As guests entered the Visitor’s Center, they were greeted by Michael. He answered many questions, including mine. John and I were seated at a table right next to his desk.
On Sunday, we gathered at the stage area for worship. The Reverend Donald A. Lowery read from the Old Testament and then shared from a sermon that was preached two weeks after the Battle of Waxhaws. He led the congregation in singing from the Psalter and encouraged everyone to remember the freedom we have came at a cost from men, women, and children that chose liberty two hundred years ago. It was moving to look over and see those in colonial dress seated by others in modern clothes sitting on half log benches; it brought Reverend Lowery’s words to life. Hats were doffed by all the men for the prayers.
On Sunday afternoon visitors enjoyed the entertaining and stirring monologue presented by Howard Burnham. In costume and using the words of long ago, he became General Thomas Sumter. He shared the General’s biography and ended his presentation with ” in South Carolina, there will always be a fighting gamecock.”
As we walked to the Battle of Huck’s Defeat Reenactment, we were greeted by violin music. Drawing the crowds closer to the battlefield was a musician playing eighteenth century music. The soloist took us back to a simpler, but a harder way of life. I was glad of the modern technology that enhanced the tunes.
Here are some of the reenactors that helped us all picture the reality of those days and encouraged us to two days of remembrance. I was quite excited that my fictionalized biography, Fearless Martha, A Daughter of the American Revolution, had its debut in Historic Brattonsville. Martha Bratton was a woman who stood tall, along with her family and many others, to make sure the British did not stay in Carolina in 1780.
Sheila Ingle 