Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 5, 1994                   TAG: 9405050111
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT SHOWS LIFE SOLDIERS LED

Three members of a modern-day re-enactment group, Gen. Robert E. Lee's Headquarters Staff, spent several hours April 18 and 19 at South Salem and Glenvar elementary schools.

The biggest attraction was the firing of several shots from a small cannon and two muskets.

"This is what the kids always remember," said Ken Chandler, one of those putting on the show.

Chandler and Paul Maynor demonstrated the guns, and Annette Wetzel demonstrated a camp set-up and how cooking was done in the field during the 1860s.

All three are from Richmond, and "this is our avocation," said Wetzel. "We thoroughly enjoy it. We learn something at each school."

Maynor said most of the people in the re-enactment group use some of their vacation time to put on programs. Some, though, own their own businesses and have more flexible schedules.

Maynor is a computer technician, Chandler is self-employed in real estate and Wetzel is a public health nurse with the Virginia Department of Health.

Chandler said he hopes the group can return to the Roanoke Valley next spring and stay for a week.

Although the program mainly focused on life in the field for Confederate soldiers, much of what the trio said applied to both sides.

Both used the same kind of weapons, Maynor said, and often soldiers on both sides picked up the guns dropped by fallen soldiers on the other side.

Cannon balls were filled with powder and were supposed to explode over enemy positions after being hurled by the cannon, Maynor said. But many of them did not explode.

He said powder in the balls often got wet, fuses fell out in flight or the ball landed in wet ground.

But muskets were very effective, Chandler said.

Even though each shot had to be loaded separately, soldiers had become experts in reloading quickly.

Wetzel said much of the diet of soldiers in the field consisted of dried or salted meat and bread-type dishes because they could be kept for long periods without spoiling.

One of the bread items was called "ash cake" because it was cooked in hot ashes. Soldiers brushed off as many of the ashes as possible before eating but invariably ate some ashes along with the bread, Wetzel said.

Wetzel prepared some of the bread - officially called cakes - and let the children sample it.

All cooking was done over open fires; many women died during this period when their clothes were ignited by campfires, Wetzel said.

During the mornings at each school the three re-enactors visited classrooms. They talked with children about life in the field and showed them various artifacts of the period.

Chandler said there are many others in the group who do the same type of programs, mostly at schools in eastern Virginia. He said the group would like to do more in the western half of the state.

This visit came about, he said, because of invitations from school employees who saw a re-enactment the group did at Green Hill Park in Roanoke County two years ago.