On Saturday, June 21, we had an encampment at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.  National Park sites don’t do reenactments, but they often do encampments where people dressed up like soldiers come and spent a night or two and talk to visitors about what life was like as a soldier.

On June 21 we had three volunteers from Virginia and two rangers dressed up as Union soldiers from the Civil War.  Ranger Lucas, also known as Dr. Wilder, is a well-known expert on the Civil War in the Cumberland Gap.  He put together the event.  He expected more Virginia volunteers but stuff comes up and we were happy to have the three who came.  Dr. Wilder has a YouTube channel, History Gone Wilder, with 66,700 subscribers.  He often has fans who stop by the Visitors Center to see him.

June 21 wasn’t celebrating any special day.  It was just a fun excuse to get dressed up and interact with visitors.  Ranger Lucas had his gun table, the Virginia volunteers set up a soldier tent and camp, Tom did blacksmithing, and I cooked lunch for everyone.  Although it was a warm day, we were under the shade of the trees and had a nice breeze in the morning.

I cooked bean soup and honey cake on the campfire.  The bean soup was in a large pot over the fire and the honey cake baked in the dutch oven over the coals.  I bought some sourdough bread because we were supposed to have more people there and I didn’t want to make bread for everyone.  The soup and the honey cake kept me busy enough.  Ranger Lucas’s mom, Lorine, helped me with the cooking duties.

We had lots of visitors stop by to talk to us during the encampment.  The rangers and Virginia volunteers gave a couple of firing demonstrations, which is always a big draw.  I took some pictures, but Annabeth took much better ones.  Annabeth is a professional photographer and works part-time in the park bookstore.  She shared some of them with me.

I had knitted Civil War soldier socks for Ranger Layton and Lucas and they both had them on.  Everyone liked the food, especially the honey cake.  The bean soup was pretty good as well.

It was a beautiful day to be outside and nice to be doing something different.  Tom and I always enjoy helping with special events.  Although I love being in my textile room, it is always nice to do something different for a day.