ST. ALBANS, W.Va. -- Many 11-year-olds breathe and live video games. Zane Samples chooses to spend his time wearing Confederate gray and living history.

"They hated the blue devils (Union troops), and they had nice hearts," he said of Confederate soldiers. "The rebels stood strong. They didn't have anything, but they still held together."

A fifth-grader at St. Francis Assisi School in St. Albans, Zane shared his love for Civil War history last weekend by hosting a re-enactment at St. Albans City Park. With the help of adult re-enactors, Zane and about 20 of his classmates staged The Battle of the Wilderness, a bloody Civil War skirmish in central Virginia that was a draw between Confederate and Union troops.