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"I don’t knohat to say!" Charles told hiet on with it We have to finish planning this thing," Raal!" Charles said, still awed
Ashley lowered her head, hiding her laughter These guys really were like children when it came to the reenactood, she reminded herself They kept history alive It had been on a trip to Europe with her parents when she had seen the quote that meant so much to her: "Those who cannot remember the past are condee Santayana who had written those words, and she had seen theates of a concentration ca man at his best and his worst--it was necessary to reh there had been only a sal Plantation at the tier one, coeries were acted out, officers’ quarters and tents for enlisted et to business," Griffin said, winking at Ashley
"Yeah, Ramsay, looks like you need to skedaddle!" Cliff teased
"I’ He looked around "Sadly, I do like Cliff’s digs better than being craht: they were in a nice place toquarters in the stables were extremely pleasant; there was no heavy ss in any way, since the office had long ago been fitted out with air-conditioning and an air purifier to boot There were a nu with books on horses, horse care, tack and maps on the shelves around the old massive desk with its iMac and printer It was the horse master’s realal Plantation ht be in, there was always a horse master These days, the horse master did more than look after the six horses that rerow anything other than a feers now and then and a toeneral ave him a shove "Our apartet this allout to check on the caet ready I’ll leave you gentlen on We need to be prepared to start with the battle at sundown"
"Hell, I hope they got a uniforuy He had a s plantation, but his land had been eaten up over the years Plantation actually meant farm, and Ramsay had no farmland left at all He spentartista nice incoood lifted a hand to Ra the prime role for the day, and he still seemed to be surprised
It didn’thim as he walked from the stables to the old barn He was from here; he’d been born a part of it all He’d played soldiers over and over again, and though it had been nanimous of him to hand over the role, she wasn’t sure that Raht not be that bad a thing for the day After all, they ended the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and the "Battle Hy chorus of "Dixie"!
She left Cliff’s to s don’t care if you’re Yankees or rebels!" she said affectionately, pausing to rub Abe’s ears She saw that the tack for the Northern cavalry was ready for each of the mounts, saddles and saddle blankets set on sawhorses and the bridles with their insignias hanging froer, Nellie and Bobby were all groomed and sleekly beautiful, ready to play their parts She paused to give Varina a pat; she loved all the horses, but Varina was her specialthe stables, Ashley paused for a e to the left, where the tents of the living encampment had been set up She could see the sutler’s stretch of canvas, and she walked over to see orking that day Tourists--parked way down the river road--were oods for sale She heard children squealing with delight as they discovered toys from the mid-nineteenth century, just as she heard wo She saw that a crowd had gathered around thea spectacular job of perfor an amputation The patient let out a horrific screa his ancestor, also Dr Ben Austin--stood in an apron covered in stage blood and explained the procedure Ben would later be part of the battle reenact medicine Ashley reached him in time to capture part of his spiel
"Aeon, and field surgeons could perform an amputation in as little as ten minutes," Ben told the crowd "Chloroform existed, but it was scarce The South had alcohol When the surgeon could, he would do everything in his power to make the traumatic operation easier for his patient, but at row to be five feet tall There was no real understanding of germs, and more men died from disease than from wounds or bullets To carry that further, more men died in the Civil War than in any other A, or Antietaht know it, than died during the D-Day invasion"
Ben saw Ashley watching him and lifted a bloody hand Well, it was covered in faux blood froery Ben kne to be dra to chat with so at the living-enca Enfield rifles to little boys, whittling, playing har in other period activities One laundress was hanging shirts and long johns out to dry--a nice touch, Ashley thought
"When the war started, the North already had a commissary department--and the South didn’t," Matty, the sutler’s wife, was explaining to a group who stood around the cahout the day "Hardtack--dried biscuits, really--ar, salted beef or pork and whatever they could scrounge off the land hat fed the soldiers, and the South had to scramble to feed the troops Didn’t matter how rich you were--you were pretty otten There were points, especially at the beginning of the war, during which the Southern soldiers were doing all right They were on Southern soil But war can strip the land What I’ to coravy to soften up the hardtack With a few precious spices, salt and sugar, it won’t be too bad A few people can taste, if they like! Of course, I’ve made sure that our hardtack has no boll weevils The soldiers were fighting every kind of var and small, to keep their own food"