“This is what you’d expect to see in 1862 in the Valley,” said David Childers, of Manassas, Va., and a member of the 4th United States Regular Infantry. “Everything’s pretty authentic. What you see is pretty much the way it was.”

As the time for an artillery skirmish approached, soldiers in the Union army practiced marching and removing the bayonets from their rifles.  In the Confederate camp, soldiers blackened new “recruits” faces with a dark substance and shot a few rounds into the air.

“Attention,” a Union commander yelled. “Present arms.”

Off in the distance the sound of a band could be heard performing battle tunes and preparing to offer the soldiers a light-footed beat as they made their way on to the battlefield.

“Turn ‘God Save the South,’” Rick Long, of the 46th PA Regiment Band and 17th Miss Regiment Band, told the Union musicians. “No southern tunes, except we’ll whistle ‘Dixie’ on queue when we have to.”

The battle lines had been drawn.

A sign along the interstate signals to passers-by that the troop seen mustering on the field adjacent to the highway are playing a part not mustering for a real battle.