It’s a chance to step back in time this weekend in Putnam County. The annual Civil War Weekend in Hurricane got underway on Thursday and runs through Sunday.
It’s the 16th year for the event. Linda Bush with the Putnam County Convention and Visitors Bureau expects more than 10,000 people will visit the town for the weekend event. She says 300 to 350 Civil War reenactors are on hand.
“We have folks that come in from 14 to 17 states,” she said. “It seems like most come in from North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky. The furthest is probably South Carolina.”
Bush says the popularity of the weekend was evidence from the moment it started.
“It’s always been this popular from day one. The first year we had this we had over 300 reenactors the first year,” she said. “We were anticipating about 3,000 people to visit for the two day weekend. We had over 13,000 visitors.”
Since then, the Civil War Weekend has become one of the marquee events in Putnam County. It’s also one of the biggest for the reenactors who travel to various events across the country. Over time, the event had grown. It’s now a four-day affair with Thursday and Friday being school days and children from numerous schools are on hand to learn about history.
The events range from reenactments of infantry clashes between the north and south to the always popular artillery night fire exercise. Other events include a military ball, settlers peddling hand crafted items for sale, and dinner with Abe Lincoln. This year’s event has an added attraction straight from the files of the Confederate Navy.
“We have the Hunley submarine and that seems to be very popular,” said Bush. “This is a replica of the H-L Hunley. It was the world’s first successful attack submarine.”