Long Pond Ironworks hosted the 6th New Hampshire and the 12th Alabama regiments for a civil war reenactment this weekend. I popped in for a dose of history. While chatting with one of the officers about the heat and the need to always wear their wool jackets buttoned to the neck, he told me in a loud stage whisper that there was going to be a skirmish. One of the scouts had just reported some of the Rebs marching through the woods. I skedaddled to the killing fields, as it were. On the way, I shook hands with Abe Lincoln. He had come to see his boys in action. Pretty bold of him, I have to say.
The boys in blue marched down the hill toward the Alabama camp. On the barked order from their commander, they hid behind trees, stumps and a stone wall to prepare their guns. As the two sides fought back and forth advancing and retreating though the haze of smoke and the smell of gunpowder, I thought about all of those men that fought in that war. I have at least 2 great, great grandfathers that fought, one from each side: Granville S. Robertson and Jeremiah Wood. My father’s family at the time was living in Virginia, my mother’s in southern Ohio. Both of them made it through the war; came home, made babies and 140 years later, I am researching their involvement. I do not have pictures of either one of them, so I offer these from today’s event.
Did your family fight in the Civil War? On which side?
