By ELIZABETH FERSZT
Contributing Writer
The 39th annual Civil War Muster, returned to Jackson on Aug. 23-24, at Cascades Park and surrounding areas.
This year’s muster also marked the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Army, according to Jackson Historical Society president Maurice Imhoff. Imhoff also played a role in the battle reenactment, leading four other men in the 102nd Regiment of Corpsmen – they acted as medics or stewards – rushing onto the battlefield with canvas stretchers to recover the wounded and dying.
The aim of the Muster is “to show what the soldiers went through – firing these kinds of weapons, wearing the heavy uniforms,” according to Dave Downing who acts as Battlefield Commentator. He narrated the scene as the Union and Confederate forces clashed in a loose recreation of two small battles, the Battle of Tulifinny and the Battle of Deveaux’s Neck, both fought in December 1864 in Jasper County, South Carolina. Downing himself began as a reenactor in 1983.
In both battles, the Union forces were trying to disrupt or even blow up a Confederate railroad line that carried vital supplies to Charleston and Savannah. Despite Union troops numbering over 5,000, including soldiers from the United States Colored Troops organized out of New York, the Rebels with only about 900 men, including cadets from the Citadel Military Academy, prevailed.
In the version of these battles presented at the Cascades, while the Union soldiers appeared to outnumber the enemy, and be better armed, wearing proper matching blue uniforms – the Confederates eventually caused the Union to signal a retreat and cessation, sounding a bugle. The Union troops lost more men to the rifle fire of sharpshooting Rebel Irregulars – dressed in rough, frontiersmen-like clothing – only a few had official grey uniforms. Other causalities came from thundering cannon balls, a calvary attack with about 10 horses and riders, and actual fist-fighting.
Approximately 1,000 people watched the 2 p.m. afternoon battle on Sunday Aug. 24, seated on the main (sledding) hill of the Cascades, recording video and photos, and cheering for the troops.
Living history reenactors also offered short lectures or answered questions on their roles in the overall cultural or social experience of the Civil War. For example, there were surgeons, tanners, seamstresses, an apothecary, blacksmith, and sarsaparilla seller.
Dan Wykes of Rockford, Illinois, had a tent set up to advocate for Abolition and to teach about the Underground Railroad. “Many Freedom Seekers followed what is today the 1-94 corridor, coming from Missouri or Kentucky (slave states), and organizing in the Cassopolis area, to make the trek all the way to Detroit, and eventually, a chance to cross the river into Ontario (Windsor, Canada),” he explained. “Jackson played a major role in the process.”
“Michigan was a free state, but in 1850 the second Fugitive Slave Act made it a federal law to return slaves as chattel property.” Wykes added, “Conductors were usually church members who were OK with breaking that law.”
Wykes is the lead educator at the Byron Museum in Byron Illinois, which is a U.S. National Parks site for Underground Railroad studies.
Another reenactor played President Abraham Lincoln, who recited the “Gettysburg Address.”
The All-American Military Ball was temporarily rained out as a thunderstorm rolled through the area at about 7 p.m. on Saturday night, sending the belles of the ball scurrying for cover in their hoop dresses. It was held in the flats of the Cascades Driving Range, with 19th century style music provided by Washingtonian String Band.
