Rain doesn’t dampen spirits of military history day participants

Rain doesn't dampen spirits of military history day participants By SCOTT POWELL

Ledger Staff Writer

Backcountry Militia re-enactors from Kings Mountain National Park stood next to a roaring campfire Saturday beside the American Legion hut.

A mid-morning thunderstorm kept a large crowd away from a military history event presented by the American Legion Post 109. The weather did not prevent Backcountry Militia members from roasting a chicken for lunch over a fire near their camp site.

The Backcountry Militia, South Carolina Rangers and the Brigade of Friends were present to give people a taste of Revolutionary War life. The re-enactor groups were among the guests at an American Legion event marking 250 years of American military history.

The event included presentations on military weapons and equipment, and lectures by South Carolina historians covering military history from the French-Indian War through the present war in Iraq.

There were private weapons collections from the Civil War, World War I and World War II and French-Indian War relics on display inside the American Legion hut.

Speakers included retired Limestone College professor Dr. Bobby Moss, Jim Crocker, retired U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major Robert Hall, Wofford College history professor Tracy Revels and Dr. Robert Kaemmerlen.

Revels's talk on "The Women of the Confederacy" focused on the experiences of soldiers' wives and widows, black female slaves, business owners and refugees. Her new book, "Grander in Her Daughters: Florida's Women During the Civil War" recently received the 2005 Rembert Patrick Award for Best Scholarly Book in Florida history.

"No matter their political allegiance, these women lived dual lives, divided in their loyalties between what they often perceived as the competing interests of their nation and their families," Revels said.

South Carolina had a population of 900,000 during the Civil War era. The state sent 100,000 men to fight in the Civil War - one out of five made it home alive.

Disease was the most common killer in the Civil War with roughly two of three soldiers dying from intestinal disorders, pneumonia or tuberculosis. Camps were full of young soldiers who had never been exposed to measles, chicken pox, whooping cough and other contagious diseases.

There was little known about what caused disease, how to stop them from spreading or how to cure them, Kaemmerlen said.

The South and North struggled throughout the war to improve the level of medical care provided to soldiers.

Kaemmerlen said those efforts helped in many ways to develop modern medicine in the United States.

"Doctors had little experience treating gunshot wounds when the war started," he said. "Many soldiers' lives were saved by having a part of an arm or leg amputated."

Many local soldiers from the South Carolina 15th Regiment who fought in the Civil War are buried in Oakland Cemetery near Limestone College.

Kaemmerlen gave a simple reason why county residents need to become informed about military history such as the Civil War.

"These men are our ancestors," Kaemmerlen said. "They don't want us to forget."