Rebels run Yankees out of McDowell By Geoff Cox • Staff Writer
McDOWELL - Cries of "Give it to ââ¬Ëem boys!" and "Run, you blue bellied bastards, run!" echoed through the air and clouds of smoke hanging heavy in the sky from blazing muskets Saturday during the 145th anniversary of the Battle of McDowell.
According to Highland Heritage Museum director Crysta Stanton, 365 reenactors participated in last weekend's activities. "They really do a lot more than play-act. They never leave character the whole time they are here, especially when addressing a woman. They do a lot of research and they really pull it off," she said.
Pickets guarded Union camps on the Mansion House lawn and in areas throughout town. Soldiers recreating camp life busied themselves cooking rations butchered on site, drilling, and harassing townsfolk and visitors.
 | | Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson," portrayed by George Moor, and his aide-de-camp, supervise the action in town. |
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"You have to know who you are, where you are, and where you are going," said Janet O'Connor of West Hartford, Conn., who was portraying a period lady named Sarah Rose. "I've been doing these for 12 years and this is my first event in first person … I love it."
Across town, alongside the Cowpasture River, camped the Confederates. Harpers Ferry was the countersign demanded to access the camp. Walking along the river, the light filtered through the newly green trees and the scents of grilling meat, pipes, camp smoke, and horse manure made it easy to escape the present for a moment.
 | | Sarah Rose, also known as Janet O'Connor, signs an oath of allegiance to the Union at a makeshift desk in the Union Camp on the Mansion House lawn.
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Just off the river, a unit from North Carolina was relaxing, taking about the war, and cooking fat steaks on sticks.
"We travel the circuit as a group. Most of us have ancestors that fought in a North Carolina regiment during the war," said one. "This is the way to do it, you get a feel for what the soldiers did," added another.
 | | Confederate reenactors make camp behind their stacked rifles in the woods next to the Cowpasture River. These soldiers were from North Carolina as are the men playing the role. (Recorder photo by Geoff Cox) |
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Within hours the leisurely pace of camp-life was replaced with pitched battle. This year the "battle" was held in the field across from Stonewall Grocery for the spectators' convenience. The Confederates held the high-ground and repulsed the Union attack amid volleys of artillery and musket fire. Beaten Union troops soon fell back and began a retreat through town pursued by Confederates and spectators alike.
Soon the victorious Confederates took over the Union camp in town and at the Mansion House exchanged "Old Glory" for the "Stars and Bars" while the sounds of "Dixieland" drifted through town.
"The goal of reenacting is to get moments like this," said Art Stone, portraying Harper's Weekly correspondent and artist Alfred Waud. "That's why we love McDowell so much, It hasn't changed as much as other places."
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