MADISONVILLE -- The sound of cannons and gunfire echoed across Lake Madison Park on Sunday as the bodies of wounded and dead soldiers lay strewn across a mock battlefield.
When the smoke cleared on the Civil War re-enactment set, men and women dressed in Union and Confederate uniforms began piling people onto wagons, and they were rushed to a tent for treatment.
This particular hourlong fight ended with a Confederate win, Union Capt. Jean-Marie Koten said. But winning or losing wasn't the point for the 350 or so who gathered over the weekend for the second annual Battle of Camino Real re-enactment, Koten said.
From the elaborate costumes to the cookware, along with the tents and tools from the 1860s, the weekend let re-enactors and visitors to the camp take a trip back in time, according to Koten, who made the trip from Tyler along with his wife and son.
"We're basically living in the 19th century," he said. "Starting Friday night, all the modern stuff pretty much disappears."
Participants arrived Friday from Madisonville, Bryan, Houston and Louisiana, among other places, to set up camp. The site was open to visitors Saturday and Sunday during the one-hour battles each day. Around 400 people visited the site Saturday, officials said. The number of tourists who visited on the final day was not available Sunday afternoon.
Area elementary school students stopped by the camp Friday for an "education day," in which re-enactors demonstrated sewing, weaving, weaponry and 1860s crafts, Koten said.
After Saturday's battle, which ended in a tie when too many soldiers were "wounded," re-enactors ate together and attended a Victorian-style ball with an old-fashioned string band from Houston.
The weekend wrapped up Sunday with the Confederate win, while soldiers besmirched with mud and gunpowder began stacking tents and loading cannons onto trailers to break up camp.
Confederate and Union officers plan the situational details, but the outcome of the battle depends on the participants, Koten said. He has been attending re-enactments for the past eight years across Texas, he said. El Camino Real, now Old San Antonio Road, was critical for transporting supplies to the Confederate Army.
"The scenario we scripted could have very well happened here," Koten said.
The battles are realistic down to the smallest detail, participants said. That realism can lead to what re-enactors call "seeing the elephant," according to Bryan resident and Union soldier Stephen Blow.
"Seeing the elephant" happens when re-enactors get swept up in the excitement and forget they're not fighting a real battle, Blow said.
It's a good escape from the day-to-day pressure of work and life, the 25-year-old said.
After the battle ends, the "dead" and "wounded" soldiers are piled up on wagons and taken to the medical tent, participants said.
There, the camp surgeon pretends to perform amputations and remove bullets from the wounded soldiers. Participants said that while it's not real, many onlookers have to turn away because of the fake gore. It's a good history lesson and fun, participants said, but the real value of the event lies in family and friends.
Dressed in an 1860s long dress and boots Sunday, Linda Ford said she came from Corsicana with her husband, sons and daughters-in-law to spend time with fellow re-enactors.
Dressed in an 1860s long dress and boots Sunday, Linda Ford said she came from Corsicana with her husband, sons and daughters-in-law to spend time with fellow re-enactors.
"We are all just a big family," Ford, 54, said.
Ford's daughter-in-law, Stephanie Ford, was one of the few women who participated in the battles over the weekend. Dressed in a short Civil War-era dress and boots, Stephanie Ford said she aided soldiers on the field.
The re-enactments are important, she said, because they make Civil War history accessible to everyone.
"It gives you a three-dimensional look into the history books," said Ford, who has been attending re-enactments for the past 11 years. "The average person is probably more willing to come out and watch this than they are to read a book."
Koten's 21-year-old son, Nick Koten, said he met his girlfriend, Jonie Thompson, at a re-enactment more than a year ago.
Thompson, 19, has been riding her horse in Civil War re-enactments across the country since she was 9. The pair said they'll be riding on to their next battle in March.
Most re-enactors attend about eight battles per year, Nick Koten said. Re-enactments shut down for summer months in Texas, Jean-Marie Koten said, because wool Civil War uniforms are unbearable in the heat.
But the crowd of Civil War-era families will be back next year, participants said, ready to fight The Battle for Camino Real again.
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