Photo | Paul Adkins

The late Joyce P. Browning, shown as last year’s Civil War Re-enactment, talks to the crowd during a question and answer session. Browning portrayed First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln for the last 16 years put passed away at the age of 66 on July 7. This year’s Civil War Heritage Weekend is being dedicated to her loving memory.

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The Blue and the Gray will be at it again Sept. 29-30 at Chief Logan State Park as Heritage Weekend 2012: Rebellion in the Hills is scheduled to take place.

This year’s event is dedicated to area woman Joyce P. Browning, who passed away on July 7 of this year at the age of 66 after a brief and courageous battle with brain cancer.

For more than 16 years, Browning was a fixture at the Logan Civil War re-enactment with her memorable and historically accurate portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln.

“We are dedicating this year’s Civil War Re-enactment to Joyce Browning. She portrayed Mary Todd Lincoln since the beginning of Logan Civil Reactment. She will be truly missed,” says the event brochure.

As in year’s past there will be two battle skirmishes between the soldiers of the North and the South — one on Saturday, Sept. 29 from 2:30-3:30 p.m. and one on Sunday, Sept. 30 from 2-3 p.m.

President Lincoln is scheduled to speak each day as well on Sept. 29 from 12:30-1 p.m. and Sept. 30 from 1-1:30 p.m. — both at the park’s historic train.

The Civil War event is free and open to the public. Activities for children include: sack races, tug of war, storytelling, caricatures and face painting.

There will also be hay rides both days from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Civil War T-shirts and souvenirs will be sold as well as refreshments.

Also scheduled to be on hand is Noel Clemmer, a first-person impression Civil War surgeon. Clemmer will be performing a mock leg amputation and there will be a question and answer session.

Civil War period photographs, pistols and medical instrument collections will also be on display as well as herbal remedies.

The West Virginia Volunteers, working from a circa 1911 covered wagon, will also be having a blacksmithing demonstration while utilizing a giant bellows forge.

Button casting, bullet making, blade making and camp ware fabrication will also be demonstrated.

Red Dog Monroe will present cast iron cooking as well as other frontier skills such as fire making from flint and steel, fur trapping and processing, and camp life during the Civil War.

The West Augusta Volunteers, a traveling living history group stationed at their garrison in Lincoln County, is also slated to be on hand.

Schedule of Events

Saturday, Sept. 29:

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Children’s Activities, Saturday Only

11 a.m.-Noon Ladies Tea Log Cabin - Public Invited

12:30-1 p.m. Mr. Lincoln Speaks at the Train

2:30-3:30 p.m. Re-enactment Battle; Noel Clemmons - Doctor Demonstrations after Battle

4 p.m. Dinner for Re-enactors

6 p.m. Bright Star Theater presenting Sound Track to Freedom

8-10 p.m. Dance Under the Stars; Shelter – Everyone Welcome. Music by: Authentic Band of the Period

Visitors may visit the reenactors camps anytime both days except during the battle.

Sunday, Sept. 30:

10:30 a.m. Civil War Church Services (Open to the Public)

1-1:30 p.m. Mr. Lincoln Speaks at the Train

2-3 p.m. Re-enactment Battle

In addition, all students will be given signed papers to take to their teachers to show that they participated in the Civil War Weekend for extra credit.

The Civil War event organizers would like to thank: Governor Earl Ray Tomblin; area businesses; area churches; friends of the Logan Civil War; and the Re-enactment Committee for their contribution in making the Heritage Weekend a huge success and available to the public free of charge.