FUNKSTOWN - There won't be seminars or formal artillery demonstrations at this weekend's Battle of Funkstown re-enactment.
But there will be plenty of fighting with about 200 re-enactors expected to participate this weekend, organizer Ron Benedict said. A street battle will be held Saturday morning on Baltimore Street and field battles will be Saturday and Sunday afternoons in Funks-town Community Park.
By keeping the schedule light with few activities there are more opportunities for visitors and re-enactors to interact, Benedict said.
"If people want to see a demonstration, they can talk to individual units. ... Most of the re-enactments that we attend are so crammed with a busy schedule that we don't have time a lot of times to sit back and talk to the public," he said.
The actual Battle of Funkstown lasted from shortly after sunrise to around 8 p.m. July 10, 1863, as Confederates retreated from Gettysburg, Pa., said Benedict, president of the re-enactment group the 6th Maryland Volunteer Infantry Regiment Inc. Approximately 600 soldiers on both sides died as Union forces pursued the Confederates, who had to hunker down and wait for the Potomac River to recede so they could cross.
