SNOHOMISH — The April sun blazed down, warming the backs of the marching soldiers dressed in wool jackets. Piccolos and drums echoed "Battle Hymn of the Republic" through the graveyard.
A dozen men in Union blue with muskets in hand marched to the cemetery shoulder-to-shoulder with Confederate grays.
Orders were barked. The soldiers all stopped, turned and faced each other.
The cannon rumbled.
Then they did an about-face. Musket shots shattered the silence.
The men in Confederate gray surrendered their weapons. Afterward, the soldiers in Union blue shook their hands.
The sweet smell of black powder wafted in the breeze.
"This is what it must have smelled like on the fields," exclaimed 9-year old Sawyer Durand of Snohomish.
The Civil War re-enactors lined up at Snohomish’s Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery Saturday for a 21-gun salute to honor the 139th anniversary of the end of the War between the States.
On April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s battered Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Potomac at Appomatox, Va.
"Over 600,000 Americans died over four bloody years, and our nation was almost torn apart," Rusty Starr, a Confederate re-enactor with the Washington Civil War Association, told a crowd of about 50 parents, children and bystanders who had gathered to commemorate the event.
"Palm Sunday brought our nation to a status never attained in past wars. Rather than the conquered being humiliated, property taken and subjected to slavery, their surrender was accepted with respect and honor," Starr said.
Approximately 150 Civil War veterans are buried in the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery. Company C 4th United States Regular Infantry with the Washington Civil War Association and Sons of the Union Veterans and Sons of the Confederate Veterans hosted the ceremony, which featured field music, oratory, pageantry and the artillery salute.
A dozen or so women with the Ladies of the 4th Infantry dressed in period costume and served cookies and handed out programs.
Jaci Davis, 16, of Monroe, dressed in a purple gown, complete with a hoop skirt, petticoat and gloves. She stood with parasol in hand and said she came to the event with her family because they enjoy studying the Civil War era.
"I like learning about history," she said.
Her mother, Debbie Davis, agreed, saying history teaches important lessons.
"We enjoy these re-enactments because it gives our children a sense of history," Debbie Davis said.
Daniel Sierra, 7, of Bothell said his favorite movie is "Gettysburg."
"I’ve been studying the Civil War since I turned 7," he said. "I like the guns."
Michaela Coy, 5, also enjoyed the event.
"The guns were pretty loud," Michaela said. "I liked the soldiers, because they were cool."
Her mother, Stephanie Coy of Mukilteo, who home-schools her daughter, said, "It’s important for us to integrate events like this."
At the end of the ceremony, the solemn sound of taps poured from a lone bugler’s horn.
"This is a reminder that the country has healed its wounds," said Jen Gorder, a Mukilteo teacher who came to the event to re-enact an ancestor, a dressmaker from Minnesota, with the Ladies of the 4th Infantry.
"We are one community," Gorder said. "And we need to remember this, especially in this day and age."
Reporter Pam Brice: 425-339-3439 or brice@heraldnet.com.
DAN BATES / The Herald
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