Civil War comes to Knights Ferry

Hundreds to hit battlefield in annual re-enactment

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There's no ammunition being fired, but that doesn't mean a Civil War re-enactment is without its casualties.

Take William Entriken, for example. He'll be on the sidelines rather than the battlefield this weekend because he's recovering from triple-hernia surgery. He believes the injury was suffered while lugging artillery. "Not that the cannons are heavy or anything," he said jokingly Thursday while preparing for the American Civil War Association's battles and encampments today and Sunday at the Knights Ferry Recreation Area, east of Oakdale. "Most of the time if you get an injury, it's a twisted ankle" from the rough terrain of battlefields, he added.

But that rugged, rocky land is what makes Knights Ferry such an interesting place for members of the ACWA, who return to the site annually around this time.

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"With the hills and the river, it's similar to Virginia," said Entriken, a resident of the Calaveras County community of Sheep Ranch. At the same time, the recreation area has lots of level land for encampments, plus the picnic areas and restroom facilities that make it spectator-friendly.

The association expects about 400 participants this weekend, including 200 to 250 on the battlefields. In addition to the skirmishes, the two full days of living history will give visitors an insight into the lives of soldiers, women and children during the Civil War.

Entriken, vice president of the ACWA of Northern and Central California, encourages visitors to talk with the re-enactors about their units, what they did during the war, how they lived and how they ate.

Years of encampment life "had horrors of its own, like eating hardtack and blue beef," he said. Blue beef? That was the end product when meat would go bad because it wasn't cooked long enough or canned properly, then sat in warehouses before ever reaching the soldiers, he said. Consequently, there was lots of dysentery and other food-borne illness.

Lots of "camp cough," too, he said. In any camp, "it would be more surprising to hear someone not coughing than to hear them coughing," he said.

There aren't scheduled demonstrations in the Union and Confederate encampments, but you're likely to happen upon informal gatherings of visitors perhaps being shown how to load a musket. "Don't be afraid to walk up and talk to the re-enactors," all of whom are knowledgeable and some of whom are descendents of those who fought in the war, Entriken said.

The realistic camps can take maybe 20 hours to set up -- much longer for those folks who portray settlers and might arrive days in advance to erect and stock their replica shops. "For those of us who re-enact," he said, "we depend on the settlers' stores for uniforms, canteens, muskets" and other supplies. Re-enactors could go online to buy pretty much everything they need, he said, but it's easier with something like a uniform to be able to try it on first to ensure it fits properly.

Over the years, Entriken has worn both the blue and the gray, but most ACWA re-enactors stick with either the Union or the Confederacy, he said by phone Thursday while picking up supplies with a couple of fellow re-enactors who were ribbing him about being a "turncoat."

And while ACWA members do sometimes gather in huge numbers to re-create actual battles (Entriken has been to Gettysburg to participate in such an event), this weekend's clashes are "pretty much improvised, like a couple of Union units and Confederate units happened upon each other," he said. "To do a re-enactment of a real battle, you need tens of thousands of people and square miles of land. We're doing more what Shakespeare called putting a war on a stage."

There will be booming blasts from cannons, lots of musket bursts and a blanket of gunpowder smoke in the air, but first-time visitors to a battle re-enactment don't have to worry about gore -- aside from the fake amputated limbs in Doc Goodblood's surgical tent, that is.

"We have gotten into hand-to-hand combat, but it's very well choreographed before we do it," Entriken said. "We don't come away too bloody. Some people will put on a bandage already stained with fake blood, but uniforms are expensive and most of us don't want to get all that red food coloring on them."

The American Civil War Association event is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, with battles at 1 and 4 p.m., and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, with battles at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

On the Net: American Civil War Association of Northern and Central California, http://acwa.org.