GETTYSBURG, Pa. A few hundred armed militia group members, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Ku Klux Klaners, supporters of President Donald Trump , and other self-described patriots descended upon the Gettysburg battlefield Saturday to defend the sites Confederate symbols from phantom activists with the violent far-left group Antifa.

Some carried semi-automatic rifles permitted in Pennsylvania as they peered out across the battlefield with binoculars, on the lookout for the black-clad, face-masked anti-fascists, anarchists and socialists they said they had heard were traveling to the national park to dishonor Confederate graves, monuments and flags.

Although many came expecting violence even after Antifa made it clear its adherents never planned to show up the only bloodshed came when a lone militia group member accidentally shot himself in the leg.