Visitors step back in time at a local history festival
SALTILLO, Tenn. —An exciting event that dives into American history is held in a local county.
The Tennessee River Rendezvous was held on Friday and Saturday. This is a living history festival that takes people back to different wars in American history.
The event was free to the public as well as the activities. There were many people in attendance excited to take in all of the informative history. Everyone who attended Saturday got to witness a big part of history with a Civil War Reenactment.
Confederate Soldier reenactor, David Campbell says that his favorite part about participating in these reenactments is being around other people who share a love for history.
“And they love it enough to spend their own hard earned money, take vacation days from work to come out here, and put on this kind of event to help educate as much as possible,” Campbell said.
According to Union General reenactor, Robert Beams, he has been doing war reenactments for 28 years now. Beams was inspired to start doing reenactments due to his love for history, and says with lessons from the past, we not only learn about ourselves and our history, but also develop the ability to avoid mistakes and create better paths for our future.
He also expresses what his favorite part of the reenactments are.
“Doing living history and giving out the knowledge and history that I have learned over the years through participating in these civil war reenactments. I have been in large scale Civil War
Reenactments like Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Shiloh. Participating in those large scale battles is really something to do,” Beams said.
Campbell and Beams express thanks to everyone for coming out and they encourage people to come out and learn about the history of our country.
“We enjoy doing it and we enjoy putting on the best show we can for the fine folks that came out today, and hope that everyone enjoyed it,” Campbell said.
“If you love history and the history of our country, get out here and find out what we are really all about. Talk to these reenactors and stuff and you’ll have a great learning experience out here amongst them. It’s just a great hobby to be involved in, in the remembrance of our county,” Beams said.
The United States Civil War was a brutal war that lasted from 1861 to 1865. It resulted in slavery being abolished in the United States.
Confederate General Lee surrendered to U.S. General Grant in the Spring of 1865, officially ending the war.
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