PAWNEE CITY — You tear the end off the brown paper cartridge with your teeth and spit the paper to the side.

You pour its contents — rough black powder — down the barrel and tamp it down firmly with a long steel rod.

A pull of the trigger makes a loud blast and emits a brief flash of fire, but no bullet.

Civil War re-enactors sometimes load guns with Cream of Wheat.

“It compresses very nicely and disintegrates when fired,” explained Rex Wright, who packs the cereal into the extra bores of his pistol.

That’s one of only a few tricks Civil War re-enactors use to simulate warfare during an encampment such as the one held Sept. 30-Oct. 1 east of Pawnee City.

But generally, re-enactors take pains to remain as true to the time period as they can without actually losing blood in battle.

Blood lost to mosquitos while the re-enactors camp 1860s-style on the hard bare ground — that’s OK.

On this September afternoon, First Nebraska Infantry re-enactors take the field as Union troops, assembling with two cannons on a grassy slope.

Far away, it’s a Husker football Saturday, but here, it’s August 1862 and mere moments before the battle known as Second Manassas.

The audience watches Southern women distract the Union soldiers.

“I don’t want to shoot a lady, but you better drop those weapons,” warns a federal soldier in blue.

“Never trust a woman!” yells a man in the audience.

Suddenly Confederate soldiers emerge from a dry creekbed, blasting muskets loud enough to make the spectators wince and miss the action. Cannons shake the ground.

“Finally!” the heckler yells as the first Union soldier falls.

A few Union soldiers struck dead have a hard time keeping a straight face. More experienced re-enactors crumple but manage to fall with their caps over their faces, shading their eyes from the sun.

Then the applause starts, and the dead begin to rise.

Not just whistlin’ Dixie

Lloyd Coates, 59, of Omaha is commander of the First Nebraska Infantry, the hosts of the Pawnee City encampment.

The First Nebraska is made up of smaller companies that recreate the First Nebraska Infantry organized in 1861. The First Nebraska wasn’t at either Manassas battle, but the regiment was fighting at the time.

This day, they aren’t the victors.

According to history, the Second Manassas win went to the rebels, so the men in blue litter the field.

You could really feel for the wives of the wounded, if it weren’t for the cell phones and Indian tacos they balance on their laps as they watch.

It’s 2006 again and troops pose for photos with officers still shouting out orders.

“Company … Squeeze together!” they bellow. “Company … Smile!”

But soon that fades away and it’s back to the stained canvas tents as the soldiers and some civilians return to a scene that would look more familiar in sepia tones.

Officers smoke cigars and talk strategy in their full uniforms. Privates in their undershirts doze in the grass or wander off in search of tobacco. They make campfires and boil tin pitchers of coffee.

When spectators wander into the camp, they’ll humor them with a bit of military formality or momentarily affect a Southern drawl.

Or maybe engage them in a Civil War lesson.

This isn’t a Renaissance fair.

It isn’t pageantry so much as showing respect for war’s hardship.

Coates got into the hobby about 10 years ago after visiting Gettysburg, he said soberly.

“Something about the emotion of being there and knowing what happened took a hold of me,” he said.

Re-enactors want to make sure people know the sacrifices and significance of the Civil War, Coates said. Many tell stories of great-grandfathers who fought it.

So they live it for a weekend, even though the hobby can be dirty, tiring and expensive.

Re-enactors often drive hundreds of miles for an event. More than $20 worth of black powder per soldier will go up in smoke in each hour-long battle.

Just getting started in the hobby costs over $1,000 by the time you buy the uniform, weaponry and basic accessories. Women’s and children’s wear is almost as expensive.

And it’s not comfortable garb.

“I just love running around in 95-degree weather wearing lots of wool,” joked Dave Renli of Sioux Falls, S.D., who portrays a Union officer in a heavy blue suit. “And then dying and lying there with my face in the sun.”

There’s also a wide range of historical accuracy. Coates has heard of guys who catch fleas to make it more realistic. “We don’t go that crazy,” he said, gesturing with his car’s keyless entry.

Myth of blue and gray

Across a non-existent enemy line on the other side of the camp, the Confederate soldiers stirred beef stew over their fires.

Dennis Siefker, 36, and his wife, Rebecca, 36, both of Omaha, made dinner for their company of about a dozen soldiers and 10 civilians.

He had on brown tweed, because many companies chose and bought their own uniforms, he said.

“That’s the myth of the blue and the gray,” Siefker said, adding soldiers on both sides wore blue, gray and other colors.

Luckily, double-duty uniforms make it easier for re-enactors to switch sides, or as they say, “galvanize” — which they do often.

“We do a lot of study,” Siefker said. “I like to know the culture. What were the politics of the county they came from, would that soldier have been rich or were they poor.”

People sometimes wonder if the rebel re-enactors are revealing their true colors as old-time Confederacy loyalists. That’s not an accurate assumption, they said.

“If you don’t do both sides, you don’t experience the full story,” said Christa Kinsley, 26, of Lincoln, who just began re-enacting.

The re-enactors remind visitors about how the war began, not as a debate over the morality of slavery, but over the states’ rights to govern themselves.

“Do we fight over the war? No,” said Renli. “Do we have frank discussions about some of the issues where we agree to disagree? Yes. I think the war was necessary, and it needed to come to that.”

‘Awfully realistic’

The re-enactors resumed their roles for a candlelight tour.

Visitors led by lantern-toting soldiers saw a battlefield amputation in the back of a moonlit wagon, complete with screams and blood, or ketchup, and frustrated medics calling for cauterizing brands and more whiskey.

“This is awfully realistic,” moaned one spectator.

They saw soldiers playing poker, picking up their pay, and officers plotting the next day’s battle.

They saw a ball where women in hoop-skirted gowns danced the Virginia reel with children and soldiers.

Lessons by the campfire

Most of the longtime re-enactors have been in much larger Civil War re-enactments and movie sets.

Larry Angle of Lincoln was at the 135th re-creation of Gettysburg, and was among 22,000 soldiers on the field. He was on the front lines, and could see thousands of Confederates behind him and thousands of Union soldiers ahead.

“It was awesome,” he said.

Newcomers get a lot of lessons.

That’s why they’re here.

Yeah, it’s grown adults playing war and shooting cap guns or dressing in yards of taffeta and corsets.

But you can learn a lot from listening to history buffs smoke and sing and talk into the night.

Reach Kendra Waltke at (402) 473-7303 or kwaltke@journalstar.com.