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PITTSFIELD, ILL. -- Cannon smoked filled the air at Lake Pittsfield Sunday.

The annual Civil War reenactment took place at the eleventh annual Lincoln Days, but bringing history back to life and keeping it authentic is no easy task.

"I know the public disappears for me the moment the first rounds fire I have no idea where they're at because you're so focused on what's going on," Erik Hack, a captain in the Civil War reenactment said. "You really get into it."

"And it's also the same thing that you will get a chill up you spine when you see a Confederate battle flag that's coming at you because you stop and think '150 years ago there was somebody is my exact same position that saw the exact same thing,' the difference was they didn't get up at the end of it ... we do," Alan Kilgore, a participant in the Civil War reenactment, said.

Erik Hack and Alan Kilgore have been participating in the Lincoln Days, Civil War reenactment for years. To keep it as authentic as possible each participant reads a tactics manual that was written during the Civil War and then they plan out a real battle plan.

"The whole idea is to use the tactics they created in the Civil War to maneuver your force around and engage and disengage as they did back then," Hack said.

The shows looks pretty authentic, but what about it's location?

"Pittsfield has a unique honor where Lincoln visited several times," Steve Boze of the Abe Lincoln Project Board said.

"The heritage of the area is something the continues to be important today," Robert Crosby of the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition said. "Lessons such as these are important no matter the era."

That lesson is honoring the men that sacrificed their lives during the Civil War ... no matter what side they were on.

"We always part friendly ma'am," Kilgore said.