A near-riot occurs in the grandstand of the Minnesota State Fair during a Civil War reenactment. The mock battle breaks all previous attendance records for a grandstand event, with 80,000 people in the stands (and 20,000 more on Machinery Hill). The event is fraught with fears of the grandstand collapsing, fights for seats, and injuries from the mock battle itself. Agricultural Society secretary H. E. Hoard justifies the expense and chaos of the event by describing its educational value: "For most of the [audience] it was their first real conception of...the awfulness of...war."