October 16, 2012
Last summer, I posted a series of old (but unfortunately, I don’t know how old) hand-drawn images of artillery harness. If you missed those, you can click back to see parts one, two, three, and four of that four-part series.
Today, I offer a few more photos from Perryville. Except for the one that is obviously a cannon, these show the Civil War-style artillery harness on the horses we met.
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October 15, 2012
While I prepare for my impending trip to Pennsylvania for Martin’s Auction (you’ll no doubt see more on that, later this week), I’m still stuck in “1862” here on the blog. Yes, I’m still working my way through our photos of the reenactment of the Battle of Perryville. If you haven’t visited here in a while, you can scroll back through last week’s posts to read / see more about our visit to Perryville.
Around 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, before that afternoon’s big battle reenactment, we watched a demonstration by the one horse-drawn artillery unit in attendance. Not quite a full unit, in reality, as they had only one cannon, but you get the idea. And that one horse-drawn cannon (and several stationary versions) still made a powerfull (booming, you might say) impression during the battles.
Before the cannon could be delivered to the center of the field, dropped off, and put through its paces, we had to wait for a unit of Confederate infantry to finish their drill and clear the field …
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… before all of us spectators could move higher up on the hill … you know, out of range, and all that.
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Next, we’ll look at the artillery harness. And then stay tuned for some explosions!
October 11, 2012
After our wander around the various camps at Perryville, we (and lots of other people) gathered in a field to watch the 11:00 a.m. horse-drawn artillery demonstration.
This was our first glimpse of the lone horse-drawn artillery unit at this year’s reenactment.
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And here’s another look at the same horses and the cannon.
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Over the next couple of days, look for more artillery photos and information. We had quite a nice, long visit with the members of this horse-drawn-artillery unit, and we learned a lot!
October 10, 2012
During our morning at Perryville, and after the 2 0’clock battle reenactment, we strolled through the “living history” camp. Here, people were cooking, quilting, playing music, sewing, and just hanging out and chatting with each other and with visitors.
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We had a nice chat with this man (below), who had four huge oxen and a replica Virginia Road Wagon that he’d built himself, by hand, using historic methods and materials …
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October 9, 2012
On Saturday, we arrived at Perryville around 9 a.m.: well after the sunrise skirmish, but in plenty of time to hike across the battlefield and wander around the various camps. The afternoon skirmish wouldn’t start until 2 p.m., so everyone basically had a free morning. Spectators toured the battlefield and its associated museum. Reenactors relaxed and chatted with each other. Both groups explored the era-appropriate shops. And several of the “military” units performed a variety of drills.
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I realize that you haven’t seen any horse-drawn vehicles yet, but don’t worry. In the late morning, we watched a fascinating (and loud!) demonstration of horse-drawn artillery, and that’s when the real fun started!
The Slower Road 