Laurie Bashaw and her husband, Edward took a step back in time at Fort Wilkins Historic State Park in Copper Harbor the end of July. They were there when the Battery D, 1st Michigan Light Artillery from the Lower Peninsula, held an encampment complete with the artillery battalion shooting off the cannon. Laurie’s second photo is pretty amazing how she captured the blast of smoke, colored by the hot gases burning the gunpowder used to fire the cannon. The last two photos are the infantry battalion as they readied, took aim and fired their rifles. Most likely Springfield model 1861 rifles, as that was the most popular gun during the Civil War. You can see the puff of smoke from the firing them in the bottom photo. It looks like quite the exciting reenactment and interesting to see how they defended the fort back in the day.

John Coakley was there at Fort Wilkins Historic State Park on one of the days the Civil War reenactments took place a few years back and he shares a short video as they prepare and shoot several cannons, one after the other. Note the echo of the blasts over Lake Fanny Hooe. Pretty impressive with four cannons blasting like that!

Very nice.

How amazing that those things even work...esp after
sitting in our winters! And the echo off those is
pretty amazing.

It's just hard to imagine what life was like back
then. We are all so spoiled! Electricity, running
water, indoor toilets, grocery stores, cars...etc.

Very nice, indeed!
I’m surprised that nobody
was wearing ear protection.
And I’ll bet those cannons
would take down a 12
pointer in a hurry.

Hi
When I first saw the orange cylinder at the cannon's
muzzle, I thought some sort of faded orange buoy had
been stuck there.

Back in the day, Fort Wilkins probably seemed like a
horrible post, what with the distance from other
towns and the harsh winters. Those soldiers would
find it hard to understand that modern tourists seek
out that remoteness.