RICHMOND —
Men clad in gray and blue wool marched across fields, while women in hoop skirts and bonnets stood by, caring for children, on Saturday at Battlefield Park.
These people were there for the ninth annual re-enactment of the Battle of Richmond, which took place Saturday and Sunday.
In 1862, a battle was fought from Aug. 29 through 30 near Richmond that resulted in a Confederate victory.
And, although the re-enactors are portraying history, some of them had the chance to become part of history Saturday.
Kent Moorehead, a documentary filmmaker, was at Battlefield Park on Saturday filming scenes for several documentaries.
Moorehead is a Tupelo, Miss., native, and now is a resident of Stockholm, Sweden, where he lives with his wife, a native Swede.
He owns Forever Young Productions and is filming a series of films for Bryce Crossroads Visitors Center in Baldwin, Miss.
Moorehead is focusing on a select few groups of re-enactors, blacks and women.
“There were a large number of black soldiers who fought ,” he said.
In 1998, Moorehead filmed a different documentary about black soldiers in the Civil War, and had difficulty finding troops of black re-enactors, he said.
He was able to locate such a troop, the 12th Colored U.S. Heavy Artillery, based in Louisville, which appeared at the battle on Saturday.
“I was told the unit coming here was a very good one,” he said.
Moorehead said that growing up in Mississippi, very little was discussed about the role of blacks in the war.
About 80,000 people or 10 percent of the Union’s forces that fought in the Civil War were black, he said.
In addition, the Union Navy was 25 percent black, which equals about 25,000 men, Moorehead said.
Most units were segregated by race and led by white officers, he said.
“Without the number of African-Americans fighting on the side of the Union, it would’ve been harder for the Union army to win,” he said.
Blacks living in the Confederacy were slaves, and were used by Confederate troops as slaves to help troops.
“Any time Union troops got really close, the slaves would run away. ... If they got to a Union column, they were safe,” Moorehead said.
Moorehead also filmed segments with female re-enactors about a woman’s role in the war.
Emily Burns of Richmond was one of those women interviewed. In her day-to-day life, Burns works as a quality analyst.
She said that women often played a vital, but behind-the-scenes role in the war, serving as nurses, teachers and textile producers.
“I don’t think they (people) often realize the role of women,” she said.
On Saturday, Burns was helping run a one-room school house for several area homeschooled children. The children ran around playing tag, wearing period costumes and playing with period toys, like hoops and sticks.
Burns has been a re-enactor for five years, and said she got involved after taking her children to other Madison County re-enactments, and seeing the fun those dressed in period costumes had playing a part.
“I studied for a whole year before I bought costumes,” she said.
About 250 women fought as soldiers, by hiding their identity as females, Moorehead said. Women fought for both the Confederate and the Union armies, he said.
Medical procedures of the Civil War are to be a focus of one of Moorehead’s films.
Lexington resident Wayne Peters portrays such a surgeon.
A manager at Kohl’s, Peters said he “loves history” and has been doing re-enactments for about 11 years.
He was portraying a person actually present at the Battle of Richmond, Dr. Bernard Erwin, who was one of two doctors at Mt. Zion Church, used as a hospital to treat Union Army wounded.
Peters has been part of the Richmond re-enactment for the past five years, and serves on its board.
“I always loved history,” he said. He performed as an infantryman, an artillery person, and after studying, worked his way to become a Major in the medical service as a re-enactor.
Surgeons and doctors wouldn’t have fought on the front lines, Peters said.
“They were too valuable to the regiment to be put in harm’s way,” he said. A hospital would’ve been set up anywhere from two to five miles from the front lines. A field hospital would’ve served as a primary location, but the main hospital would’ve been farther away.
“They’d come into town and take over the biggest building and use it as a hospital,” he said.
This could’ve been a business, or a home, or in the case of Richmond, a church.
And before a location became a battle, or a hospital, it was someone’s farm, or a church. Those whose farms were turned into battlefields often faced looting, he said.
“Troops would come and take stuff,” he said.
Moorehead is not only a documentary filmmaker, but works as a cameraman for other productions, he said.
This was his first visit to the Battle of Richmond Re-enactment, Moorehead said.
Emily Burton may be reached eburton@
richmondregister.com or at 624-6694. Follow Emily on Twitter at RR_EBurton@
twitter.com
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Related Photos
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Documentary filmmaker Kent Moorhead, a native of Mississippi now living in Sweden, shares a laugh Saturday with re-enactor Kelly Lelegren of Berea while filming a scene at Battlefield Park for a series of films focusing on the role of blacks and women in the Civil War. For this scene, Lelegren portrayed a school teacher teaching black soldiers to read. Nancy Taggart
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