Ghosts of the Civil War

Well, not really, although that was what I was trying to take pictures of. I saw something on TV last night where some people had captured what appeared to be pictures of Robert E. Lee and other Civil War era personages in some photographs they'd taken at Gettysburg. We have numerous Civil War battle sites in the area, and Monica and I visited one of them today to take a walk. Tomorrow (today really, since it's after midnight - October 5, 2008) marks the 144th anniversary of the Allatoona Pass Battle. We had no idea, but some local Civil War buffs were marking the occasion, and putting on a demonstration this weekend during guided walking tours of the area around the Pass. We thought we were just going out for a nice, quiet walk in the woods, with hopefully not many people around. What we were greeted with was anything BUT that.

The first thing we saw were numerous signs that read "SLOW Walking Tour." Then we saw the parking lot, usually barren but for a few cars, filled mostly to capacity. Luckily we found a space, and headed over to the trail head to see what was going on. Around the entrance to the pass, and beside the Civil War memorial that's there, numerous period tents were pitched, and soldiers wandered around in authentic period clothing. There was a group of people gathered at the trail head, and as we walked towards them, a platoon of soldiers released a volley from their muskets, shattering the stillness of the warm air. We watched them for a while, and they fired off another volley or two. Then we stepped onto the the trail, heading into the woods of the Pass.As we walked along the bamboo and cliff lined path, we saw something ahead of us on the trail, something that didn't quite belong in the woods. It was a cannon, with a group of Civil War soldiers standing around it. We had read on the daily events sheet that there was going to be one last artillery demonstration that day, and it was only about 45 minutes away! So we said hello to the "soldiers", asked them if/when they were going to fire the cannon, and strolled along the Pass trail for 15 or 20 minutes, before returning to wait for the firing of the cannon.

So that was part of our day today. A walk in the woods, with some unexpected entertainment! I took a couple videos of the muskets and cannon firing. I'll try to compress them enough to post them online for anyone who wants to see them.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. I'm glad I had something a bit more interesting to write about today. *s* And if I happened to have captured any pictures of ghosts in my shots, I'll be sure to post those too!

Have a great rest of the weekend. Take care.