Grace And Knowledge Homeschool: Battle of Chickamauga

We had a week full of fieldtrips two weeks ago. We started on Tuesday with our trip to the High, then on Friday we went to visit the John Ross House. On Saturday we went to a Civil War Re-enactment. It was just plain nuts to do so many fieldtrips in one week, but each was an opportunity that couldn’t be passed. For example, the Civil War re-enactment wasn’t just any re-enactment. It commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga. This was a big deal to us for several reasons. One: The Chickamauga Battlefield Park is one of our big local attractions. Two: Everyone is making a big deal of the sesquicentennial of all the Civil War battles. Three: My aunt is a re-enactor, which makes it even better for us. Unfortunately, Brian could not go with us, so we joined my family on this excursion.

The re-enactment was at McLemore’s Cove in Walker County, GA. It was quite a drive for us, but such a beautiful one. It rained on us the whole way and didn’t stop once we arrived. We parked and had to trek through the rain to where everything was happening, not an easy feat with the double stroller I was pushing. We all thought we were completely crazy to do it, but we were already committed to the endeavor. It was lunchtime when we arrived, so we grab some food from the vendors and ate lunch in a sheltered area. During that time, it pretty much stopped raining. I’m not sure we could have lasted much longer in that kind of rain. We went down the hill to where the shops were and met up with my aunt.

I love this picture even though my hair was drenched. You’re not looking at my hair anyway, you’re looking at those two sweet little faces.

There’s Aunt Teresa in her re-enactment garb. Don’t you just love her 19th Century sunglasses? Just kidding, she forgot her other glasses in her tent.

We strolled down the lane and looked through all the shops. One of the shops had a feather pen for the kids to try. I practically had to drag them away.

My mom bought the kids souvenirs. Sophie found a lovely bonnet and Liam found a cool wooden gun.

While we were down at the shops, the soldiers started to march out.

We were really close to all the action. We decided to make our way back up the hill before they started with the cannons. I don’t think the kids would have handled them well so close.

We watched the battle for a while, then we went to the makeshift town on the side of the hill. There were many tents to show the kind of entourage the army would have had. This lady was making dinner.

We visited the midwife’s tent. She showed us the tools of her trade, it was very interesting.

Aunt Teresa was in the civilian camp. She told me that there were people who followed the soldiers around for different reasons. Sometimes it was soldier’s families to help take care of their needs. Sometimes is was people who’s homes had been destroyed and really had no where else to go. Their clothes would not have been fancy, which is good since her camp was down a deeply muddy road.