We did that too, at recess back in the fifth grade, fighting our pretend battles in a grove of trees at the end of the school property. This was about 1972 and the Vietnam war protests were picking up. I could tell that some of the school staff were starting to look at putting an end to our fun so I got everyone together and put out the story that we were really reenacting Civil War battles so it was actually history education. The school staff thought that was splendid. They even set up chairs for the staff and other students to watch us reenact one of our “Civil War” battles. I was utterly bemused at their gullibility the whole time we “performed.”
and don’t forget army men sets with dead Germans, surrendering Japanese, and goose-stepping Germans. Also the cowboy and Indian sets had dead horses.