The Battle of Tunnel Hill

Little did I expect when I moved to the south that I would become a war correspondent.  But when I heard that Sam's home town of Tunnel Hill, GA had a Civil War Reenactment coming up, I knew that you would need up to the minute (or at least within the week) coverage.  I woke up so excited--this was my first war!  Taking pictures in the car, I you can see I had all the intensity of Liza Minnelli gearing up for a show:

My sweet Sam was also looking forward to our adventures, but he to had make a stop on the way.  As sometimes happens in married life, one person is really excited and chomping at the bit to get to the scene of battle, and the other person has to go to the bank and do important business and leaves the war correspondent in the car for 45 minutes.  I had to ask myself, what would Christiane Amanpour do in a situation like this?

Perhaps just cover the story that was unfolding before her...

I think the bun is the most compelling aspect of this photo narrative

At last, important business done, we were able to go off to war.  The first thing to note is that the Battle of Tunnel Hill, historically speaking, is just the tiniest bit imaginary.  There were a few skirmishes in the area, but according to Sam no one died and there was never a real battle.  That being said, the fighting was still intense.

What you will notice is that throughout most of this coverage, I have pretty much no idea what is going on.  The blue and grey teams started out shooting at each other from a distance of about 50 ft for the first part of the battle, but no one died.  Sam and I theorized that this could be because none of the soldiers wanted to be taken out that soon.

After awhile people started riding around on horses, and the cannon fire began.

Unfortunately, that's when we started getting some wounded and dead people.  This poor (and ambitious!) guy was blown right off his horse.

The grey team seemed to be losing more people and soon the dead were scattered everywhere.

The great part about being a reenactment correspondent is that there is hope even for the dead, who sometimes miraculously are able to sit up and keep an eye on the battle even in their state of demise.

Still confusion reigned.  Who was winning?  What was happening?  I expressed this to my Sam.

While that may be true, I bet all of you want to know who actually won.  Well, stay tuned because tomorrow I really will tell you.  Now, I recognize that I'm kind of a false promiser.  More than once I've told you I would finish something and (fickle woman!) didn't do it.  Just try to have faith in me.