Although I stayed away on Sunday because of uncertain weather and general lack of sleep (left Arlington at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning for the hour and a half drive to site), the Cornfield and Bloody Lane on Saturday were both excellent and on the same scale as 1997.

Continuing dry weather meant that, unlike 1997, the only "fog" at the Cornfield was gun smoke, so visibility was much better. Because of stringent safety requirements, both sides had massive, fire-department-provided flood lamps set up on lifts to cast enough light as each company had their weaponschecked. This created an eerie, movie-set-like effect as row after row ofsoldiers were silhouetted against the lights.

The initial artillery exchange (50-odd guns) was spectacular and enhanced with fireworks and fertilizer "bombs" planted in the soil, some of which were set off right in front of advancing troops. Pretty neat.

Because of the height of the corn and clouds of smoke, it was difficult to follow the troop movements across the field, but it was still a big improvement over 1997.

Bloody Lane was staged on a different part of the property than last time. got myself set up as soon as possible after the Cornfield was over, along with a small cadre of "hardened" spectators. We really lucked out because the volunteer crowd control folks initially told us that the field wouldn't be open to spectators until 1:00 p.m. (battle at 4:00). However, we asked them where they planned on setting up the spectator line and if we could leave our chairs in position on the field in proximity to same, and they agreed.

The space allotted to spectators was long but quite narrow and, given the number people in attendance, I was really concerned about crowd control and fighting for space. The volunteer "marshals" (some of whom were very big dudes) did a great job of keeping order and enforcing a rule of three rows of people sitting on the ground behind the spectator line, three rows of chairs behind them, and everyone else standing up. Maybe it's a post-9/11 phenomena, but everyone was cooperative and very polite. Never seen so much friendliness and courtesy in such a big crowd.

I had a spot at the left flank end of the Sunken Road and got an excellent view of the multiple advances and retreats of the Union line at very close range. Given the number of troops on the field ( about 5K infantry total) the exchange of fire was VERY loud, to the point of painfulness.

I cut out a few minutes early to avoid the anticipated traffic jam. Took about 1/2 hour to get out of the lot and onto the road -- not too bad. Here again, people were very polite. They took turns merging into traffic,particularly impressive given the fact that there was no one directing vehicular movements.

Don't know if Sunday's "A.P.Hills Advance" came off. It was raining off and on in Arlington so I decided to "bag it.

>Bruce Logan

>Proposal Operations Manager/ Senior Technical Writer