Field Trip #21 Civil War On Sunday

I knew before we even read the book that this was going to be one of the easiest field trips in the entire series. Mainly because we live right smack dab in the middle of some of the bloodiest civil war battles. That, and the fact that my husband has a wealth of military information stored in his brain that just oozes out an given opportunity. So, in order to satisfy him and enrich Mikie's experiences, I allowed the entire month of May to be devoted to multiple civil war field trips. (forewarning: this blog is lengthy!)

When my mom arrived to watch the boys while we went to Hawaii, we drug her along on the first battlefield stop. The battlefield of Manassas:

The book was all about a drummer boy, Johnny Clem. So of course, we had to pose by a drum.

Mikie (and daddy) really enjoyed the map with the lights showing the progress of the battles.

The uniforms.

Another major part of the book talked about the field hospitals and mentioned stretchers as a way to transport the wounded. We found a stretcher at the house they used as a field hospital during the battle.

Cannon ball in the wall (placed there after the war)

The house used as a hospital.

They even had confederate soldiers that were performing cannon demonstrations.

This soldier had a canteen just like in the story.

This picture cracks me up. (be sure to click on it to enlarge Mikie's expression) He was very upset that the cannons were going to be loud.

This one was snapped after we convinced him that it wasn't going to explode for another 10 minutes.

On one of the paths the soldiers marched down, we saw a....

Snake. (Super Boagie's version of Kryptonite)

We also saw a horse and Mikie just had to show him that there was a picture of a horse in his book. I love this picture!

At the gift store, Mikie wanted a union hat and flag.

And just to keep things apropos, Zachary chose a confederate hat and flag.

Let the battle of the brothers begin....

Confederate casualties in the background.

The union wins!

After returning from Hawaii, we spent an afternoon at the reenactment of the battle of Spotsylvania courthouse:

Mikie with the drummer boy.

At the union camp.

Zachary poses with a confederate soldier.

It's an ambush!

Mikie with a union soldier.

At the battle reenactment, even with earplugs in, Mikie was still scared of the cannons.

Another opportunity to view a field hospital.

This one was a little more graphic/realistic.

One last field trip to Ferry Farm concluded our month of May tribute to the civil war.

Here Mikie saw all the tools that would be used in the field hospitals and shows a picture of one of the bottles we found that looks like the one in the book.

Zachary's favorite part was seeing the horse.

The boys joined the infantry and learned to carry a riffle while marching.
When it came time for the pretend battle, both of them were in tears when the musket fired.

Mikie shows us what some of the soldiers would pack in their backpacks.

I'm standing behind this beautiful dress and thinking how hot it would be to wear this everyday.

Then the day got even better when my boys found colonial bowling pins.

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The second stop of the Civil War Days in Fredericksburg was to Kenmore where they were able to play the drums and wash some laundry.

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