The Civil War Recreated

This weekend in Shippensburg is March to Destiny, an annunal event that recreates the history of the civil war. I wanted to see what this whole reenactment thing was all about so I went to a live "skirmish" today. Men (and a few women) dressed in uniforms reminicent of 1863 took the streets with period equipment. They battled down King Street lining up and shooting their guns, practicing all the tactics they would have actually used during the civil war.


I have never seen anything quite like this before. It was educational to say the least. The shots were so loud, the cannon ones especially. My favorite part was when a soldier got wounded or killed. They fell in the street and men stepped over him until someone came (eventually) to drag him off the street. It was fun to watch---you know, in that sick kind of can't-take-your-eyes-off-of-it way.

I couldn't imagine having been a soldier during the civil war. They had to be so close to the enemy while having next to no protection. You just had to stand there while a brigade of soldiers shot in your direction. There's no way you could expect to live to see the light of tomorrow. I think the reenactment made me glad to live in today's world and to be thankful for the soldiers who did fight to preserve the union and abolish slavery.

Keep your STDs over there, thank you

Christopher Columbus and his seamen did bring syphilis into Europe from the new world.

Emily C. has been insisting that since she did research for Mirabile Inventu, studying the Renaissance accross Europe this summer. And if you don't take her word for it then you'd have to take MSNBC's word for it.

...the study lends credence to the "Columbian theory," which links the first recorded European syphilis epidemic in 1495 to the return of Columbus and his crew.

In case you were wondering.

I'm guessing that would be one not-fun disease.