Dixie Bump!
Posted on 10/10/2002 8:32:38 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
This annual fall jamboree has been a Jonesboro staple for 32 years, but the event has undergone significant change in the past two years. The current focus is specifically on the years 1861-65.
The battle re-enactment, beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, remains the centerpiece. These hostilities feature 500 Yankees and Rebs in a skirmish that more or less conforms to history.
The first day during the original Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 1864, battle was essentially a draw, with both armies dug in and glaring at each other across the Flint River. Consequently, at the close of Saturday's re-creation, re-enactors will entrench themselves using shovels or even period-replica spoons.
The Sunday face-off is a whole other matter.
"The Yankees take the day," said Ray Oakes, longtime captain of the 30th Georgia, which hosts this event. "The Confederates will either get pushed off the field or they'll die. The spectators don't like it, and sometimes they get on me about it. But what the heck, I can't change history."
One key difference from past fall festivals is that this year's crowd will have access to re-enactor camps. All serious re-enactors take fierce pride in their fidelity to 19th century dress and habits. This insider access, this "living history," is a glimpse into a soldier's camp life, his tent, his weapon, his diet, his horseplay, his drilling -- what 30th 1st Sgt. Mark Pollard calls "a peek behind the curtain."
Festival patrons also have full run of the 15 or so sutler tents that'll line the woods next to Stately Oaks. This is also different from past years, when the sutlers, or tradesmen, were closer to the battlefield and unseen by most spectators.
The sutlers sell a variety of authentic-replica gear, including uniforms, brogans (square toes, wooden peg soles), slouch hats, cartridge boxes, pipes, period-replica jewelry, frock coats favored by officers and period music.
It's no secret that even beyond the South, even in such staunchly Unionist cities as Gettysburg, Pa., Confederate gear far outsells Yankee equipment.
"I think those Union folks admire our courage," said Mary Ann Cofer, who, along with husband Don and Tim Knight, is in charge of Sutler Row. "I even heard from a sutler friend of mine that she, my friend, was visited by the great-great-great-granddaughter of General Grant, and this granddaughter bought nothing but Confederate stuff, I swear to goodness," she said.
Another highlight of the Folklife Exhibition is the Literary Corner, featuring several local historians who will sign books and answer questions. One of these is Sharpsburg's Herb Bridges, who auctioned much of his renowned "Gone With the Wind" collection (often called the world's largest) last July. Bridges, who has written seven books, admits that most inquiries he receives don't deal directly with the war or even with Margaret Mitchell.
"Most people," Bridges said, "want to know about Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. Did they get along and did they have an affair, that sort of thing. The answer, by the way, is that they did and they didn't, respectively."
Whooo doggie! Confederate gear makes you look better, we've known that since 1861!
I prefer Vladiator brand panty guards.
Well, ah do declayuh!
Whenever you get dressed?
Dixie Bump!
free dixie,sw
Well looky who's back on FR
Vladiator just keeps coming back for more
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