The Battlefield Balladeers

View the Battlefield Balladeers Selma Living History VIDEO HERE.

Singing songs of the Civil War era, The Battlefield Balladeers bring their musical talents to the Battle of Selma Living History tours each year. Using a guitar, harmonica, tambourine and fiddle, they soon have the school children clapping right along with the melodies of Stephen Foster, Daniel Emmett and others.

This year, they sang "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," "Goober Peas" and "Old Dan Tucker." Often, the songs are introduced with humorous or historic quotes from Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Frederick Douglass and Mary Chestnut.

The Battlefield Balladeers are headquartered in Illinois and perform for Civil War reenactments, historic societies, libraries, museums and festivals. They have entertained at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Ill., and the Chicago Historical Society.

The musicians belong to several historic preservation organizations including The 10th Illinois Vol. Infantry Reenactment Unit. Playing the fiddle at left is Andy Borg, and playing the guitar and harmonica at right is David Corbett.

The Balladeers were featured on ABC TV at a Presidents' Day celebration at the Chicago History Museum. To view the video, click HERE.

Spinning Yarn

Assume that you live in the 19th Century and are spending your day spinning yarn.

You have already washed the loose wool several times and carded and combed it. You spin the wool into yarn from daylight until dusk and neglect your usual activities such as cooking meals, tending children, working the garden, milking the cow, chopping wood and hauling water.

How many days would it take to spin enough yarn to make one pair of men's socks?

(The answer is approximately three days...more info in the comments section.)

Southern Belle's Tatting Society

These ladies from the Southern Belle's Tatting Society of Columbia, Tenn., demonstrate the fine art of tatting during the Battle of Selma Living History Tour. The tours are planned especially for school students.

Tatting goes back a couple thousand years ago when fishermen used the technique to strengthen their nets. Smaller thread and shuttles resulted in the creation of lace for doilies and edgings that were sewn onto handkerchief, collars and pillowcases.

Today's battle events include tours of Confederate, Union and civilian camps, troop drills, a demonstration of Civil War tactics against fixed fortifications and the Battle of Selma Grand Military Ball at Sturdivant Hall.

Gates open at 9 a.m. and close at 5 p.m.

Battle of Selma Blacksmith

Back in the 1860s, tools were molded and pounded on an anvil by a blacksmith. This "smithy" is showing school children how to make a nail at last year's Battle of Selma Living History Tour. Students from across Alabama annually attend the two-day event, which also features cannon firing demonstrations, 1860's music and sing-a-longs, a tour of Confederate headquarters, a medical tent and flag histories.

To see more photos and the schedule of events, click here.

Update: Abraham Lincoln of the Brookville Daily Photo mentioned this smithy handling these tools with his bare hands. He (Mr. Mott) was on the tour again this year and said he either holds his fingers far enough back from the heated metal or uses tongs.
He also insists he has never combined his blacksmith work with that of a farrier, and apprentices were required to make 450 nails a day. Unlike the industrial North, Mr. Mott said the rural South did not always have barrels of nails although machinery could make them. Village blacksmiths made nails by hand even as late as the 1860s.