Your colleagues were pretty good to us, (((Billy))), and we enjoyed our stay.

Still, people have expectations, I guess, like seeing ghosts (even if one is talking on a cell phone)and in the museum there is a cornet which is reported to have been played at “Stonewall” Jackson’s funeral by a certain person.

Maybe the guy played A cornet at the funeral, but it wasn’t THAT horn, as it couldn’t have been made prior to the 1870’s (valve type and spit key are two dead give-aways) and we mentioned this to one of the rangers at the place.

He sighed, told us we weren’t the first to notice this, but the higher-ups agreed that it was THE one, so, it would probably remain so…what did we want from HIM? He was just a GS 5 interpreter.

Those of us who had labored a while in Uncle Sam’s vinyards just thanked him for his attention, shook his hand and patted his shoulder.

Seriously, Sarge: take care of yourself. Take it easy. Listen to your wife. And I hope you feel better.

The English Civil War reenactments sound interesting, though. You do get around. As for being a grouchy Roundhead… how much were the cavaliers laughing when it was all said and done? I’d bet you’re a Roundhead because you have a more rebublican, (in the good sense of the word), nature.

We are also interested in your civil war, and I reenact as a corporal of Popham’s Horse at English Civil War events that are staged here.

Reenacting in the summer in wool is pretty tough, but when you put on a buff coat, back and breast plate, lobster tailed helmet, gauntlets and a big iron hand and arm guard, it gets pretty grim. Hang a rather heavy petronel from one shoulder and a big sword off the other and in mid Atlantic summer, you really suffer.

Yes, I’m a “roundhead”, my wife says it’s fitting, I’m too grouchy to be a “Laughing Cavalier”.

Last weekind our reenactment group participated in the Music Muster put on by the park service at Gettysburg. We got every reenactor’s dream, we actually camped on the battlefield down behind the Pennsylvania monument.

It was a typical G’burg weather, hot and humid in the extreme, but we looked forward to it.

I had surgurey last Monday, they’d had to break my lower and upper jaw and cheek on the left side and remove some tissue (jaws are still wired shut and my wife claims that this alone is proof of a deity’s existence and benevolence, proof that it loves her), and then they also removed two more melanoma tumors from my neck and shoulder, but I went anyway because who is going to pass up an opprotunity like that? Plus, I promised to “take it easy” and “not over-do it”. All the women in my life simply rolled their eyes and shook their heads.

It got me that many people asked, “aren’t you worried about ghosts”? A lot of these were otherwise very sensible people and they asked this question in all seriousness.

After we got our camp set up we got in uniform and went walking up to Round Top, and it turned out to be one of those things that Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time.

I had managed to tear loose some of the staples in my neck and shoulder and started bleeding from those, and the same thing happened inside my face. My face is swollen and discolored from the surgurey as it is, and what with the heat and humidity it was very hard to breathe because of the inside swelling and bleeding.

We were near one of the pull-offs (tourists about) and it was shady, and my companions made me go over by a tree and sit down in the shade while they looked me over, and they saw that I was really bleeding a lot from my mouth and nose plus the shoulder area, and I’m starting to choke.

That’s when the tourists noticed that we were there. And that there was REAL distress and REAL blood along with the uniforms that hadn’t been there just a couple of minutes ago.

There were many screams, “Oh, My God”s, and I’m told a grown man shoved his kids out of the way and started sprinting for his car bellowing “F***king ghosts”!

Two of the tourists, though, didn’t buy it, and one of them said, “Ghosts, my ass”. She and another lady came over to see if they could help as they were an ER nurse and an EMT. As they walked over they remarked to their companions that they’d never heard of Gettysburg ghosts talking on cell phones (which the two of them had observed immediately, as one of my friends was calling camp for a ride back).

We were continually asked if we’d seen ghosts been menaced by them, all weekend. We told people, nah, it was so humid their sheets were waterlogged and all they could do was thrash around on the grass. It was too hot for them even to go ‘booga-booga’.

Besides, why should they exert themselves when the mosquitos, horse flies, and yellow jackets were causing us more consternation, inconvenience, and distress than any mere ghost ever could?

But the first thing most people said was about ghosts…

I go by “Sarge” because I retired from the army as an SFC and in every thing I participate in that’s the sort of thing I wind up doing.

I would enjoy trading bad jokes with you (of course, it would punish any nearby).

Peace, friend.

Several civil war reenactment groups go to this place and the Momtoursville elemetary school sixth grade comes and they relay from station to station among us and the different groups (infantry, artillery, medical, period kid’s play, confederate, and our band does music)all day. It’s a lot of fun.

It’s a very pretty, even historical place, and the wildlife is really something. There are all kinds of ducks, geese, egrets (egrets: I’ve had a few…) herons and other waders, you see skunks, weasels, racoons, possums, all sorts of birds including eagles (or, as prounced in these parts: ‘iggles’)and usuallt a lot of snakes come out of the woods and snap up things our activities stir up. And a whole lot more.

This year was kind of special, though, we saw some unusual things.

In the past when I’d pointed out the eagles (usually in flight) all our twenty somethings saw were big distant birds. This year they actually landed on the bank of the river about thirty feet away, and in the trees around the camp.

One of the artillery ladies came running up from the river yelling that ther was a giant snake in the river and it was coming our way. So, in true survival pattern, we went down to see this phenomenon. It wasn’t a snake as big around as your thigh, it was a family of otters. And they weren’t at all shy. Everyone but me was fascinated. I just nodded, snorted, turned to go back to camp. I retorted that they weren’t doing anything out of the ordinary, “just what they oughter…” Some of my colleagues wondered if the creatures could be enticed to bite me… as hard and often as possible.

It was still daylight and I heard a woman yelling “omigodomigodomigod”! and walking out of the woods comes a bear, looked to go about three hundred pounds, and it’s carrying a faun in its mouth. It just sort of looked at us and kept walking across the clearing, back into the woods and I guess to enjoy its supper.

One of the women yelled, “Well, DO something”! to the nearest male. Nearest male, displaying candor which is seldom seen relied, “I’m about to, but I’ll have to change my fruit of the looms”!

One of the reenactors is a zoologist and biologist who does some work for fish and wildlife, and he said that he wondered about that sort of thing, wasn’t surprised to see it. About five years ago a lot of acreage in the area had been clear cut and the second growth was really dense. You could see deer inside the airfield perimeter and on the local ball fields grazing and he figured that the does would be leaving their fauns inside those thickets while they ate. Bear are probably the only thing that can smell out the fauns and get to them, and there it was.

Next day our laison from the school told us that that had been seen almost everyday for a month in that area, the bears sometimes actually walking right on the perimeter road.

Some were a bit worried about a reurn visit, but our group put all the food in MY tent. I remonstrated with them, but they said it should be safe. They figured a bear wouldn’t go in where there was a skunk smell. The stench has been much reduced due to the miracles of chemistry, but they gave me their solemn word that I was still redolent after my recent encounter. Plus for making horrible jokes I deserved it. It was my PUN-isment.

Then the owls came out and I thought about all the people I knew who would have treasured such an experince and I thought of you. Wished you were there, friend, you’d have loved it.