SUNDAY JUNE 27TH

Today we traveled up the Pagan River to the town of Smithfield. It is an interesting stop as the town has many, many historic homes. Some of them built pre-date the Revolutionary War.

Once again the weather is brutally hot, but we had a mission. Smithfield is known world wide for the hams they produce. Somewhere along the line, Ross read that the world’s oldest edible ham is on display here.  So off we went in search of it.

We found it at the Isle of Wight museum. There were other hams on display too, including this one. The info card said it was the “largest cured ham.” Maybe in the world, or maybe just in the town? It didn’t give that tidbit of information. The hog weighed 900 pounds and its leg weighed 91 pounds after curing back in 1955. Jeez, it’s almost as old as me!

The hog leg kind of grossed me out and it wasn’t until later I realized I forgot to take a picture of the World’s Oldest Edible Ham. Just picture a brown, shriveled up dog rawhide chew, and that’s pretty much what it looked like. It was cured in 1902 and I for one, question how they know if it’s edible or not????



I did take a photo of the World’s Oldest Peanut though!

Grown in, you guessed it, 1890. P. D. Gwaltney picked it, dated it and used it for advertising his peanut business.

The Smithfield Ham is internationally sold. Originally the hogs used for it had to fed on the peanut fields. The processing of the ham involves coating it in salt, sugar, and sodium nitrate, waiting, washing it, re-salting it, more waiting, washing, then smoking it for 10 days and then aging it for 6 to 12 months. The result is a deep red, dry, pungent flavored ham considered a gourmet’s favorite. It is sliced paper thin and added to a biscuit or on top of something else. It’s very salty and wouldn’t be eaten as the main course meat.

Hogs aren’t native to the area, but thrived when introduced to the point they became a nuisance. The colonists rounded them out and put them on a nearby island, creatively named Hog Island, where the hogs could for forage and we’re a ready food source.

We learned there was to be a Revolutionary War re-enactment at a park, so hustled on over along the numerous pedestrian paths. Too bad we took a wrong turn and ended up on a gravel road at the outskirts of town walking along what looked like a peanut field. I was out of water and beyond cranky!! Then we arrived at the park and I saw the re-enactors wearing wool uniforms and hats and quit feeling sorry for myself.

The group had done a re-enactment of the Skirmish at Mackie’s Mill the day before. The heat had done in most of them so there was a talk and demonstration of canon firing and of the various soldiers.

This cannon was really pretty puny. Ross thought it was maybe a 2" barrel, but loud! My photo was blurry. I knew when the soldier hollered “fire” it would be loud, but each time I jerked from the concussion. Can’t begin to think how loud a big cannon would be. So rock steady Roscoe gets the credit for this photo!





The sergeant was in charge of the artillery crew and called the commands to prepare, clean, load and fire the cannon.

This militiaman carries a government issued smooth bore, "Brown Bess" flintlock musket. It wasn’t a very accurate weapon and didn’t have much range (maybe 50-75 yards), but you could reload and fire it fairly quickly and could also put a bayonet on the end. It has a long barrel, which is a very convenient feature if you have a bayonet on it. The bayonet was actually the deciding factor in battles.













This soldier has a Kentucky rifle. It would have been his own. The barrel had spiral rifling. It can’t be reloaded as quickly as a powder musket, but it is quite accurate and can be fired from a greater distance.









This man is dressed as a Hessian rifleman, or “jagers”. Pronounced yagers. They came from a part of Germany and fought for King George. They had a short-barreled rifle, which was accurate, and they also had very good gunpowder. They couldn’t add a bayonet to the barrel though. They did however carry a sword, although it didn't do much good against a bayonet on a long barrel. Too short.









A demonstration of firing and reloading. They tried to fire and reload 3 times in one minute with the Brown Bess. None of them made it. Once came close though.

There were women who followed the troops too. They cooked, sewed, served as nurses, made lead shot and even took up arms or took over artillery duty for fallen soldiers.



The actual Skirmish at Mackie’s Mill was in Jan of 1781 and involved Benedict Arnold and his troops. The locals lost about 11 soldiers and had to retreat.








Our walk back to the marina took us across a pedestrian bridge over a salt marsh. It was low tide and we noticed hundreds of crabs feeding and scurrying about in the muck and hiding in the grasses. Most of the crabs were between half an inch to a couple of inches in size. Oil in a salt marsh would be a real catastrophe to marine life.