Fort Stevens July 12

A regimental dress parade, a reenactment of a dying soldier and an appearance and speech by Abraham Lincoln all give the afternoon an authenticity I have come to expect from these commemorations. 

Today there is also the first evidence of ‘Colored Troops’. An actor  also portrays a young woman who dressed as a man to escape from slavery. She ran away several times, but was eventually freed by a white man, Mr. Bigalow, through a scheme of capturing her and taking her to freedom. I appreciate her confidence in maintaining her character and the detail with which she was able to convey the story. At one point, she mentioned a road which we identified by it's modern name. She looked at us puzzled "I don't know about that road", then she continues with her  narrative.

Throughout the day, we see dress parades and demonstrations of weapons firing along with a reenactment of a dying soldier. His comrades and a surgeon rush to his side.  "He made it all the way through Cold Harbor" one soldier exclaims. "He can't die here".

The soldiers muster up and give us a demonstration of the rifle fire, loud explosions of powder that shake up the babies and bring some of the young children to tears. One can only then imagine a constant barrage of rifles and cannons throughout the day, feeling shot whirring by your head. [I was told that most of the artillery canon regiment veterans who returned from the war were given disability pensions for loss of hearing]