Civil War re-enactment features real life
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Dave Thyren of Boscobel shows Bob Reinke of Janesville a 12 lb Brass Napolean at the Battery B 4th U.S. Artillary camp at the Civil War reenactment at Lake Leota Park in Evansville on Saturday.
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Max Daniels of Wheaton, Ill gave a spot-on impersonation of Abraham Lincoln at the Civil War reenactment at Lake Leota Park in Evansville on Saturday.
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Jon Theissen, from North Prairie, gives a demonstration of his trade in the blacksmith tent at the Civil War camp at Lake Leota Park in Evansville on Saturday.
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Members of Company K Second Wisconsin volunteer infantry go through company drills at Lake Leota Park in Evansville on Saturday. Company K is a southeastern Wisconsin reenactment group.
EVANSVILLE — An army marches on its stomach.
It also marches via its blacksmith, its wheelwright and its carpenter.
On Saturday, a blacksmith, a carpenter and even a representative of the patent office were on hand in Lake Leota Park in Evansville to provide support for the 2nd Wisconsin, Volunteer Infantry Regiment and others in the “Rally ‘Round the Flag” Civil War home front re-enactment.
The event, which runs through 4 p.m. today, features living history demonstrations and parade ground drills.
It also features plenty of friendly re-enactors willing to demonstrate their skills or share secrets about how to make hard tack more palatable.
On Saturday, a small crowd had gathered about blacksmith Jon Theissen’s tent to watch him hammer iron into new shapes—and to listen to his engaging—and almost continuous— patter.
“The army could only go for three days without supplies,” explained Theissen, as he operated the bellows of his 1860s blacksmith stove.
“Being a blacksmith during the Civil War was a dangerous job,” Theissen said.
It wasn’t the prospect of burns or lugging around a 200-pound anvil.
The enemy knew that the best way to damage a regiment was by taking out the man who provided tools, fixed weapons, shoed horses and did a variety of other jobs.
Without the blacksmith, a regiment would have to depend on the locals, who weren’t likely to be friendly.
As he worked, Theissen explained the bits of trivia connected to his job. He showed his audience how metal varied from “red hot”—not very hot, in blacksmithing terms—to “orange hot”, then “yellow hot” and, finally, “white hot.”
“Did you know water on a fire can make it hotter?” he said, as he splashed water from a dented and darkened metal pitcher on the fire.
By dousing some of the coals, the heat consolidates and increases in the remaining coals, he explained.
On the other side of the camp, soldiers were cooking a late afternoon snack.
Ugljesha Pirocanac—the name is Serbian in case you’re wondering—of Waterloo, explained that hardtack was biscuits made of flour, salt and baking soda that were baked until they acquired anvil-like hardness.
“Eight squares a day were considered a bread ration,” Pirocanac said.
Pirocanac was cutting up salt pork into squares and cooking it over an improvised fire pit cut into the grass.
Soldiers also received a ration of sugar and coffee, and, if they were lucky, condensed milk.
“Borden was around before the Civil War,” said David May, a fellow Union solider from Baraboo.
May said one of the best ways to eat hardtack was to soak it in the fat from the salt pork and sprinkle it with sugar—because really, everything is better with bacon fat.
One of May’s fellow re-enactors once made a dish consisting of diced red and green cabbage mixed with the fat from salt pork.
“He wouldn’t tell me everything that was in it,” May said. “There might have been caraway seeds—or salt and pepper.”
As long as it contained that salty, bacony, fat, it would be just perfect.
IF YOU GO
What: “Rally ’Round the Flag” Civil War home front re-enactment.
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Lake Leota Park, Lake Leota Park Drive, Evansville. Signs along Highway 14 guide visitors to the site.
At 12:30, a “talking spirits” and Civil War veterans memorial ceremony will take place at Maple Hill Cemetery on Cemetery road.
Cost: Free.
May 23, 2011 at 3:49 p.m.
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Lincoln regarded the Union as the vanguard for world democracy. He was right.
May 23, 2011 at 1:48 p.m.
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I don't know about you, but it sure seems like a wasted afternoon to me. Gawd, I got an eye infection just gancing at this. Yawn.
May 23, 2011 at 12:01 p.m.
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This is one area where I agree 100% with janesvillean, not very often, but here, yes.
May 23, 2011 at 11:56 a.m.
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If they had freed the slaves and ENFORCED it, the North may not have gotten all the volunteers it did and the South may indeed have won.
Very BAD for them to not follow through on it.
John Brown should have been put in charge of the country instead of being executed...His execution was one of the biggest mistakes the world has ever seen.
May 23, 2011 at 11:47 a.m.
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How easy it is to rewrite history. The Confederate Constitution, ratified by all states joining the CSA, states:
Sec. 9 (4) No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.
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I guess that just slipped in there by accident. They weren't thinking. The war just rushed up on them. They only wanted to secede, that was the only reason they seceded -- you know, because seceding was the only thing they wanted to do, so seceding was the only reason they needed states' rights, to do the only thing they wanted, which was seceding, otherwise they wouldn't need states' rights for any other reason like ... um ... slavery.
May 23, 2011 at 10:31 a.m.
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It was too bad it was such a crappy turn out for this.
May 23, 2011 at 8:44 a.m.
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Nice job READERS, I learned more from your comments than I did the article !
May 23, 2011 at 7:52 a.m.
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Nice job Evansville. Great history.
May 22, 2011 at 9:16 p.m.
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States rights vs Federal mandate Hmm... Sounds kinda familiar....
May 22, 2011 at 8:44 p.m.
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Eviller is right. Lincoln's ambition was to solidify federalist power (a former republican stance). The difference was economical... agriculture in the south... industrial in the north. The moral slavery claim was not introduced until late in the Civil War to woo European allies to the North. Still, many confederates recognized that the days of slavery were numbered. The issue came down to each state's right to choose their destiny. The traditional republican claims preclude such authority.
May 22, 2011 at 7:18 p.m.
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Right, their "way of life" was based on slave labor. Slave labor built the "plantation" rich of the south, most of whom made up the southern government and representatives.
May 22, 2011 at 6:37 p.m.
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The "states rights" issue was actually the southern state's right to secede from the Union, because they felt Northern federal laws being passed at the time, plus Lincoln's election, were threatening their way of life. The North's position was that once you joined the Union, you joined for life!
I came across something once that stated Jefferson Davis, who didn't want the slavery issue to drive the war effort, was once quoted as saying they should have freed the slaves before firing on Fort Sumter....but I'm not sure where I came across that info.
Lincoln's main objective during his Presidency was to preserve the Union, not to free the slaves.
May 22, 2011 at 4:43 p.m.
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This war has always facinated me and made me wonder just what was such a big deal to those southern lunatics that made them start such a thing.
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I've read and studied all the arguments and the only concrete reason I see was their "states' rights" to own slaves.
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Everlasting shame.
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