Union Gap Old Town Days: Civil War Reenactment in Yakima

Wondering what to expect at Union Gap Old Town Days, the Civil War reenactment in Yakima?

I live in Washington and attended this fun historical activity.

During Father’s Day weekend on the eastern side of Washington State, the Washington Civil War Association (WCWA) puts on an American Civil War reenactment near Yakima. 

Union Gap Old Town Days, as it’s called, is a fun-filled weekend with both Confederate and Union camps to walk through and talk to people about their everyday lives and watch battles in a field with booming canons.

Who is the Washington Civil War Association?

The WCWA is made up of various small groups who portray units and organizations that actually existed during the Civil War. Examples would be: 15th Alabama Infantry, Irish Jasper  Greens Georgia Militia, or 1st Michigan Light Artillery.

The reenactors in these groups portray all positions during the time: infantry, cavalry, artillery, navy, marines, nurses, surgeons, engineers, sutlers, and civilians. Every person has an important role to play. And while they meet separately on most days with their own rules and regulations, when they come together for a reenactment, the groups become one cohesive brigade to put on a fantastic show.

Every troop does their utmost to be as historically accurate as possible, following actual written manuals and regulations from the 1860s.

Where is the Civil War Reenactment Near Yakima?

Union Gap is a suburb of Yakima, about 3 miles south. Right off of Hwy 97 follow the signs for the Central Washington Agricultural Museum and Fullbright Park. Address: 4508 Main St, Union Gap, WA 98903

You’ll drive from the highway overpass down to a grassy field with a first view of the Confederate camp. Parking is to the right on the grass.

A Charlie Brown-type information booth had maps and schedules for the FREE event. The weekend event started on Friday 5:00pm-9:30pm with a Sun, Sips, and Suds 21+ event. Saturday was 9:00am-5:00pm with an Old Time Dance kicking off at 6:30pm. Sunday was open from 9:00am-3:30pm. 

There was a no-age-limit scavenger hunt to participate in and make the day a little more interesting. Instead of finding specific items, the scavenger hunt had you write down things you learned from “Education Stations” as you walked through the camps. Prizes were simple toys like plastic dinosaurs, a pirate patch, etc.

I took a scavenger hunt paper and found it fun to write down factoids that stood out to me to help reinforce what I learned. 

Fun Factoid: the “pickle test” is for determining if you are dehydrated. If the dill pickle tastes sweet, you need water. If it tastes sour like it should, you are well-watered.

Pancake Breakfast

Before the camps opened for the morning on Saturday, the Union Gap Police Department hosted an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast from 6am-10am. For $5pp (cash) you got bottomless pancakes, sausage, and coffee.

A large team was involved making batter in the trailer to fill up the pitchers outside and flippers making ginormous 6-7inch pancakes on propane skillet grills. They couldn’t make the pancakes fast enough, so we waited by the skillets for fresh-off-the-grill ones and had them straight from stove top to paper plate. 

Moving down the line we had sausage links added to our plates and were given pancake topping choices of butter, syrup, or canned peaches. 

Carafes of hot coffee waited for us at the end and once we were loaded up we took our food to the rows of picnic tables. 

The view was calm and beautiful sitting in the green field contrasted against the looming desert-like hill. Families were relaxing and having a good time eating their breakfasts and socializing.

We hung out until 9am when the camps opened up.

Confederate Camp Reenactment

The closest camp was the Confederates, so we started there. The morning commenced with drill training. About 25-30 soldiers lined up in rows with a drill sergeant teaching and making them practice spacing while marching and wheel turning. 

As we were watching, a reenactment “recruiter” came and socialized with us, telling us about their brigade and such. Reenactors come from all over the state, and even some out of state, to participate in these weekend activities, camping in the white canvas tents. Entire families will participate as well, kids and all!

If you are interested in joining a troop near you, find out how and where to enlist here.

Fun Factoid: reenactors call cellphones or other modern technology that doesn’t belong in their era “farb”.

As we walked through the camp we met various reenactors with different niches they were knowledgeable about.

Some ladies dressed in their hooped and petticoat layered dresses were still cleaning up from the morning meal, putting away dishes and old Bibles. Once they had things tidied up they began on their projects for the day. One in particular pulled out her antique sewing machine to make some clothes. 

At the artillery tent we got stopped for a long while as the men in red very excitedly did a show-and-tell of all their various (prop) gun replicas. They explained how each one worked, what ammo sizes they used, how far they would shoot, etc. We were able to hold them and play with them as well. 

As a treat, they passed out bubble gum cigars to those who would take them.

A family’s tent was set up to represent a home environment of the era. Wooden furniture and housewares were displayed and used. The mother was braiding her daughter’s hair, who was being as patient as she could but wanting to go out and play. 

As a “living museum” we were allowed to touch things and pick them up and ask any questions we liked. I was curious about the mother’s toolkit on her belt, which had scissors, a stopwatch, coin purse, and the like hanging by chains so that no matter where she was she would always have what she needed without fetching for it.

Fun Factoid: Did you know that peanuts used to be called “Goober Peas”? There’s even a Civil War song about them!

An emporium tent was selling hats, gloves, brooches and various other knick knacks. If you had an inkling to start your own Civil War era outfit, this would be the place to pick up some accessories. The other half of the tent had a ladies’ tea parlor set up with fine china and bite-sized foods.

Civil War Battle Reenactment

At 11:00am the first battle of the day took place. The field dividing the two opposing camps had a couple of bleachers and also some hay bales for sitting on, but no shade cover from the hot sun. We did not get there in time to snag a seat so we ended up standing for the approximately 30min show.

An MC with a microphone and speakers narrated happenings as the battle went on, which was helpful to understand what we were watching.

The beginning of the show began with a few lines of soldiers from both sides shooting at each other amongst the tall grass. The shots from their guns were not very loud, though smoke did come out of them. 

The bugle calls were also faint as the sound did not carry well across the field. If this was an accurate interpretation of real battle bugle calls, it’s interesting to realize that not everyone fighting is going to hear the music.

The cavalry ran their horses through the fields, shooting at foot soldiers and also being shot at. Because soldiers fought so close to each other, they yelled out insults to one another as they were fighting.

I’m not sure how the reenactors decide who gets hit and who doesn’t. Some would fall as if wounded, then get back up to fight. Later on, more soldiers who fell and “died” stayed dead.

Cannons were fired by both armies. Their booms were loud and earth rumbling, especially the Union’s cannon sitting close behind the audience. Big smoke clouds emitted from them and one even created a perfect smoke circle like in a cartoon.

As the battle progressed, more soldiers arrived on the field. At first it looked as though the Union army was pushing back the Confederates, but then the south rallied and retaliated for a big win at the end. 

A surrender deal was made, the bugle played Taps for the fallen soldiers, and then “magically” the dead soldiers were resurrected!

Afterwards, people were encouraged to take pictures with President Abraham Lincoln and the cavalry horses and a soldier manning one of the cannons allowed kids to fire faux shots.

Fun Factoid: Over 400 women snuck into the army to fight in the Civil War.

Union Camp Reenactment

We walked through the trees and over Ahtanum Creek to the back of the Union camp. Their site was much more shaded than the Confederates. 

Here there were more reenactors to talk to about different subjects. 

The field hospital was my favorite exhibit. A table was set up with all the medicines and tools that were used back in the day. A bucket of amputated limbs sat in a corner and the canvas gurney sat empty with a pail of “bloody” rags.

I really wanted to see a medical demonstration but they said that they had just done one. As I started to walk off disappointed they offered to amputate my leg and I jumped at the opportunity!

I hopped up on the gurney and laid down. They went into great detail on how a Civil War surgeon would go about amputating a leg. They first gave me chloroform through a metal inhaler to anesthetize me.   

Next they described how they would scalpel part of my leg, getting to a point to be able to roll up my skin, saw my leg off, then roll the skin down to sew it up, good as new! 

As a reward for being their patient, I was given an actual Civil War lead bullet found in the field of the Battle of Vicksburg. Pretty cool!

Wandering through the camp we found a guy demonstrating how grenades worked. Those grenades looked like mini black bombs Snidely Whiplash might use, not the green egg-shaped ones we recognize today.

Another guy had a telegraph set up with messages coming through and he was talking about communications during the war. 

As there were many tents and people to talk to we did not meet and see them all. I am sure there were other fascinating things to learn and experience. And I know that each person who visited saw things from a different angle, every experience unique and memorable. 

The Old Town Days Part

As the Civil War reenactment took place at the Central Washington Agricultural Museum, the grounds were open for wandering and observing antique machinery, tools, and homegoods from the 1930s.

There was a saw mill demonstration. The miller drove the saw to cut up logs into planks. It was extremely noisy and I could only watch for a couple of minutes due to the high decibels. 

The Letterpress Museum was open and you could get your own Wanted poster printed for you. Or you could peek into the drawers at the lead letters used to create printed pieces.

Rows and rows and rows of rusted antique equipment were labeled and displayed under storage carports behind fencing. Honestly, I found it all rather dull as I didn’t feel there was anything unique that wouldn’t be found in an antique store or on your grandfather’s farm.

Other Washington outdoor adventures:
Camping on the Columbia River
Visit Mount Rainier
Visiting Leavenworth
Seattle Walking Food Tours

Epilogue: Civil War Reenactment Near Yakima

We ended our day taking the tractor trolley back to the front of the park. After 4.5hrs exploring the camps and watching the battle we felt like we had learned as much as our brains could handle and socialized with enough reenactors to need some alone time.

We did not take advantage of the food trucks, which there were plenty of, nor did we stay to see the kid-friendly magic show. And while I did complete my scavenger hunt, I decided not to turn it in for a prize. 

The WCWA puts on this Union Gap Old Town Days Civil War reenactment near Yakima every year and also a few other times in other parts of the state. You can find their next performance here. 

I think it’s very important to keep history alive and am grateful for these hobbyists who share their passion and knowledge with others by volunteering their time for the public to experience living history.