Living History Days at Middleton Place

Saturday there was so much going on around here! There was the Flowertown Festival, they expected 250,000 people to be visiting our town!  There was the Cooper River Bridge Run, which sounded fun. And there was the Living History Days at Middleton Place Plantation.  Since I am still having some trouble walking well, off to History Days it was!
The announcement said:
Celebrate the 232nd anniversary of General Nathanael Greene's encampment of the Southern Army at Middleton Place during the Revolutionary War. As George Washington's second in command, Greene's mission was to keep the British suppressed in Charles Towne, and the Southern Army had several clashes with British and Loyalist forces throughout the Low Country in the fall of 1782.  Join us today as we celebrate the men and women who enabled  the Southern Army to complete this mission and who helped shape the United States of America.
We learned the there were more battles fought in South Carolina than anywhere else in the colonies.  Wow.
 One of the nice things at Middleton is that they have wheel chairs available on a first come first serve basis. And they are free to use, just bring it back when finished with it. The boys had SO much fun pushing Mommy around.

The swans were out !

The fife and drum corp were giving us a nice concert

Middleton is so pretty

We saw the cannons fire, and the musket volleys. Very loud, but very fun!

Wheel ! That was the command.

The Dragoon encampment.
There was surgeon there, Lon did not want to stick around and chat too much with him. The leeches sealed that deal! The tooth extractor was amazing technology. Not something I would ever want used on me!

Gunpowder and Sarah. Gunpowder was not a happy horse. The other two horses on the line went for a ride, and Gunpowder had to stay. She was pawing the ground and putting up a big fuss. She only got happy again when her friends came back.  We were smart enough not to go near her when she was unhappy.

This little boy thought Mark's knees looked pretty much like his Dads. He was hugging Mark's leg, until Mark looked down, and he looked up and realized maybe this is not my Dad.   His Dad was close by though.  He walked over to his Dad real casual.

The cooking tent in the encampment. There was another one in the Stableyards

Gunpowder's friends coming back. This scene could have been from 1782.

The mistress of the hearth. She was fun to talk to. I like talking the history of food.  

There was a tent selling fun stuff, but a news crew came by to interview the people running the shop, so  Mark did not have a chance to buy this hat. I think it looks really good on him.

The American Encampment

At the potter's shed. We learned that these beautiful eggs are going to be among the ones hidden at the Easter Egg hunt on the 19th.  There will be lots of fun things going on that day. Lon and I will be back for that!  If Lon finds one of these, he gets to keep it and he gets a special prize too!  
The potter remembered Lon! Lon was very pleased
Mr. Ron the blacksmith was out. Darn it.

This nice lady was showing us how Indigo works. It is really fun. The colors of the wool on the table are different natural dyes. Bugs, onion skins, mistletoe, etc. (okay, I can't remember them all)  She had a vat of Indigo going and onion skins.  It was fun.
They also had a lady showing us natural medicines that would have been used by the camp followers, not the surgeons. Most of the time, the ladies did a better job healing injuries than the surgeons.
We also talked to a lady making bobbin lace and a knitter.    It was very interesting and fun

The big peacock and a peahen.  There were two males and three females strutting around the stableyard

Lon and a barn cat. I have to go back and look through the blog to remember if this is Arthur or Molly.

Lambs!  So cute!
There is a shearing event on May 3. I am pretty sure we will be back for that!  

We could not leave without seeing the cashmere goats! She came right up to me to be petted, her stable mate looked up and went back to sleep.
We did not go to see Jethro the goat this time, the path was a little too much for the wheel chair.  Next time.
It was a very fun and interesting day. We all learned things!