Shiloh - Part Two or Shelby Foote Was Here...

Seriously!

Why have you not watched Ken Burn's The Civil War?

I mean, are you an American or aren't you?

The only person who reads this blog who has permission to not watch the series is my blogging friend Mario because he is Italian. 

I need you to watch it cuz' I want to make references to Shelby Foote and if you haven't watched the series and you weren't a History major you might not know who I am talking about.

So...

The Battle of Shiloh.

I wrote about our adventure to the reenactment yesterday. 

Going to a civil war reenactment isn't like going to a play.

At a play you sit down, you watch the play respectfully and when it's over you get up and leave.

At a reenactment you can watch for awhile, wander off to the next thing, and then mosey on back. All the while talking amongst yourselves and casually making observations.

It's all fine.

The actors aren't going to yell at you. They aren't going to yell at you but they are going to yell at each other.

It got quite heated what with all the acting. The two sides lined up on the battlefield and then absolutely went at it for hours. I heard Shelby Foote's voice in my head the entire time.

"Company forward!"

"Calvary advance!"

"Sabers out and at the ready!"

"Run, Horsey, Run!"

That last one might have been mine.

I could not believe the amount of work that went into making everything seem real. The smoke and the cannons and the gunfire. It was loud!

Unlike Shelby Foote's voice which is actually quite low and calming. And charming. I could listen to that man talk for ages. 

Have you heard him say the word 'glory?' Four syllables. True story. 

Back to the battle.You could tell the armies apart because the Union soldiers all had nice blue uniforms on. The Confederate Soldiers were a bit more rough shodden.

The boys haven't studied the war in school yet so they had a lot of questions. They had no idea what the war was about, where it was fought or really even who was fighting it. 

That's kinda sad saying as how we live in Alabama and all that. We explained a bit. 

At the Fall Creek Suttlery they were selling blue and grey hats. 

The eldest picked out a blue hat because he likes the color blue. The younger one picked out a grey hat and then I er...'helped'...him to take the grey one back and pick out a blue one too. 

As we were walking past some of the calvary a soldier saw one of the boys in his blue hat and called out:

"Hey Yankee boy, Come 'ere and I'll let you sit up on my horse."

My kid kept walking because he had no idea what a 'Yankee' was or that he was being singled out as one.

We explained that because he was wearing a blue hat the man was calling him a Yankee. 

It flew right on by him. 

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He was happy to sit on the horse though. 

It kind of ruined his street cred when I told the soldier that it was his first time on a horse - unless you count the pony ride he took at a strip mall parking lot in Missouri. 

So...

Your assignment for tonight:

Netflix The Civil War series and YouTube Shelby Foote. 

Oooh! Oooh! And get me some HBO so I can watch Game of Thrones! 

And you can also get me the proverbial pony.  

But not one of these ponies because they are probably quite tired.