By Teena Ligman, President, Friends of Spring Mill State Park
The weekends when Civil War reenactments come to Spring Mill State Park are among the most popular weekends for visitors. Just as they did in the Civil War, people stand with their children at a safe distance to watch the battles between the gray and the blue soldiers. At first I was horrified that people wanted to watch soldiers pretending to kill each other, but then I came to appreciate the care the re-enactors gave to their craft – and to educating people about the brutality of war. Last year on Sunday morning the Confederates were gathered for Sunday worship when the boys in blue ambushed them and killed half the men before the Rebel soldiers were able to run for cover. After the skirmish, the Union soldiers looted the bodies of the dead and wounded Confederates. Wars can be terrible.
The reenactments continue to teach us about the Civil War. In February four men dressed in black with multiple weapons ran out on the battlefield firing guns and then ran past the skirmish line into the crowd where I was standing. They gathered behind me. I asked if they were deserters. They were indignant. NO! They were Rangers. I said I’d not heard about Rangers in the Civil War- they said oh yes, Rangers often wore black and were small fast units that hit quickly and retreated. They explained it took so long to reload weapons in the 1860s that Rangers just carried multiple weapons, fired each weapon once and then ran back behind the lines and reloaded, and then might run out again somewhere else. They didn’t stay in place and reload the way other soldiers did.
While Spring Mill was not the site of any Civil War battles, many of the young men from the Village served in the Civil War and some died and are buried in the Park Cemetery. The Civil War was an ever-present concern in the village, and certainly a part of its history. During the weekend of the reenactment, we also had Abraham Lincoln visit the Village. He gave programs in the Meeting House to visitors, in addition to wandering the village streets, visiting with the Union troops and visitors. (He stays safely out of the way during the battles).
In 2023 the Indiana Parks Alliance gave the Friends $750 to help fund the Civil War events. With these funds we paid for two visits by Abraham Lincoln for each of the weekends, and part of the dinner provided for the soldiers. We were intending to pay for cannon powder but this year the reenactors were unable to bring any cannons and Abraham Lincoln is more educational, and less noisy than the cannons! The Friends were very grateful for the assistance of IPA in enriching the experience of visitors who were able to learn more about the Civil War as they strolled back in time to the 1860s at Spring Mill State Park.