The Battle of Tawawa Woods...

This past September, the Shelby County Historical Society and the City of Sidney sponsored a weekend of Civil War reenactments, period music, and educational events at the Tawawa Park.  I have spent a great deal of time studying the Civil War from a military prospective.  My wife and I have walked battle fields (Gettysburg twice), stayed at period bed and breakfast establishments, and I have read more books about the subject than I can count.  When I was in the Army, one of my battalion commanders who had a similar interest in that war from a military perspective, took his whole battalion staff on a battle field terrain walk.  We studied the tactics and how terrain, populations and logistics had different impacts on various battles (Richmond, Bloody Angle, Gettysburg, etc.).  That was quite a treat for all of us young officers.  As a much younger E-5 Sergeant, I took part in a Civil War Color Guard which traveled around to events a number of times.  Later in my military life, I even had an opportunity to walk the grounds of the Andersonville Prison Camp. 

So, when this event was advertised, I could not wait.  Knowing the director of the Historical Society, I knew she would make this a first rate event.  As the date got closer, the weather forecast got worse -- go figure.  All those people who thought that that particular war might have been fought in the sunshine were given a wake-up call.  It rained pretty much most of the weekend, off and on. I thought it was great.

So on Saturday afternoon, the "Yanks" and "Rebs" conducted a battle which the director called "The Battle of Tawawa Woods."

As the combatants took the field, the Union forces, under the command of General Burnside, attacked from the right, across the woods in a frontal assault against an assembled Rebel force.

However, the tide of battle soon turned and the Yankees withdrew and the Rebels advanced.

 The Yankees soon regrouped and pushed the Rebels back to their original starting position. 

The Rebels tried a flanking maneuver to the right side of the field, across the creek, but their momentum stalled out and they remained there until nightfall.  The Rebels posted pickets by the treeline running along the creek just in case the Yanks decided to push the engagement.

Under cover of darkness, the Rebel forces tried an assault back over the creek, but by that time, Burnside had moved cannons into an overwatch position on the top of  the levy.  The Rebel forces proved to be no match for the cannon fire and riflemen the Yanks had positioned along the treeline, guarding against any advance over the creek.

I heard a lot of the visitors to the event commenting on how this looked pretty authentic (at least they thought so).  And, sadly, this was how a lot of these small battles went.  Everyone got a big kick out of the night battle.  The blast and fire of the cannons really highlighted the battle.  The reenactors really tried to make this as authentic as possible.  But I'm not sure some of the young people there were not trying somehow to tie this into some sort of video game they might have played in the past.

Kudos to the Historical Society and all the reenactors for their hard work. 

"It is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it."
 (R.E. Lee)

Hooah