Battle of Stanardsville - Greene County, Virginia 

The re-enactment of the Battle of Stanardsville takes place on a field not far from our home. We can hear the cannons from our deck, but had never been to the event. I am not a student of the American Civil War, but my wife's genealogical research has piqued her interest in the period, and I thought that the re-enactment would be interesting to photograph, so last year we decided to attend.

We arrived several hours before the battle reenactment. There were displays of camp life and performers playing period music. There were horses with wagons and tents and open fires, but it was impossible to ignore the cars, trucks, horse trailers and food concessions that formed an unavoidable modern backdrop. The artifacts may have been authentic to the period, but in 2009 the atmosphere was carnival. In 1864, carnage prevailed.

The history of the Battle of Stanardsville is brief. In late February 1864, General George Armstrong Custer and 1400 Union soldiers conducted raids in the Virginia counties of Madison, Greene and Albemarle. On March 1, 1864, as he was drawing back from a raid on Charlottesville, Custer encountered J.E.B Stuart's Confederate cavalry near Stanardsville. The skirmish took place along the South River and ended with Custer retreating to Culpeper.