Surely everyone has heard about Shiloh by now, but just in case there is one who hasn't, we will tell the whole sordid tale once more!

All week there had been rumours of flooding at the sight, but we were assured that the sight was high and dry. For those who arrived early, this proved to be the case.

The PLA had elected to camp in the military dependents camp. We arrived on Thursday afternoon, we found that the civilian camps were a total mass of confusion. The military dependents, refugees, medical, US Sanitary Commission, and everything else were all thrown in a field which was perhaps half the size that it should have been. The organizers offered no help at all, but we finally found an area for the PLA camp. It turned out that fortune was smiling on us, for this piece of ground turned out to be once of the driest places in the entire event!

After we set up camp, the rains came. And came, and came and came. It rained off and on from then until Saturday night. If you weren't there, it will probably be impossible for you to imagine the amount of mud and water. The entire site seemed to be about two feet under water (some actually was) with a bottom of two more feet of mud. The only thing most of us could do was try and stay one step ahead of the rain.

We did manage to get the cannon in place for the Sat. afternoon battle, even though most of the day was spent in a torrential downpour. The battle was postponed an hour, and then we heard that the infantry commanders had voted to cancel the whole event. Evidently they had their fun at the morning tactical, and were ready to go home. Since we had the largest collection of cannon ever at a reenactment (163 by one count) we decided to fire four rounds from all the guns. This was impressive, but hardly worth the drive to Shiloh.

When people started to leave, the real fun began! They organizers had parked over 4000 cars in a field with only one way out. This would have never worked on a dry day and if the field were paved. It certainly didn't work when the field was literally a foot deep in mud, and the road out was two and three feet deep. Vehicles were being pulled out one at a time by huge four-wheel-drive tractors, and some people stood in line for twelve hours or more before their turn came.

It is hard to say how things would have turned out without the rain, but when the rains came, much of the organization was found to be inadequate. The load of gravel which had been promised for the roads never materialized. The port-o-lets were not cleaned for several days and many never did have toilet paper. The firewood was gone before we arrived on Thursday, and all that was provided later were a few soggy boards. If some of our members had not foraged along fence rows for wood, we would have been in even worse shape. This is a shame, since the event had great potential. By some counts there may have been more than 12,000 reenactors present, which would have been the largest WBTS reenactment ever. In spite of all the problems, however, the PLA enjoyed ourselves. It must have been the good company!