Merry Christmas to all of you out there. On that note, the following is a report from our correspondent, Nick Korolev:
The first weekend in December Rick “Byrdie” Byrd and I with the Federal Generals Corps made our annual pilgrimage to one of our favorite living history events that has become a part of our holiday celebrations – Bedford Village, Bedford, PA for their Civil War Christmas. Different Civil War units both Union and Confederate and the Hancock Society were assigned cabins and buildings which we all decorated with greens in period style and from 7 to 11 pm on Saturday we presented different living history scenarios for the candle light walk when the whole village comes alive with flickering candle and lamplight in old fashioned Christmas cheer as an island of peace amid a turbulent time in our history.
About twenty of our members showed up and had Building #3 and Building #23. Byrdie and I camped out in Building #3 on Friday night with plenty of firewood and brought every wool blanket we owned plus slept in our clothes. The temperature dropped to the low twenties and we nearly froze even with a roaring fire because the fireplace was small for the room and the house was as leaky as a sieve. An added weather attraction was a light dusting of snow with snow showers right into Sunday. Nearly every building was occupied by Saturday night. Early evening there was a concert in the old church. For our scenario we did a meeting of the generals in Building #3 and had a visit from Gen. Ewell under truce from Lee’s Lieutenants and in Building #23 a medical program. The whole event is a fund raiser for Bedford Village and from what we could see of the cars and buses coming into the parking lot, they did very well this year. On Sunday, after an enjoyable breakfast buffet with our group at a local restaurant, we all headed home through the snow showers. Always a fun event full of early Christmas cheer the Federal Generals Corps made arrangements for next year for this popular event.
Nick Korolev
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