Having a Field Day

With the smoke from campfires filling the air, random shots of musket fire crackling from across the field and soldiers and civilians going about their daily duties in period attire, you begin to believe you’re truly living in the time of the Revolutionary War. Of course, it’s the concession stand selling pizza that brings you back to the present day.

For over 40 years, the Historic Camden Revolutionary War Site in Camden, SC, has held it’s Annual Revolutionary War Field Days.

Around 500 reenactors have besieged Camden, SC, to recreate skirmishes between Continental and British forces. Everything from encampments to artillery demonstrations, even a period fashion show, litter the 100-plus acres of the Historic Camden Site.

Early in the afternoon, a soldier armed with a bullhorn addresses the crowd gathered safely across a ditch to see the day’s skirmish. He provides a little background on the day’s skirmish: the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill, divulging the strategies deployed by the two armies.

Then the battle begins.

Two major battles: The Battle of Camden in 1780, which happened about nine miles away from the Historic Camden site, and a 1781 battle between General Greene and Lord Rawdon, sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of Camden, are the inspiration for the mock battles.

Later that day, after the carnage has been cleared, a new battle erupts.

After a day of trying to kill each other on the field of battle, the two sides come together again on that same field to play a friendly game of rounders. Not the game from the movie, but the inspiration for America’s favorite pastime: baseball.