Fall Muster

Over this past weekend we went to our first Fall Muster. The paper said it was between 9AM and 5:30PM. It worked out best for us to go first thing in the morning, and at 8AM we were all buckled into our car and driving down the road. We arrived right at 9AM ready to see a Civil War re-enactment. We were excited to see things get blown up. We had read that they had added several cannons to the battle.

However, we were soon to discover that the battle did not occur from 9-5. In fact there was nothing going on at 9AM. No food being sold, no battles being fought...

It turns out that during the Fall Muster, a bunch of people (more than 100) get together. They dress in Civil War period costumes. Men, women, and children; they all spend the weekend out at the re-enactment site. They spend the night, they re-enact a weekend in the life of the soliders who fought in the civil war. It is not just the battles. They slept under white canvas tents, they were cooking breakfast over an open fire. All of them slept out in the fields, in the camp that was designed to be as close as possible to a camp during the civil war.

At 9AM when we arrived they were just getting up and rustling up some breakfast. Soon there was a morning church service, then a commander's call, then some practise exercises and later, at around 2PM the battle would occur. We had a bit of fun wandering around the campsites. Everyone pretty much ignored us. We were the only people there, not participating in the Muster. We saw a couple of people talking on cell phones.

We wandered over to the battle field and took a close up look at the cannons. Lily had a blast running in the open field. All that open space and she was in heaven. They told us other folks don't normally show up until noon. I guess this is a lesson learned, in Mississippi, even if an event starts at 9AM never show up until noon. OK, now I understand.