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Saturday, (5/16) Brad and I journeyed to Jefferson City, Missouri for a reenactment of Sterling Price’s 1864 assault on that city.
The beginning of the day was eventful enough. After a 2 ½ hour drive we took a wrong turn and wound up hopelessly stuck in the mud at the Confederate camp, which sat on a hill overlooking the battlefield.
After some discussions with the rebels it was determined that we could leave our car there till the end of the day’s fight.
 | What else could they say, we weren’t going anywhere. |
This gave us an opportunity to explore an area most spectators missed.
Although superior in number (Missouri Reenactors seem to prefer to be Confederate) Price's force was a pretty rag tag group.
When they entered the state from Arkansas about a third of the 12 to 14 thousand men were unarmed. Price had hoped to capture arms and ammunition at Ft. Davidson, in what turned out to be something of a Pyrrhic victory.
Of course, the Federals (I think they brought them in from Kansas) were well equipped and looked splendid in their uniforms.
The Union stood ready,
when the Rebels attacked
The battle raged on
As the Confederate force drew closer
the fight became more intense
The Union position was overrun
with hand to hand fighting
But Price's men soon retreated with about half their number dead or captured.
There is one minor historical problem with the Battle of Jefferson City.
It never happened.
Although Sterling Price, in 1864, would very much liked to have captured Jefferson City, he decided it was too well defended and went around it.
But it was still fun pretending.
After the bloodshed, we returned to the rebel camp, where our newfound successionist friends commandeered a farmer and tractor to pull us out of the mud. Soon we were on our way home, excited from our adventure.
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Comments: 8
I do Federal infantry and have done so for 15 years or so. A couple of comments, since I do reenactments here in the South, it's very rare to find such splendid looking Federals. We portray here Western and Southern Unionists and thus tend to be at least as ragged looking as the Seesch. The artillery seemed to be largely of 1/3 or 2/3ds scale guns, many events will not allow them on the field. Also found it strange to see vehicles in the camps, I've not seen an event that allows them in period camping areas to preserve the Civil War atmosphere.
Wilson's Creek is one event I've wanted to do for some time. Hope to make it one day soon.
Anyway, neat photo essay! Glad you enjoyed it, you should check out a National Event. Next year, there will be some big ones!
Great photo essay M M . Don't you think that the Southerners were a 'rag tag ' outfit.They were not , per se an organized Confederate force ,but a guerilla outfit. I would expect that most of the reenactors would be Rebel sympathizers . Thanks again for the fun shots.