GETTYSBURG, Pa.-- Rachel Bolton from Virginia works on the artillery crew at the Gettysburg reenactment. She's been doing doing the reenactments for about a year.
"It's as fun as the sound is huge," she said.
Fellow reenactor, Hendrina Appelt from Virginia, said it's a team effort to make the reenactment entertaining.
"Everybody has a position, and a thing that they're doing and everyone is concentrated on that," she said.
Both Appelt and Bolton are two of the about 650 people who are helping to do the reenactment this weekend. Both women are part of trend for reenactments, a higher percentage of women soldiers. About 30% of the soldiers for this weekend are women.
"25 years ago, there may have been 2 or 3% perhaps," living history coordinator Kirk Davis said.
"I think it's because a lot of women are starting to get into history and not just be in a hoop [skirt]," Appelt said.
Appelts been doing reenactments for about three years. She does them with her husband.
"If you've got the chance to do it, you'll enjoy it the moment you fire the gun," she said.
"Who doesn't want to fire a cannon," Bolton said.
She works at a museum in Virginia and said she enjoys studying history.
Davis said the women are competitive on the field as well. It's not playtime out there.
"Some of our female cavalrymen will knock you out of the saddle as well as anybody," he said
The rise in female reenactors also helps to serve a historic purpose.
"During the 1860s, there were women in the uniform," Davis said.
According to Davis, women would go off to war and pretend to be men to stay with their husbands, or for patriotic causes.
"I feel like I'm following a precedent that was already set by history," Bolton said.
Sunday will be the last day for the reenactment for this year. Gates open at 8:30 a.m., with events starting at 9 a.m.