This past weekend we went to our first war reenactment. It was the Revolutionary War Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Before the reenactment they had a little village set up with people dressed in the time period clothing and performing various tasks. Elijah was particularly fascinated with the cordwainer (shoe maker), which we learned was different from a cobbler (shoe mender). I just always thought a cobbler made shoes...but anyways we watched him make a sheath for a tomahawk. They also had woodcrafters, potters, seamstresses and fabric merchants, bag makers, weapon makers, etc. We also entered the encampment and talked to one of the reenactors who gave us a detailed tour of all the weaponry and let the kids hold some cannonballs, which they loved of course. The actual reenactment was great. We had great seats on a hill so we were able to look down at the battle. I had to reassure Elijah that the soldiers weren't really dead, but they sure did put on a good show! I almost believed they were dead! Caleb just picked daisies the whole time. ha. It was very exciting and we will definitely be attending more of these in the future.

"On March 15, 1781. the largest, most hotly-contested battle of the Revolutionary War's

Southern Campaign was fought at the small North Carolina backcounty hamlet of Guilford Courthouse. Major General Nathanael Greene, defending the ground at Guilford Courthouse with an army of almost 4,500 American militia and Continentals, was tactically defeated by a smaller British army of about 1,900 veteran regulars and German allies commanded by Lord Charles Cornwallis. After 2 1/2 hours of intense and often brutal fighting, Cornwallis forced his opponent to withdraw from the field. Greene's retreat preserved the strength of his army, but Cornwallis's frail victory was won at the cost of over 25% of his army.

Guilford Courthouse proved to be the highwater mark of British military operations in the Revolutionary War. Weakened in his campaign against Greene, Cornwallis abandoned the Carolinas hoping for success in Virginia. At Yorktown, seven months after his victory at Guilford Courthouse, Lord Cornwallis would surrender to the combined American and French forces under General George Washington." - taken from www.nps.gov/guco