Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY CELESTE KATZ STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Second Virginia Cavalrymen Robert Williamson and Stephen Moody had it a little better Tuesday outside Stonewall Jackson Middle School in Southeast Roanoke - but not much. Their main enemies during their living history re-enactment of a Civil War scene were heat, nearby traffic, and an easily distracted student audience.
Clad in handmade replicas of period uniforms and knee-high leather boots, the pair performed the 20-minute "skirmish" twice for groups of seventh-graders. Pupils sat in the shade of elm trees watching the re-enactors perform gunfights, hand-to-hand combat, and dialogue in the 94-degree afternoon.
Moody and Williamson wore long underwear to avoid being chafed by the stiff wool uniforms. Theirs were unlikely outfits for the season's hottest afternoon to date.
"This wool will eat your skin off," Moody said between performances, his hands shaking from the heat. He added that he felt "dizzy but excited" during the re-enactment.
In addition to their uncomfortably hot clothes, both men performed fully armed with heavy Civil War-era revolvers, rifles, and sabers.
Traffic on nearby Ninth Street streamed past, sometimes slowing to stare at the combatants.
"What the hell's wrong with you? Kill that Yankee!" shouted one passerby over the din of rumbling trucks and car stereos.
Moody and Williamson successfully competed for the seventh-graders' attention with their gunplay. The firing of rifles, pistols and a small cannon drew appreciative shrieks from the pupils, who asked many questions about weapons and battle strategy.
Pupils waved away the smoke of the rifles, created by a combination of real gunpowder and Cream of Wheat. No real bullets were fired, although Williamson and Moody displayed several different kinds of ammunition and loading procedures for the various weapons.
In the scene, which was supposed to have taken place on April 14, 1865, near Liberty, Va., Williamson played the part of a Union soldier on patrol, and Moody acted the role of a Confederate soldier on his way back to Southwestern Virginia from the battlefield.
Disbelieving Moody's claim that the war had ended with Lee's surrender at Appomattox, the "soldiers" fought until both had been wounded. They then returned to camp to tend to their wounds. Each soldier explained his reasons for fighting the war, and they finally parted on terms of mutual understanding to the tune of "Homespun Songs of the C.S.A."
Seasoned re-enactors, Williamson and Moody are electricians at Roanoke Steel Electric. They have re-enacted many scenes and battles on horseback.
"I understood better by seeing it face-to-face. It was more elaborated," said seventh-grader Shaunita Stephens.
"It was realistic," said classmate Renee Wood of the campsite set up by Williamson and Moody to depict a typical Union post, complete with pup tents, kerosene lamps, a fire pit, and furniture pilfered from Southern homes. "They even had real food on the tables."
Other students weren't as enthusiastic. "Why should we study about something that happened before we were even born?" asked Chelita Burwell.
by CNB