Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Buffalo Soldiers


It was both interesting and good to see some afro-americans participating in the civil war battle of Townsend plantation. There were actually quite a few colored troops who fought in the civil war. Here is a couple of colored troopers participating as cavalry. There were six horses in their cavalry unit. There were about 4 or 5 cavalry units consisting of six to twelve horses each. Sort of reminds me of the Buffalo soldiers.

I couldn’t resist this picture of this horse doing a silly pose. These reenactors really go all out in their costumes. It is nice of these people to take their time to participate in the reenactment and they don’t even get paid for it. But it looked like they were having a lot of fun.


Look at the cloud of smoke from the gunpowder of the cannon going off behind him. I was amazed at the concussion from the exploding cannons and for this fellow being so much closer the concussion must have been much stronger. The horses of all of the cavalry units seemed to tolerate the gunfire and cannon fire quite well with one exception.

This big burly fellow really seems to be getting into his role. He has a pistol in his right hand which was probably the main weapon of the cavalry.

Here he is firing his pistol and just look at the cloud of smoke coming from his pistol. All of the weapons were from that era and obviously they didn’t use smokeless gunpowder.

This horse was the exception to remaining calm. He got spooked by the gunfire and the rider was having difficulty controlling him. He was in tight quarters with five other horsemen. The horse wanted to rear and was bumping another horse. He separated from the group of riders and then gently and affectionately patted the horse on the neck to calm him. It worked and I didn’t see the horse having any more problems. Look at the beautiful white tail and even the mane has a portion of it’s hair in white. The rider was so kind to the horse and never shouted or raised his voice to the horse. I think that he should get an award from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for his kindness towards the horse. I always admire people who exhibit kindness.
This blog has gone on long enough and I hope that you enjoyed the pictures. Have a good day and try to get out more on the week-ends to events like this one. Stay dry. Lew

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