So said the local Sherriff! We were camped at Broxton Bridge Plantation just outside or Erhardt, South Carolina. Year round they go hog and deer shooting here, but on the 1st weekend in March, they pretend to shoot each other in a Civil War re-enactment. 150 years ago General Sherman (North/Union/Yankee) came through here with 65,000 troops laying waste to South Carolina and Georgia as he headed for the coast. Here at Broxton Bridge just 6,500 (South/Confederate/Rebels) tried to stop them. After just two days of solid fighting Sherman broke through and completed his destructive journey all the way to Savannah.
The re-enactment of this battle was absolutely amazing to experience first hand. Live fire cannons and muskets from over 200 participants along with period dress nurses, locals and a campsite set up as original. The breastworks (earth embankments behind which they site the canons) are original and we were told this is one of the only places where the re-enactment occurs on the original site using the original defences & bullets fired in the battle 150 years before can still be found. We were no more than 100m from the action and much of the time no more than 2m, and a terrific local called Johnny became our guide to explain what was going on.
Was it crazy? Absolutely! Mounted troops, snipers up trees, platoons firing repeated volleys, and with up to 10 canons firing in rapid succession it was berserk. The muzzle loading rifles were loud enough to hurt your ears and a single canon made the ground shake and you felt the shockwave run through your chest no matter how far away you were – and the close ones were quite overwhelming. An amazing sight was the massive donut ring of smoke that would come out of the cannon and go blasting through the trees. They kept this up for over an hour before the south won this particular skirmish and everyone marched back to camp.
After it was over Johnny introduced us to two of the participants who then talked us through it all and allowed us photos with a rifle. Johnny was incredibly only 3 generations removed from the war, and Brad and Steve’s descendants had fought in this particular battle. Together they avidly informed us of the southern perspective on the war which accorded with many other perspectives I had often heard but pretty much never found in any books i.e. that this was a battle over two differing interpretations of the constitution – Federalism V State’s rights. The flash point in this debate was federal taxes and their unequal expenditure, the issue of slavery was pretty much a non-issue except in how it has been written up ever since. Facts like 80,000 blacks fighting for the South as fully paid volunteer troops compared to one segregated black unit in the North and General Lee (South) having no slaves compared to General Grant (North) owning slaves, all seem to go unheralded in the historical accounts. I guess it goes to prove the age old problem that history books are only ever written by the victors.
The entire experience was wonderful, exciting and sobering on every front. We will never forget it.
The re-enactment of this battle was absolutely amazing to experience first hand. Live fire cannons and muskets from over 200 participants along with period dress nurses, locals and a campsite set up as original. The breastworks (earth embankments behind which they site the canons) are original and we were told this is one of the only places where the re-enactment occurs on the original site using the original defences & bullets fired in the battle 150 years before can still be found. We were no more than 100m from the action and much of the time no more than 2m, and a terrific local called Johnny became our guide to explain what was going on.
Was it crazy? Absolutely! Mounted troops, snipers up trees, platoons firing repeated volleys, and with up to 10 canons firing in rapid succession it was berserk. The muzzle loading rifles were loud enough to hurt your ears and a single canon made the ground shake and you felt the shockwave run through your chest no matter how far away you were – and the close ones were quite overwhelming. An amazing sight was the massive donut ring of smoke that would come out of the cannon and go blasting through the trees. They kept this up for over an hour before the south won this particular skirmish and everyone marched back to camp.
After it was over Johnny introduced us to two of the participants who then talked us through it all and allowed us photos with a rifle. Johnny was incredibly only 3 generations removed from the war, and Brad and Steve’s descendants had fought in this particular battle. Together they avidly informed us of the southern perspective on the war which accorded with many other perspectives I had often heard but pretty much never found in any books i.e. that this was a battle over two differing interpretations of the constitution – Federalism V State’s rights. The flash point in this debate was federal taxes and their unequal expenditure, the issue of slavery was pretty much a non-issue except in how it has been written up ever since. Facts like 80,000 blacks fighting for the South as fully paid volunteer troops compared to one segregated black unit in the North and General Lee (South) having no slaves compared to General Grant (North) owning slaves, all seem to go unheralded in the historical accounts. I guess it goes to prove the age old problem that history books are only ever written by the victors.
The entire experience was wonderful, exciting and sobering on every front. We will never forget it.
Karen feeling a little under dressed next to Mary-Elizabeth!
Michael
This looks just amazing! Go Mary Elizabeth :) Ainsley
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