CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT FEATURE OF TOUR

JACKSON - More than 130 years ago, men of the North and South fought for what each believed in during the most traumatic and tragic period in the history of the United States.

To some it is known as the Civil War; others refer to it as the War Between the States. But the name doesn't matter what matters is that it ripped apart the fabric of a nation already badly split over the explosive issues of slavery and states' rights.

The Civil War is forever a part of the history of our nation.20It not only split the nation in two, but it forever changed a way of life and opened a new chapter in the history of the United States.

Almost 130 years after the last musket and cannon were fired, the heritage of that tragic period in our history is vividly portrayed by men, women and children who take on roles of their mid-1860s' counter-parts. On weekends these people bring to life a way of life that's gone forever.

They're called Civil War re-enactors. Their only purpose is to preserve as a living history the life and times of those who lived during the turbulent years of the Civil War.

Over the weekend, some 250 re-enactors, most of them from eastern and Southeast Missouri, created living history Federal and Confederate Civil War military campsites on a rolling, grassy field nestled in the hills along Highway 34 west of Jackson. The event was part of the third annual Mississippi River Valley Scenic Drive.

The living history was hosted by the 7th Missouri Cavalry and its commanding officer, Capt. Ron Tinsley, in cooperation with Frank Nickell of the Southeast Missouri State University Center for Regional History and Cultural Heritage.

Capt. Robert Smith is commanding officer of the 9th Missouri Sharpshooters, Company C. When he's not wearing the butternut-gray uniform of a Confederate infantry officer, Smith works as a tool-and-die maker in St. Louis. Other Civil War re-enactors at the weekend living history included a newspaper editor from Flat River and a high- school economics teacher from Springfield.

"This is just about my life as far as my free time is concerned, other than my work," said Smith as he sat on an authentic Civil War-era folding chair. "I got involved about six or seven years ago because my son, who was about 13 at the time, was interested. He lost interest in it, but I got hooked."

As a re-enactor, Smith and his unit have participated in the recreation of many well-known battles of the western theater of the war, including those at Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Champion's Hill near Vicksburg, Miss.

Later in the year some of the re-enactors that were a part of the living history event will participate in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Smith said it doesn't make any difference who you are or what you do during the week. "All you need to be a Civil War re-enactor is a strong interest in history and the desire to recreate and preserve a part of the heritage and history of our country for present and future generations," he explained.

Although they only do their re-enactments on weekends, Smith said re-enactors strive for total authenticity - from the brass buttons on their uniforms to the mid-1800s battlefield drill and tactics under which both sides trained before and during the Civil War.

"We can only do it for a couple of days, so we really can't experience what the soldiers of the Civil War went through - the hot, humid summers; the cold and freezing rain or snow of winter; the diarrhea, smallpox and other sicknesses; the boring camp routine; and the terror20of battle and stench of death," he said.

But there are still times when today's re-enactors do feel very close to the teenagers and young men who lived, fought and died on the battlefield or in a field hospital; such as after the evening meal and the mess kits are washed and put away and when the men gather around the campfires in front of their army-issue pup tents. Some play a harmonica or some other mid-1800s-era musical instrument.

"You get the same kind of feeling of what it was like when you're on a historic Civil-War battlefield with thousands of other re-enactors dressed in blue and gray,20firing in ranks and charging and shouting at each other with sound of musket and cannon fire on both sides, and smoke so thick you can't see at times," Smith said.

The Civil War brought an end to a unique era in the history of the United States, said Smith.

"It was a gentle age. Even when men of both sides were killing each other on the battlefield during the day, they could sit down before the campfire at night and compose tender and expressive letters to those back home," he said.

"The Civil War was also the last war to be fought under the old Napoleonic military tactics where ranks and ranks of men fired at each other while standing and kneeling on the open battlefield. New technology such as rifled guns and cannons made this method of warfare too costly in terms of human lives and material. One result of this was the development of trench warfare, and later on, foxholes."