They started on the other side of the hill shortly after noon, the reports in the distance sounding like popcorn. Then soldiers began taking the field.

Infantry men dressed in gray and navy-blue took opposing sides on a 200-yard field, leveling their rifles at one another. Then artillery men started to load the cannons.

A man dressed in the dark gray uniform of a Richmond, Va., provost approached the audience sitting near the artillery and warned them of the noise.

      ``When the sergeant yells `Fire in the hole,' put your finger in your ear closest to the cannon and leave your mouth slightly open,'' warned Thomas High, a Civil War re-enactor from Enfield, N.C. ``This is an extremely loud percussive noise.''

As if on cue, the six-gun Confederate battery at the other end of the field fired a volley. First the smoke shot out of the barrels. The boom from the cannon hit the crowd's ears the same time the earth's ripple hit their feet.

Big kids cheered, small kids cried and the crowd chanted ``Beat the Blue'' as the troops deployed.

The staged battle commemorates the original one that took place Feb. 11, 1865, on the streets of Aiken. Confederate forces under Gen. Joseph Wheeler repulsed Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's cavalry led by Brigadier Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick. The battle didn't alter the course of the war, but it saved Aiken from being burned down.

Re-enactor Keith Frazier (right) of Barnwell, S.C., salutes as a bugler plays. Standing behind Mr. Frazier with their hats off are Paul Bishop (left) and David Bishop, both of Summerville, S.C.

When Saturday's fighting was finished, the ``wounded'' were taken to a field hospital. Wounded soldiers winced as actors playing the part of doctors amputated limbs and treated bleeding limbs. Several onlookers winced too, saying ``Ugh, oh my god,'' and prompting at least one to leave the scene.

The operating tent also revealed another aspect of the Civil War. While a cavalry soldier's wounds were treated, the doctor discovered the soldier was a woman and ordered the provost to arrest her.

Catherine Hunter Wise, of Alpharetta, Ga., played the part of the cavalry soldier. She told the crowd at the end of the scene there were at least 400 women who were known to have disguised as men and fought in the ranks.

``Remember the women who gave their limbs, lives and honor for the country,'' she said.