On Saturday night, Emma Balfour once again welcomed visitors to the cave where she and her family hid from Union shelling. Nearby, Confederate soldiers, tending campfires, defended the old Jackson Road into Vicksburg.

CSA Maj. Joe Gerache, a surgeon, prepared to tend the wounded, and Union sympathizer Adeline Shirley, an outcast in Vicksburg, hid from forces battling near her home.

At Battery DeGolyer, Union cannon fired in the dark toward the lines of troops defending the city, trying to disturb the rest of the rebels.

“How do you like that, Johnny?” called out Capt. Samuel DeGolyer of the Michigan infantry, after the blast.

The re-creations, staged for free at the Vicksburg National Military Park by park employees and local actors, were part of the first-ever Shadows of the Past, evening candlelight walking tours featuring historical personalities.

Interpretive park ranger Raymond Hamel, one of the event’s organizers, said VNMP officials were looking to interest and excite “non-traditional” visitors who are not as familiar with the park’s story. He’s been involved with similar events at other national parks during his career, he said, and thought it was a natural for Vicksburg. The event attracted about 150 people in six groups.

“This time of year lends itself to an outdoor festival or event and provides an excellent opportunity to introduce folks to our story,” he said. “After all, this will be one of the few opportunities to legally visit the park after sunset.”

After introducing the idea at a recent VNMP planning session, the event took on a life of its own, he said.

“Just about everybody on our staff has helped out one way or another,” Hamel said.

He also credited Pat Strange of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, a licensed battlefield guide, with helping recruit and organize the volunteers.

Strange also played a role — “Albert Cashier,” the fake identity of a Union soldier from Illinois who was actually a woman named Jenny Hodges.

“I joined the war because it was for a good cause and because I had friends in my hometown who went to fight,” Cashier said. “I can handle myself. I’m stronger than you think. Many of my comrades have had to lean on me.”

Cashier led each tour group up steps lighted by glowing luminarias into the Illinois Memorial, where musicians Julia and Nikolas Blake played period pieces on the penny whistle and fiddle.

At the nearby Shirley House, Gerache demonstrated his surgical tools and methods, which often involved amputating limbs.

“The piles of arms and legs could get so high we couldn’t see over them to know how many more wounded we had in the yard to take care of,” he said.

Dolores Winterstein, a visitor from Florence, went out onto the Shirley House porch for some fresh air when Gerache described taking a bandage from a dead soldier to use on one of the living.

“It just got a little too gory for me,” said Winterstein, who came for the event with her daughter, Rebecca Kramer, a history buff.

“Three of my great-granddaddies fell here, plus a great-great-uncle,” said Kramer. “I knew some of it but I am learning a lot.”

Three visitors came from Liberty, near Magnolia, and are members of the Amite County Historical Society. “We rode over for the day,” said Linda Lea. “We’ll give a report on this when we get back.”

Lea also said she knew a lot of the history before she came, but was struck by some of the personal stories, such as Balfour telling about a bird being shot and given to the nuns across the street to add a little nutrition to a pot of soup for wounded soldiers.

“I had always heard about the destitution, the lack of food,” Lea said. “They were eating rats. You wouldn’t think something so small as a bird would make so much difference but it did.”

Balfour was played by Joni Matthews, and Shirley Stuart portrayed Adeline Shirley.

Other actors included Michael Mumaugh of Huntsville, Ala., and Tyler Gibson of Biloxi as Confederate soldiers.

Licensed battlefield guides, including Harold Lee, served as tour guides, and many of the park’s rangers and employees also played roles, including Tim Kavanaugh as DeGolyer, and assisted with traffic, parking and directions.

It was not known if the event would be staged again. “That’s for the park management to decide,” said one park service employee.