Can't Take The Country Out Of The Girl: My Soldier Died. Twice.

This weekend, Anthony had a reenactment in the Knoxville area. The Battle of Fort Sanders. This is held on a family's farm in Corryton, Tennessee. They have built this fort, which is very similar to the actual one at Fort Sanders, and it stays intact on their farm from year to year. This battle took place on a very cold day in November. Many of the confederate soldiers were barefoot during this battle, and they were told there were shoes in the fort. Talk about motivation! They had the Union soldiers outnumbered, and didn't anticipate much of a battle. They were wrong. The Union soldiers had the benefit of this nice fort they had built. It was a hill with a huge, deep moat around it. The walls were smooth and hard to climb. And the Confederates lost.

While we were looking around on Friday night before the battle started, I was taking Anthony's picture on the top of the fort. One of the Federal reenactors hollered at him, "Reb, you better enjoy yourself! That's the last time you'll see the top of this fort!"

One interesting thing I learned about this fort (from a history buff sitting beside us) was that when the original fort was built there were lots of trees around. They cut down all of the trees so they would have a good line of vision, and then they strung telegraph wire between the stumps so that when the confederates charged the fort, they were tripped up.

The first battle of the day was the "Mortal Wounding of General Sanders."

Then we walked to another field where the actual Battle of Fort Sanders took place. This weekend there was only one horse but there were several cannons.

Anthony's grandfather has a friend who owns this cannon. I love to go to the reenactments where they have cannon fire. If you've never heard it before, there's nothing like it. It is sooooo loud. And the horse never moved.

The only problem with these large participation events is that I can't find Anthony. This weekend he had joined a group of sharp shooters/snipers. They entered the battle field so far away that I just couldn't make him out. But he's out there somewhere.

He charged the fort, and unfortunately, didn't make it. I wasn't able to go to the reenactment on Saturday, so I was texting Tony, "Did he die yet?" "Yes." "Did he die good?" "Yes." Then, he sent me a picture of my dead soldier. Momma's don't wanna have this image in their mind. He had made it to the top of the fort, had a little hand to hand combat, was killed, and slid back down to the bottom. The reenactors stayed in their position while the spectators were allowed to wander around the battlefield. And get pictures of their dead (smiling) soldiers.