Memorial Day - Remembering those who gave us freedom

The week prior to the memorial day weekend, my daughter had to recite a poem "No, Freedom isn't free " by Kelly Strong for their weekly memorization. The title of the poem is so very true! It brings to me the memories of my childhood when my father narrated to us, the struggles they had to put during the partition of India which followed after the independence. My father and his family lived in Karachi, Pakistan(which was part of India then) before the independence. During the partition period they had to leave their land, house, belongings and flee to India to be safe and free. Most of the households in India probably have a similar past and the value of freedom has been handed over to us from our fathers and forefathers. Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, is an occassion when we can be thankful to all those who have laid their life to give us freedom.

In the spirit of Memorial Day, we decided to visit the Roaring Camp at Felton as they were going to host the Civil War enactment. The act was put up on a great open field. The actors dressed up in soldier uniforms represented the Union soldiers and the Confederate soldiers. Bayonets, swords, cannons or volleys and gun powder was used for the shootings. The battle was enacted for about 45 minutes. As the battle proceeded, the Union soldiers slowly advanced in to the Confederate territory and finally declared victory.

The Union Soldiers (Northern states)


The Confederate Soldiers (Southern states)



The enactment demonstrated how the Napoleonic tactics were used during the war. It includes formation of line of battle by the soldiers to attack the enemy. These tactics were not very effective as the artillery was short ranged and would often miss the enemy. As the artillery became advanced, the trench war tactics were adopted during some of the wars.

Celeberating victory




The uniform worn by the Union soldiers was navy blue, however there were couple of soldiers in Zouave uniform. These were bright red colored uniform worn by Native North African soldiers who fought for French. As the Zouave uniforms has to be specially made, they costed more and only few soldiers had the previlege to wear it.

At the end of the act there was a Q&A session. Photocopied money from the civil war period was distributed.



And lastly the best part......President during the civil war, Mr. Abraham Lincoln!