That seems a stretch. Unless there are people today doing Andersonville re-enactments?
There were ‘reenactments’, albeit only done in Central CA, of Japanese being taken to interment camps. This was closer to historical pagents/play than a reenactment.
I’ve spent quite a few days with Civil War enactors. Worked on various shows for the History Channel years ago.
Most take it quite seriously and when doing their thing, there was no joking around or side comments. They were in battle, and they worked it. I’ve no idea if they were that intense when cameras were NOT rolling on them but they made for fantastic actors.
They do love their guns. A lot. A whole bucketful lot. Also, canons. They LUUURVE their canons.
Nice folks.
Cartooniverse
The question I’ve always wondered:
How does it all work? Do the Confederate re-enactors get to “win” Gettysburg sometimes, for example? Or are re-enactments completely historically accurate, down to the outcome?
It depends on the site, for Rev War for example:
At Germantown, there are two battles during the day. They follow as close to the battle as possible: Rebels attack, Crown forces retreat, run into Cliveden building, Rebels attack Cliveden, Crown forces counterattack, Rebels run away.
Brandywine: 2 battles are held over one or two days. The location on the field always changes, and despite losing badly the Rebels get to win one.
Fort Mercer: 2 battles held on one day. Crown forces lose both.
Trenton: 2 battles representing 2 engagements of the day. Crown forces lose both.
etc.
We can’t follow actual battle plans as they occured since they fought over areas now covered with buildings and we have nowhere near the numbers needed. But we do what we can
Sometimes it’s not a specific battle per se, on weekend events at Ft. Tejon in Cailornia the Rebs would win the morning battle, the Union would win the Afternoon. The rest of the day was re-enacting camp life.
I was in the SCA for several years, and i enjoyed it at first…
But as time went on, I found more and more people that took it (and themsevles) far to seriously. For some of them, it seems as they are a bit important in this subculture, and it makes up for them being an office drone (or worse) in the Real World.
(For those that might not know, the SCA is Medieval Renactment, in a very loose sense of the word. See www.sca.org for details)
Not to hijack, but something just occured to me, and I need my ignorance fought. Among the reenactmenty people in Norway/Scandinavia, there is a persistant rumor that many American black-powder events had to be altered to non-black powder, because people kept forgetting the loading-sticks in the gun and someone wound up with a metal pin through the throat. Any truth to this?
Not sure if you would count me in the “going too far” percentage. I made my own plate armour and my group usually spend most of our time sewing, smithing and leathercrafting rather than actually reenacting. (Just got back from our yearly “big event”, though - a full week of Ballista and Onager firing, marching and general dividing and conquering, with fireballs!). The most I ever spent on a storebought item was something like 800 kr. (I think that’s 130 dollars or so, not sure).
Some folks do do long-term reenactments. There was a group which did a bicentennial-to-the-day reenactment of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, for instance. They relaxed on several points (they were focussing more on showing folks what the expedition actually did, rather than doing it, so each day’s activities represented more of a typical cross-section of what the Corps did), and to keep their to-the-day schedule, sometimes they did have to take a van from site to site (though they stuck to authentic transport as much as they could). But at the very least, they were on the road in tough conditions for over a year. They were by and large older than the original Corps of Discovery, but by the time they came through Bozeman, at least, there wasn’t a Tubby Bearded Guy in the lot, and they all had suntans to make a surfer weep.
Not to say accidents don’t happen of course but…
Sounds like you have an urban myth.
I’ve done many American Civil War events, some Mountain Man events, and your odd “no catagory” events. All had black powder. While I’ve also heard those same stories, I’ve never actually met anyone who had a scar from a ramrod or had lost a loved one through that kind of thing.
Right you are! I’ll file it away in the stupid box (Or should that be Imhotep Box?).
I’ve known of no battles that have gone to no black powder. What are we supposed to do? Go ‘Bang’? I have had the following:
- Rev war weapons have flashguards that they probably did not have.
- I have been burned by pan flashes from 17th century weapons which do not have such guards.
- I have seen muskets break, but not explode.
- There have been a couple of cases where a wadding was left in a Civil War pistol and was not cleared and subsequently shot into a person. A case about 10 years ago got some national attention.
- ‘Leaving the ramrod in’ was not uncomming event for actual troops who were facing their first battle, as was loading ball and shot on top of unfired ball and shot.
You remembered! Good Lord. Have I started a new Doper meme?
beg pardon?
I supplied the name “Imhotep Box” in that thread on “bizarre names we’ve heard.”
Are there southern Civil War reenactment groups? Are they revisionist?
I’ve met southerners who are still mad about the civil war. I’m having a hard time imagining them wanting to immitate it.
they can be found in the attic.
How does reenacting work, on the individual level? Do you actually target and “shoot” at other people? If someone shoots you, do you get to decide whether to “die” or to keep going? Do people get “killed” early on and then just lay there in the field for the rest of the day?
Does one particular person get to “be” Robert E. Lee, etc.? If you’re playing the part of just a regular soldier, do you come up with a an alternate name and identity, or does it not matter on that level?
At the events I went to in the Nineties, you were free to decide who you’d shoot at among the enemy troops across the field (you couldn’t bump the rifles of other troops in your ranks to point at someone “at the oblique,” though, unless ordered to). You also got to decide when you’d “die.” No one wants to die in the first minute of the battle after driving hours and hours to get there, so you’d hear a lot of jokes about “ironclad Rebs” who take twenty shots before they’d die. Some of our TBGs would decide to die when they got winded or overheated. At a few events, our officers would shout months of the year now and then, and anyone whose birthday was in that month would have to fall down as killed or wounded.
Reminds me that a friend of mine was a member of a Penna. infantry regiment that would sometimes “galvanize,” that is, wear Confederate uniform when it was necessary to fill out the ranks on the other side. He said the first time he had to galvanize, he saw the Stars and Stripes being carried towards him and just couldn’t bring himself to shoot at it. It was his last time to galvanize; he found another unit so that he’d never have to again.
At big events, the organizers will arrange for a Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant or other recognizable general(s) to appear. At smaller events, sometimes people who are doing an impression of a famous person will just show up and expect to be fawned over.
Some reenactors have elaborate backstories for their historical selves, either of a real soldier or a madeup or composite character. Others, probably most, don’t bother beyond “I am a soldier of the [unit name].” I always imagined I was a rabid abolitionist from Oberlin College, which IRL is actually my alma mater.
Interesting, thanks for the info!