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More
than 800 participants -- representing units of the Union
and the Confederacy -- re-enact a Civil War battle over two
days in February.
Troopers
and camp followers, dressed in period homespun, pitch
tents and settle in. Tethered horses, nervous with
excitement, snort, and shift restlessly, while their masters
check and re-check their cap-and-ball weapons in
anticipation of the battle to come.
A
single shot rings out, and 40 acres of 20th century
Florida Live Oak country are transformed into an 1860's
battle field -- quickly awash in clouds of black-powder
smoke, as cannons boom and belch, punctuated by the dull pop
of small arms fire and the galloping tattoo of horses'
hooves stirring up dust that mingles with
gunsmoke.
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Click
Here
to see what it was like at Townsend's Plantation
during previous reenactments.
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Before
the battle, Renninger's visitors wander around
the encampment, taking in the sights, smells and
sounds -- perhaps a snatch of "Dixie", or "The
Bonnie Blue Flag."
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Afterward,
re-enactors and their families often stroll through
the Antique Center and the Farmers & Flea
Market, before breaking camp and returning to
present day Central Florida.
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