The Conclusion of the Battle of Tunnel Hill

Look!  I really did follow through!  I'm giving myself 12.5 gold stars.  So, when we last left our heroine she and her husband were on the battle field.  One thing I haven't yet told you about the battle was that it was the most humid and hot time I have ever spent in Georgia.  Sam and I were trying to stay cool under an umbrella, but our courage waned as the heat and the battle wore on and our confusion mounted.

I knew when I began covering this war that though the battle itself was important, I wanted to capture the gritty truth of the human drama of what was unfolding before us.  The face of an old man watching his son go off to a reenactment,

the worried wife who wonders if her husband will be one of the first to go,

and most importantly the nurses who get out on the battle field in HOOP SKIRTS to tend to the wounded in 90 degree weather!

There is no way I am woman enough for that job.  In fact, perhaps one of the most shocking things about my coverage of this battle is that Sam and I

were so overheated and parched that we went to get lemonade and missed the end of the battle!  Christiane Amanpour never does anything like that.  Oh, the shame!  However, can I just say in my defense that this was the best lemonade of my life and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I really like how they made such an effort to have their products take you back in time.  One of my favorite parts of this event was wandering through the camps (both teams camp out the night before the battle with gear from the time period) and seeing all the fun people were having with historical accuracy.

By the time Sam and I got back to the front, we learned that despite heavy casualties early on the South had won the battle (which means that the North gets to win the next day because in reenactment land you very sensibly take turns).  The conquered blue team lined up to shoot their guns at the end of the battle.

I thought to myself, "Oh good, a chance to redeem my lack of footage of the end of the battle."  I would get a picture of all the guns firing at once.  Instead, I caught this,

which I think powerfully captures how scary and loud it is when a lot of guns are fired at once.