Going North to North Carolina

I’m a day late with this weekly post, delayed by an unexpected trip out of town to make a hospital visit to a family member in east Texas. The patient is recovering, so that’s good. Moreover, I’m back home, today is St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m drinking a cold green beer brewed in Shiner, Texas, in recognition of all things Irish.

This coming weekend I’m taking part in a big Civil War reenactment in Bentonville, North Carolina.  The battle at Bentonville took place in March, 1865, and was the last fight between the armies of Confederate General Joe Johnston and Union General William Sherman.

The spring of 1865 was a time of forlorn hope for the Confederacy. The Union armies of Grant and Sherman outnumbered the troops of Lee and Johnston by two or three to one and were squeezing the Rebs hard on all fronts and the outcome was inevitable. I’ve not figured out why Confederate President Davis didn’t capitulate before the last tragic spring campaign, but there’s no denying that stubborn pride is often more important to political leaders than are the lives of thousands of soldiers they command. 

I’m going to the reenactment with four other guys from Texas, Oklahoma, and Utah, and we’re going to be part of Company A, 1oth Iowa Infantry – damyankees. I have mixed feelings about wearing blue for this particular reenactment since Bentonville was the last battle of the Sixth Texas Infantry, the regiment in which the Alamo Rifles served. The Alamo Rifles being the group of soldiers from San Antonio who are the subject of my first novel, Whittled Away, I’m feeling a bit disloyal.

Nonetheless, I’m excited about being in the 150^th anniversary reenactment at Bentonville for three reasons. First, I’ve never reenacted in North Carolina, so this trip will be a check off my bucket list of states where I’ve played Civil War soldier, leaving only South Carolina and Florida as relevant states that haven’t been part of my national reenacting playground.

Second, the 10^th Iowa fought in the real battle of Bentonville with a roster of 350 men. Our reenacting 10^th Iowa battalion has 297 men registered, a number close enough to the strength of the real regiment to be unusual in reenacting world.  Even though tens of thousands of Civil War reenactors are scattered across America, our battalions rarely approach the size of the real ones. Maneuvering a battalion of 80 riflemen in a long thread-like line is immensely different from maneuvering a battalion of 300 riflemen, nearly four times the length. Size matters. So this experience has the potential to be exceptional.

As a side note, since we’ll be in North Carolina, it’s worth mentioning that the 26^th North Carolina Infantry Regiment went into the battle at Gettysburg with nearly 800 riflemen, a number that is so large, I wonder how they ever moved and changed formations with any efficiency. Of course, they drilled every day that they were not marching or fighting, which is to say they practiced a lot, and practice matters, too. The 26^th NC lost half its soldiers during the first day’s fighting at Gettysburg, and then lost half of the first-day survivors during Pickett’s Charge on the third day. Gettysburg may have been the 26^th NC’s finest hour, but the glory earned there cost 600 of the 800 young men who marched into Pennsylvania.

Back to the Bentonville reenactment, third, we will be reenacting on part of the actual battleground. Knowing we are on the same turf where the historic soldiers bled and died always adds to the experience, especially at large events. When thousands of reenactors fill your line of sight with long lines of soldiers and cannons, it’s not hard to mentally transport yourself back in time and have some of those “magic moments” reenactors hope for. 

Tomorrow I’ll make a dozen “hardtack” crackers to go in my “haversack” (cloth food bag) along with a couple of links of good Lockhart dried sausage. The hardtack crackers are 3” squares of salted flour, baked until they are hard, and pretty tasteless. The sausage links are smoke-cured as opposed to fire-cooked and start soft and juicy, but turn hard like jerky after a few days at room temperature.

I’ll round out my personal pantry for the weekend with a couple of fresh apples, some dried apricots, Texas peanuts in the shell, and some “Baby Bell” wax-wrapped cheese bits. None of those items need refrigeration for the two days we’ll be snacking out of haversacks, and there’s a chance we’ll be issued some raw food that we can actually cook. I won’t starve, but a meal at the first Cracker Barrel restaurant on the road home will seem like fine dining.

Hopefully, next week I can let you know that I had a great time, even if I was wearing a blue uniforms instead of being a good Texan.