Here are my thoughts on the Battle of Fort Sanders reenactment. It is only a few miles from my home, so I thought I'd go scope it out. This started as a forum reply, but it got so long I decided to make an article out of it. Enjoy!  

I was able to go check out the Sunday battle and look over the site a little. For the most part it is what you'd expect compared to most events we attend. The site is on private property and is actually quite large and spread out. The replica fort is a good distance from the road, but that is by design, to avoid power lines and other modern artifacts. The land is quite contoured, and I could tell that getting vehicles in and out could pose some issues if the weather is very wet. Still, it has been pretty wet lately and they managed to get in and out OK.

As I said everything was pretty spread out. The federals camped right behind the fort, which is one good reason to go blue. It is the farthest from the parking area, though. This is not a place you want to have to lug your gear in. The confederate camp was nearer to the parking area and event tent and the sutlers/food vendors were pretty well in between the two camps. There were a couple of general sutlers, one leather shop, a root beer stand, a barbecue stand, and a couple other tents for local historical organizations. Seemed to be a pretty good amount of port-o-lets spread around. Looked like a number of water spigots within a short walk as well. I can't really speak to the firewood/straw situation. Some tents had hay/straw under them and others didn't so I surmise some folks either brought their own or used horse hay.

Sunday's battle was actually two scenarios. First they did a little perimeter skirmish that included the woulding of General Sanders. It was near the parking area. The Confederates drove off the Federal pickets and then both armies moved over to the main assualt site. The narrator held everyone there so the troops could get moved, and to keep folks entertained Dennis (Mr. Lincoln) did a pretty moving delivery of the Gettysburg Address. Then everyone was encouraged to move up toward the fort.

The fort is the coolest part of the site. It is pretty well done as far as I can tell, complete with a deep ditch and high wall, artillery emplacements, sandbags and cotton bales. There was even a line of abatis (brush) and a bunch of stumps in between to give the impression of a cleared field.

The assault was pretty neat. One of the better-looking scenarios I've seen. It was a little slow developing, but well worth it when the Confederates tried to breach the walls. Most of them fell on top of the wall or slid down into the trench as they were mowed down. There were even a couple guys that carried a crude ladder up to the embankment so men could climb up. It was a nice touch; a couple more would have been even better. There was some "hand-to-hand" fighting as the attackers got on top of the walls. That is always a tricky proposition for unrehearsed reenactors, but they did a decent job considering.

There were a number of ladies in the Confederate lines, but I have no problem with that as long as they disguise themselves well. I saw both sides of the coin on Sunday. One lady was on horseback and you couldn't tell without looking closely. She had a pasted on mustache and beard and did a great job of looking the part. There were others that were obviously females. The problem was they were on the right flank right in front of the spectators, so everyone noticed and I heard several folks comment. To me it was something that could have been mitigated by putting them further to the left.

The whole event was light on cavalry, and I saw opportunities for us on either side. There was one group of Federal dismounts and a small contingent of mounted cav. Not much cavalry to speak of on the CSA side, but it could have been the scenario. I saw maybe one dismount falling in with some infantry to cover the howitzers. There were two howitzers on the gray side, so that is another plus. They got fairly close to the spectators so the people could really feel the concussion of the fire. There was also a good number of fixed artillery on both sides, as you'd expect for the scenario.

One thing I found unusual was there was no call to resurrect immediately following the battle. The dead and wounded intentionally stayed down as spectators came onto the field. Some reenactors interacted with people as they lay there, while others (particularly those in the ditch and on the embankment) just lay there. After a while they finally called them to resurrect and they started getting up.

I would classify it as a medium-sized event. It wasn't huge, but not the smallest I've been to either. They expected 500 reenactors, but I would doubt there were that many there. But I suck at math, so take that for what it's worth. I don't have any idea about command structure or organization, so I can't speak to that.

I took my dad and my 2.5 year old son, Gavin. Dad found it interesting as he likes history and the Civil War in particular. He asked me reenactor-oriented questions throughout the day, which was cool. I got a chuckle out of a spectator with the "Poor Will! Everyone is shooting at him" joke. Gavin found it interesting until Dad bought some peanuts, and then he was completely unuaware that there was a battle going on. A "dead" Confederate gave him a spent percussion cap, which tickled him. He held onto it for a good while before losing it.

Overall, it looks like an interesting event. I'd like to try it out, and I recommend we give it a look for next year. It offers a few things that are different from what we usually see without being entirely unusual. For more information on the event, go to http://battleoffortsanders.com.