Blue & Gray battle it out in Camp Sherman

Pipes skirled; banners snapped in a stiff breeze; drums tapped out their cadence; hooves thundered and cannons and musketry boomed, pouring clouds of white smoke across the lush green of a meadow along the Metolius River last weekend.

The meadow at House on Metolius was a time portal, taking visitors back to the height of the American Civil War. Reenactors pitched their canvas tents across the meadow, where visitors got a glimpse of camp life during the conflict and insight into daily life for men and women, North and South.

And twice daily, the Blue and the Gray clashed on the meadow grass, depicting one of thousands of nameless skirmishes that marked the most violet upheaval in American history.

On Saturday afternoon, Orrin Schnetzky of the 2nd Maryland Line sat before his tent loading cartridges for his Enfield rifled musket - the standard arm of the Confederate forces. It was the Tigard man's first reenactment. He was portraying a recruit from a border state that stayed in the Union, but remained full of Southern sympathizers.

"Defectors come down here (to Virginia) 'cause we didn't like the way things were going," he explained.

Schnetzky said he saw a Civil War reenactment some years ago and loved it - but he didn't feel he had time to commit to the demanding pursuit. A friend finally talked him into taking the plunge. Veteran reenactors are known for their willingness to help a greenhorn along - as long as said greenhorn is making the effort to put together his outfit and historical persona and deepen his or her knowledge of the period.

The key, according to Schnetzky, is "drive - just the gumption to do it," and a willingness to "say, 'Yeah, I don't know everything that well, but I'm going to do my best.'"

Spectators sitting on bleachers awaiting the battle were treated to a discussion of life for women during the period, featuring women authentically dressed in the layers of petticoats and the voluminous skirts typical of the era. One of the women noted that the dresses posed a significant health risk - and not from the constraints of a corset, which she said is actually comfortable if it fits right. The dresses posed a tremendous risk from fire for women working around open cooking flames. In fact, the women said, fire was the number-one cause of death among women, eclipsing childbirth and disease.

Jill Ingalls and Danielle Fisher portrayed two women from Georgia displaced by Sherman's March to the Sea in 1864, when the Union commander drove from Atlanta to Savannah, cutting a swath of destruction calculated to break the Confederacy's will to resist and cripple its ability to supply its armies.

They demonstrated camp cooking of the era, using authentic foods and utensils, though Ingalls acknowledged that "we have better provisions than they had."

Ingalls noted that she has ancestors who fought on both sides of the conflict. She also said that Confederate reenactor ranks have thinned over the past couple of years due to conflict over the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the Confederacy - symbols that for most reenactors are simply part of telling the story of the conflict.

Ingalls said it is sometimes hard for people to recognize that her portrayal of a Confederate does not imply that she endorses everything the Confederacy stood for - particularly slavery. She argues that the story of the Civil War is a complicated one and said, "I think it's important that for people to hear the true story ... not what people choose to believe the symbols mean today.

"We don't want to make light that slavery was an important part, but it wasn't the start of the war."

The origins of the conflict remain a spark for heated debate among professional and amateur historians alike, but for the reenactors on hand at last weekend's events, their purpose is not so much to refight the war as it is to touch the experience of their 19th-century ancestors and share a glimpse of what life was like in the midst of a watershed moment in the history of our country.

Camp Sherman resident Christopher Lundgren joined the Union Army's 69th New York Regiment, Co. K. The teenager has a deep interest in history that was stoked last year by the battle reenactment in his backyard.

"I've always been interested in military stuff, and I thought it was really interesting how they did the battles and I wanted to take part in it," he said.

He recruited several friends to join - adding a little extra authenticity to a unit that certainly had its share of teenaged soldiers.

Advancing across a field into fire - even though it is from blank rounds - gives a sense of the terror that must have gripped soldiers during the bloody battles of the Civil War, Lundgren noted.

"Looking down the artillery pieces scares you so much," he said.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

• Email: editor@nuggetnews.com
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