Reliving history: 11-year-old is a Civil War re-enactor

Andrew Porter was getting around pretty well Monday, considering he had taken a bullet to the leg about 24 hours earlier.

Porter, an 11-year-old sixth-grader at Woodland Middle School, was among the Civil War re-enactors at the Battle of Pilot Knob over the weekend and had taken one for his side, the Union, for whom he is a member of both Company E, 1st Missouri Engineers and the Turner Brigade.

The bespectacled boy grinned about his war-time injury and the other rigors of a sweltering weekend, which included sleeping on the ground in a dog tent for three consecutive nights, and eating chicken soup, beans and other war-time food with utensils he carries in a backpack.

He also managed to fit in some spelling homework on the way home from the battle, which included about 2,000 time-period re-enactors in all and an estimated 24,000 spectators to the event.

The battle originally was waged Sept. 26 and 27, 1864, a cavalry raid led by Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price on Union troops. A re-enactment takes place once every three years at the Fort Davidson State Historic Site in Iron County, Missouri, the battle site.

Andrew Porter, 11, wears his Civil War re-enactment uniform Monday at Fort D Historic Site in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS

While still years away from seeing his first shave, Andrew's a six-year gristled veteran of re-enactment, having started at age 5 with his grandmother Sheila Porter.

"By the time he was 8, he wanted to be a Union solder for Halloween," said Sheila, who bought him an authentic Union uniform instead of purchasing a cheap imitation or making one.

Andrew now is on his second uniform, a gift he received from his great-grandmother at Christmas.

The wool garb is complete with hat, coat, socks and pants held up by suspenders.

He'll wear the outfit in living-history exhibitions four times a year at Fort D in Cape Girardeau with Company E, 1st Missouri Engineers, and at events with the Turner Brigade, along with his grandmother.

Civil War reenactor Andrew Porter, 11, wears his Civil War reenactment uniform Sept. 25, 2017 at Fort D Historic Site in Cape Girardeau.BEN MATTHEWS ~ bmatthews@semissourian.com

They're following family history, the direct descendants of Alfred Youngblood, a Union soldier serving in Company K at Fort Benton in Patterson, Missouri, killed by Price's troops on the way to the Battle of Pilot Knob.

Sheila is five generations removed and Andrew seven generations removed from Youngblood, a farmer from around the Leopold area at the time of his enlistment.

He was one of five brothers who fought with and against each other in the Civil War.

Andrew and Sheila received descendant certificates at the Battle of Fredericktown in 2011, their first living-history event, which coincided with many of the 150-year anniversary events being held that year.

After such Missouri events passed, they started traveling.

They've since participated in historically significant battles such as the ones waged at Pea Ridge in Perryville, Kentucky, in 2016 and Shiloh, Tennessee, in April.

Re-enactment combatants must be at least 16 years of age, so Andrew has performed such roles as flag bearer, a spotter with spyglasses for field doctors, providing gunpowder to combatants and serving as a path guide for officers and even standing with them as they watch the battle unfold.

This past weekend, he was hurling papier-mache rocks with other youths and gladly took on his first injury in his Pilot Knob debut, donning a "bloodied" rag on a leg.

Andrew said his favorite subject in school is history, sort of.

"I guess it would be history, but they don't really teach it the way I like it," Andrew said. "I prefer to talk about the Civil War, but they never talk about it. They just talk about other stuff."

He does read Civil War material on his own and got to write a paper last year at school about Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, his favorite personality from the Civil War.

Like his relatives, Andrew's been on both sides of the conflict, depending upon the side of his ancestors at a particular battle.

He has uniforms for both sides but prefers the Union in re-enactments.

"Well, they don't have slavery, and they have the American flag, and you're usually better off," Andrew said. "They have at least better uniforms, and they weren't always starving like the Confederates."

His grandmother, a retired elementary-school teacher and librarian, as well as a former Girl Scout, often plays the role of laundress at Fort D.

"Usually grandmas and 11-year-olds eat dinner together, but I'm no housekeeper," Sheila said. "I'll cook while we're hungry, but I'd rather get out and do stuff, too. He seems to enjoy going, of course everybody can't believe that grandma goes out ... I didn't know in my 60s that I'd be getting me another tent and cot. I do have to have a cot. I don't sleep on the ground."

Andrew said his attraction to re-enacting is his ancestry, and "I can actually do stuff that the soldiers did."

He also likes to play baseball in the summer, wrestle and play video games.

But his true passion seems to be the Civil War re-enacting, and he has his eyes on becoming a bugler.

"I won't really be able to do anything with instruments in school 'til next year, but then I'll be able to do trumpet," Andrew said.

They joined the Turner Brigade, which includes re-enactors mostly from the eastern side of Missouri and Southern Illinois, a couple of years ago, and being the bugler would give him increased visibility before he's old enough to join the combatants.

"They're really encouraging that because young buglers are hard to find," Sheila said.

At Fort D, he's been on the cannon crew and done living histories, and he'll be doing one again today at the Heritage Festival.

But don't expect to see him limping -- he's a fast healer.

jbreer@semissourian.com

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