FAIRFIELD — "I think we were born at the right time," said Gayle Warren of Lehi after she and her son tried their hand at loading and firing the heavy war muskets at Camp Floyd's recent campout. Warren was surprised at how heavy the guns were.
"I can't imagine shooting it (the musket) in battle and having to aim it," Warren said. "It had a pretty good kick to it."
Warren also noted the patience it must have required to reload after every shot.
She and her 10-year-old son James were two of the "recruits" gathered in Fairfield to relive the time just prior to the start of the Civil War when Johnston's Army occupied the area.
It was the first adult camp the park has ever held, and the first overnighter, said Sgt. Jared Pedrosa, a re-enactment soldier from Eagle Mountain, although the staff has held three, three-day youth camps this summer and is considering hosting a Boy Scout camp. Under the direction of park ranger Mark Trotter, the camps bring to life as accurately as possible the life of a Union soldier during the period.
Wearing heavy, dark blue, cotton uniform jackets and a military cap, the "soldiers" at the first Camp Floyd adult army camp held recently got to learn how to march and present arms Civil War style. (Decked out in full uniform, Pedrosa noted that the woolen jacket stayed warm, even when wet, but also attracts critters. Lice and fleas like to nest in the wool, he said.)
They also learned to churn butter and make adobe bricks. They made hand-dipped wax candles and rolled their own cartridges. The cartridges were filled with tissue paper instead of real bullets, but the black powder was real.
Each made three cartridges and learned to load and fire them in long guns.
The "recruits" arrived on a Friday night to begin their Civil War experience and dined on cavalry chowder and peach cobbler.
Then they put up tents, including two Sibley tents that look much like a teepee. Most of the participants slept in a Sibley tent, rather than in the smaller tents that were scattered nearby.
Many of the participants were parents and their children.
"My son is a war buff," Mary Thomson of Bountiful said.
She and her husband, Tucker Thomson, brought son Iaian, 8, because "they didn't have any World War II camps."
They learned of the Civil War camp from a pamphlet at Fort Douglas.
"I love guns," Iaian Thomson said. "They're awesome."
Jared Orton of Spanish Fork brought his daughter, Jennica, 9, and son, Devin, 11. Both children said they enjoyed the camp, but Jennica particularly liked shooting the gun.
The start of the Civil War marked the end of Camp Floyd and the return to the east of Union soldiers sent to quell a Mormon "uprising."
Of course, no uprising existed, but the Johnston's Army soldiers, nearly 7,000 strong, set up camp in the mid-1850s and built 400 buildings, mostly of adobe. When they returned to the East, they laid waste to all but one of the structures and anything they couldn't take with them, said Pedrosa, a re-enactment soldier from Eagle Mountain.
Their return also marked the end of Frog Town and work for the women of "negotiable virtue" who lived in the town near the military encampment, Pedrosa said.
Many of the soldiers joined the Confederacy, including Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston who had led them across the country to Utah. He later died fighting for the South in the Battle of Shiloh.
Today three Confederate flags mark the period at Camp Floyd Historic State Park. A Stars and Bars, a Confederate Battle Flag and a Bonnie Blue outnumber the single Union flag with its 34 stars that depict the number of states that then made up the United States of America.
The park today includes a historic inn where Pony Express riders often stopped to rest, a tiny museum and commissary and a lawn area with pavilions.
If you go . . .
What: Fairfield/Camp Floyd Day featuring stagecoach rides, drills, food and entertainment
Where: Camp Floyd Stagecoach Inn State Park, Fairfield
When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sept. 30
Cost: Free, all fees waived
Phone: 768-8932
E-mail: rodger@desnews.com