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Published: February 26th 2007
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The participating spectator
Many of the spectators dressed in period clothing to watch the battle. A ball was held on the Saturday night which could only be attended for those in costume Last week Fiona and I enjoyed a truly unique American experience (I know we keep saying this, but there are just so many of them). As I alluded to in the New Orleans update, there is a large group of American history buffs who ensure the general populace is well educated by re-enacting major Civil War battles on their anniversary. Well, the battle of Olustee took place about 35 miles (40 min drive) west of Jacksonville and was a major victory for the Confederate (southern) Army. The Olustee re-enactment is a 3 day weekend event and is one of the larger re-enactments outside of the major battles like Gettysburg. Basically the re-enactors arrive on Friday night and establish their separate camps (confederate Army camp together and the Union Army camp together). Whilst in camp they live the life style as the soldiers would with no modern conveniences - they eat and cook foods typical of the time, live in large white bivouac tents and sleep around fires with only blankets - all a bit strange really. During the war groups of merchants (known as 'Sutlers')would follow the Armies around selling goods to the soldiers to make life more comfortable such as
Duelling Artillery
Confederate Artillery opens fire on Northern Troops additional rations, blankets, shoes etc. Well at the re-enactment the Sutlers were also re-enacted by every dodgy bastard under the sun selling all sorts of kitschy crap you could think of. You could buy complete union and confederate uniforms, replica swords, replica rifles (which looked a lot like the elastic band guns Ian used to make us out of bits on 4x2), ‘periodic jewellery’ which looked an awful lot like plastic and the list goes on…..
Well what was really interesting about this was the number of people who came dressed in periodic clothing - there were whole families dressed in confederate uniforms with little kids about 2 years old carrying swords and replica rifles. Women came dressed in the fashions with the big ballooning skirts, bonnets and lace gloves - it really was amazing to see just how much everyone got into it. Man it bought out the yokels too - there were quite a few mullets getting around and plenty of families where the male parent was definitely ‘uncle dad’.
Anyway after wandering around looking at the crap for sale and the kids eating giant BBQ’d Turkey Drumsticks (which was the only product sold by one
Union Troops take to the Field
The Union Army marches towards the Southern Guns food stall) it was time for the battle. The battlefield had tiered seating for the crowd to watch and it filled up pretty quickly - there must have been a couple of thousand people there. Funnily enough Johnny Rotten turned up again filming for his show - this time Fiona went up and badgered him for an autograph. In her best Australian accent she said - ‘My sister in-law is a big fan, can I please get your autograph?’ to which he response (In a pissed off voice) ‘I ‘spose, as long as I don’t have to move’.
It was time for the battle to commence - the Northern Army marched onto the field complete with colour party, cavalry, marching band and artillery. A brief artillery duel ensued and a couple of carefully placed explosive charges added to the realism as trees and branches got blown into the air all around the guns. The guns were deafening when the fired (scared the crap out of Fiona every time they fired), and they blew huge plumes out of their barrels. The Confederate Army then marched onto the field to a huge roar from the crowd - it was this time
Confedrate Troops
The Southern Soldiers march onto the Battlefield to the cheers of the crowd that I realised that we do live in the deep deep south and maybe Jacksonville should be called Hicksville. It was so strange to see that even after 150 years the crowd was still cheering the South. Anyway, the armies advanced on each other firing muskets and moving formations. A couple of the soldiers tried to run away only to be shot by their officers. As the battle ensued soldiers fell down on the field and died or were wounded - even the drummer boys copped it which I found amusing. Every time the Southern Officers advanced their troops the crowd would erupt in a roar. Unfortunately for the crowd the re-enactment on the Saturday was not scripted to the actual battle and the North defeated the confederates amid the boo’s of the spectators. The Sunday battle was actually scripted and followed the events of the battle which probably would have been more interesting to see, but it was still an interesting day.
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