Bob Minton has been taking part in Civil War re-enactments since 1992. A Civil War buff since he was 10 years old, Minton is a general in the 1st Federal Division, a collection of six major groups that includes the Army of the Ohio. He will take part in Hale Farm and Village's Civil War re-enactment Aug. 7-9 and tells us about one memorable re-enactment marking the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam in 2012.
We got up at 4:30 in the morning. We marched in the dark and knew the Confederates were out there somewhere. We knew they were going to attack us in this cornfield. Then, all of the sudden, they were there and just opened up. It's hard to do justice to those experiences that make you think, Wow. That's what it was like. The uncertainty. You are leading several hundred guys, and you are thinking, My goodness, what if those guys had real guns shooting real bullets? By the time we were done, the corn was trampled and gunpowder smoke was hanging. You could barely see. The Confederates were laying there pretending to be dead or wounded, screaming for help. Some really powerful images. — as told to Jason Brill
