The 2011 Battle on the Ohio-Erie Canal Event : Saturday Morning Tactical

This past weekend was the bi-annual Battle on the Ohio-Erie Canal event hosted by the town of Zoar, OH. Zoar is a beautiful town located in eastern Ohio that offers visitors a chance to steps back in time and see what life was like in the 19th century for a group of German separatists. Using this town as a backdrop to highlight events from the American Civil War was an idea launched back in 2001 and since then every other year Zoar has been host to this ever-growing event. And this year was no different.As a photographer, one of the things that I really enjoy doing and have a hard time putting into words why is taking pictures of reenactors. These people are living historians. They don't do this for money. It's very much the opposite. They often spend large sums of their own money to tell the stories of those that lived through a terrible chapter of American history.This event, I was asked by one of the organizers who knows I love doing this to take as many pictures of the event as I could so that they could be used to promote the event in the future. With that in mind I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 on Saturday to get myself ready for the long day ahead. Zoar is within walking distance from my house so I decided to walk down rather then mess with having to find a parking spot. At 6:15 I started to make my way down the hill towards town. As I was walking, the sound of the morning call filled the air. A very cool experience hearing it echo through the hills. The first event of the day is what's called a Tactical. It's basically a private battle that the soldiers have for themselves. I joined up with a group of soldiers that represent Birney's Division. Their job was to defend against a possible Rebel assault. Those orders changed however and they went on the offensive. The first set of images from Zoar 2011 are of this engagement. Many, and I do mean, many more pictures will be uploaded over the week. So for now, enjoy the images.

The full set of images can be viewed here.