“Go Union!” A spectator cheered from a passing car on Snoqualmie Parkway, 50 yards away, inspiring the men and women of Company F, 20th Maine, as they marched into battle.

Granted, their guns weren’t loaded, but they rose to the challenge—a trio of gray-clad skirmishers of the 2nd S. Carolina regiment—after the whooping intruders disturbed the peace of their encampment at Rotary Park, better known as the Venturing Crew Christmas Tree Farm.

Their officer, Paul Timmerman, called out commands, and the re-enactors marched across the bark-covered ground and unloaded volley after volley. The rebels fell back, and some of their number dropped, wounded, into the soft bark, their hostility over for the moment. Then, it was back to camp, for cold Gatorade to relieve the combined heat of summer and realistic wool uniforms.

The members of the Washington Civil War Association’s event, held Saturday afternoon in Snoqualmie, was a preview of the much larger event the group has proposed for Meadowbrook Farm next August.

You can learn more about the group at http://wcwa.net.

Musicians Linda Soule, Christopher Day and Dennis Lawler.

Elizabeth Korsmo tries her hand at needlework in the Union camp.

Bob Ballard, Yanya Holland, Kevin Saville, Audun Holland-Goon and Andy House-Higgins perform period songs between skirmishes.

Sharon Lawler and Sophia House-Higgins in costume.

Nick Adams, as Gov. Israel Washburn, holds a photo of 20th Maine colonel Joshua Chamberlain.

Rebel soldier John Strand is hit.

The Union forces marches on, in spite of a casualty.

Soldiers with the 20th Maine fires a volley.

Niklaus von Hawk packs a heavy musket as a Union soldier.