April | 2013 | The Hatch Family

Last weekend our family traveled to central California to the samll town of Mariposa. Mariposa is about 45 minutes west of Yosemite. Mariposa County hosts a Civil War reenactment each spring. It is held at a private ranch about 10 minutes outside of town. With Gracie studying US history we thought it was the perfect opprotunity for some hands on learning. Melodee Trentman and her girls, Lizzy and Annie were able to join us as well. We stay in a quaint Victorian inn right in town. This first thing on our schedule when we arrived at the reenactment was to catch some of the historical presentation by “Abraham Lincoln”.

The weather was beautiful! Civil War reenactments happen all across the country and there are many clubs that participate.

These clubs encourage the whole family to participate. Here are two little toddlers frolicking in the field near there family’s camp.

At noon, a fashion show was held to show off the fashions of the day. Here the women are wearing work dresses.

Notice how they are all wearing aprons to protect there dresses and almost always wore something on their heads.

These were the fancy dresses woren on special occassions or by the wealthy.

They wore hoops or layers of petticoats under their dresses.

Many had detachable sleeves so they could be washed by themselves if they got dirty.

The young boys would often be outfitted in a dress or little pant suit like the one shown here.

After the age of 5 they would no longer wear dresses.

At 1:00 the first battle began. The Union army was on the far side with the Confederate army’s back to us.

The firing of guns and cannons (blanks of course) went on for at least 30 minutes.

Here comes the cavalry!

Firing of cannons. They were very loud!

This guy really got in to his part. He acted out his death over a large area and fair amount of time.

While it was kind of funny to watch him act out his demise, the truth of the tragedy of this war was no laughing matter.

Here is a better view of both armies with the Union camp in the background.

Medical kits use during the time of the Civil War.

Of the over 600,000 that died during the Civil War, many died of infection or disease do to the lack of knowledge of germs and bacteria.

The Confederate army marching into the the twilight battle.

Eric joins the ranks…

The Twilight Battle

Brayden cuddling up to a bear. If you thought that was a piece of grass in his mouth you are wrong. It was actually an ear tickler ;P

With help from Yelp and some locals we found a great little diner.

They had fabulous food and friendly staff. We ended up eat there 3 times in row.

It was a fabulous weekend with family, friends, beautiful scenery and education!

Today we went on a fabulous field trip with Joseph Foreman. He is a geology major and is very knowledgeable. The Hales, Juarez and Hollingsworth families joined us as well. We started at the Hales’ home in Colfax where Joseph gave us an introduction about the basic of the earth’s formation and changes over millions of years. After that we headed up the mountain in our cars. Our first stop was at Gold Run.

Iron Oxide Quartz