Bert Winschel, right, rams a black powder charge into a cannon(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post).

[8/8/04]Men, women and children covered their ears and cringed as they waited for the roar of a cannon and, with a thundering explosion, a shock wave hit, setting off car alarms in the parking lot of the Vicksburg National Military Park.

The firing of the 12-pound Napoleon cannon is just one loud example of each summer’s Living History at the 105-year-old military park.

The program planned and produced by park employees focuses on Civil War demonstrations by re-enactors, many of whom are volunteers. They fire rifles and cannon, they climb in a trench dug this year to show life of the day and they build mobile barriers similar to those used in the Siege of Vicksburg.

“Being a part of the Living History crew is surreal,” said Matt Atkinson, the only full-time park employee who works as a re-enactor.

“You really have to love it to stand out in the heat,” Atkinson said as he talked outside on a 90-degree day. Throughout the summer, he battled such temperatures in a wool-and-cotton uniform reminiscent of those worn 140 years earlier on the hills and hollows of the park.

The park’s Living History crew comprises nearly a dozen teen volunteers, two seasonal employees and Atkinson. For special programs, such as the July Fourth program, re-enactors number as many as 35.

Throughout the summer’s scorching heat, the regulars show visitors how it was.

David Slay, a historian who has helped produce numerous books on the Civil War is not deterred by the heat or anything else.

“I’m a historian this is where I need to be.”

Slay lives in Florence, participated in Living History for the first time last summer and was back this year.

“Without Living History, it’s a more passive experience,” Slay said. He said park visitors can use their imaginations, but that leaves room for error. That’s why he and other re-enactors say the hot uniforms and firing of cannon is worthwhile it teaches as well as entertains.

For other volunteers, like Jack Key of Kisatchie, La., re-enacting is a family affair. The real thing started with his great-grandfather James Jefferson Key, who fought with the 26th Louisiana Infantry here during the Siege.

On the weekend of July Fourth, Key and his 11-year-old son, Austin, visited under friendlier circumstances. They participated in a special Living History Encampment program.

“We should understand who these people were,” said Key, who feels re-enactments help honor ancestors.

It “helps us understand more about ourselves,” he said.

He has other reasons for making the 400-mile roundtrip drive.

“It’s a good, wholesome, outdoor adventure,” Key said. With what he believes is less participation in Boy Scouts, re-enactments have become a prime opportunity to spend time with a child, he said. Key’s other son, 16-year-old Alvin, joins them sometimes.

“It’s the best thing I’ve ever done with my boys.” Key said.

Re-enactors such as Bert Winschel, son of park historian Terry Winschel, feel strongly about why they help.

“I have a deep respect for what the men did here,” said Winschel, who has signed up to join the U.S. Marine Corps on Oct. 3.

He has another motive, too.

“If you can’t tell stories about a job, it’s no good,” Winschel said.

After the smoke cleared from the last public cannon firing a week ago the last day of the summer program the participants still had three days of work ahead of them. They had to strip down and clean the weapons, launder the clothes they’d worn throughout the summer and polish the cannon.

Then most of the volunteers left, some returning to school.

Alex Stockton went back to school, too, but the 15-year-old Warren Central student will be at the park off and on during the school year, carrying on the tradition, helping continue the education of younger re-enactors, keeping history living.