciting in itself, and it left me salivating over the chance to see what a real reenactment would look like. Guess I will just have to do my homework next time... but you can bet this won't be the last time I'm drooling over a Civil War battlefield.

My favorite part of the day was when we went to see the 97th Regimental String Band play. They had a bass, guitar, mandolin, and banjo, and played traditional Civil War songs that were normally heard around Confederate camps. Now of course, I'm naturally going to love the string band more because of the mandolin. But these guys were more than just musicians, they were true Civil War entertainers. They acted quite well in character, telling a number of Civil War era jokes (OK, so they were kind of cheesy by today's standards) and keeping the mood humuorous. They also worked hard to encourage the crowd to sing along, as many of the songs were familiar. Overall, seeing these guys was a blast, the music was actually good, and I think walking away from the experience, I'm a little turned on to Civil War string bands. Maybe I'll try and catch another show sometime down the road...

Well after all the Civil War Weekend festivities came to a close (there were other things we saw, but again I'll let the pictures tell the story), we wandered to the more permenant exhibits at the park. The museum at Pamplin is actually outstanding, and free. There is a wonderful walk through tour in which you are given headphones, which auto-play audio narration in your ears when you walk up to certain exhibits. That way, you only hear the things you want to hear. The best part is, when you aren't listening to a narration, the headphones play the sounds of a Civil War camp, which really makes you feel like you have traveled in time. I had a blast just sitting around the exhibits, and the museum does an outstanding job of really making the tour an experience as opposed to a traditional history lesson.

The best part of the museum was a short part of the audio tour, in which you enter a virtual battlefield. You walk through what a haunted house type area, where you are walking through deep forest and into a battlefield in which the armies have engaged in combat. As you walk through this "haunted house," air cannons shoot at you, explosions go off, and the ground shakes. You can literally see the flash of a shot, feel the bullet whizz past your head, and feel the ground shake as men around you fall. I have never seen such an impressive exhibit of a battlefield, and this alone is worth your trip to Petersburg.

In conclusion, it was a fun day at Pamplin, despite the fact that the reenactment wasn't hardcore. The part was beautiful, well preserved, and very interesting and educational. And at the end of the day, I'm even more fascinated with Civil War culture. Just remember, Yankees beware: the war may be over, but Pamplin is still Confederate territory.