Account of 1878 reunion and sham-battle in Centerville, IA

[HangarFlying]

I thought this was pretty interesting:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iaachs2/CivilWarReen.pdf

The article regarding the "reenactment" starts about half way down the first page. The header states that it is a section out of "The History of Appanoose County" but I don't know if it is from a larger piece of work, nor do I know the publishing date.

[RJSamp]

Re: Account of 1878 reunion and sham-battle in Centerville, IA

Sounds comparable to many 'lower standard' events that I've participated in over the last 11 years.....

[Yellowhammer Rebel]

Re: Account of 1878 reunion and sham-battle in Centerville, IA

Thanks James for a very interesting post. I think that they had reenactments in the period before the Civil War and very obviously right after the Civil War. In her book Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe has certain characters quite excited about going and seeing a reenactment of a battle (she never says which one). I sometimes wonder how old the reenacting of battles is in the US.

Andrew Schultz

[Prodical Reb]

Re: Account of 1878 reunion and sham-battle in Centerville, IA

Seems a shamed that the one poor fellow survived the war intact only to lose his hand and forearm at the sham battle ramming an artillery cartridge home. It goes to show that the artillery was just as dangerous then as now!

[c.irelan]

Re: Account of 1878 reunion and sham-battle in Centerville, IA

Hello

My family is from Centerville Iowa which is in Appanosse county, part of the 8th Iowa was raised there of which my great great uncle served. Every libaray in Iowa has a copy of the book it is about the size of high school year book maybe a little thicker printed in the 40's or 50's can't remmber right off the top of my head. It would be a good tool for aiding in first person if one was working on one from the area. My Great Great Grandfather and Grandmother's painting is printed in the back and he is quoted as saying " I'm not a son of the sod " which means I'm not Irish and we assume that's when that part of the family that moved west from Penn. droped the "D" off Ireland makeing it Irelan which by the way is English through and through.

[Rmhisteach]

Re: Account of 1878 reunion and sham-battle in Centerville, IA

That whole story would make a very interesting scenario for a GAR event. However I would want to protray the poor fella who lost his arm. I have always heard that CW vets did reenactments themselves but it was a real treat reading about a documented case. I wonder how common these "sham" battles were.

RM