Posted on 10/01/2008 4:44:57 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
WINDSOR, Va. (WAVY.com)-- A man participating in a Civil War reenactment was shot Saturday afternoon, according to the Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Department.
The incident happened around 12:30 p.m. at the fairgrounds, about three miles outside of Windsor on Route 258.
This wasn't your typical re-enactment. Tom Lord was one of many men acting out a scene for a film being made about the Civil War. During that filming, Lord was shot...for real.
Speaking only to WAVY.com, Tom says he isn't as worried about the damage done to his body. He's more concerned with the damage this could do to the reputation of reenactment.
Tom reenacts history as a Union Cavalryman, but he never thought acting would become so real.
"At the time we were in a ditch that acts as a trench and we had just driven the Confederates out of the trench, and we were all enthused about it," says Tom, " and under direction we raised our hats and hurrah, hurrah, hurrah."
During that last hurrah, the unthinkable happened. Julian Ison, acting as a Confederate Soldier, was there.
"We were shooting at the Union Soldiers and suddenly the guy told us to stop after we were firing because one of the Union guys actually got shot."
"I got hit in the shoulder and I thought somebody had hit me with a shovel," says Tom.
What the 73-year-old was actually hit with was a round from an 1860 Colt Army Revolver. Tom says the moment he was shot, every thought ran through his mind at once.
"How can I be shot? I've been doing this reenacting, who shot me? Why?"
Tom says the cameras were rolling on him, and were directly in front of him, when he was shot.
"Everybody was wondering what was wrong with me and then they saw the blood on my uniform...They immediately took my uniform jacket off and my shirt was all bloody. They applied pressure bandages on it because it was bleeding," says Tom.
Tom doesn't believe an "experienced" reenactor could be behind this.
"The muzzle of our weapons or pistol or rifle is always elevated at least 40, 45 degrees and we're shooting into the air. The battle lines never get close enough that people would be hit by the expended paper that comes out of these muskets."
Tom also says before and after every reenactment, the actors go through an important routine called "capping off."
"We take our weapons and we fire three caps in an empty weapon. If we have pistols, we discharge our pistols, put caps on that and discharge them again and all it is is like a child's cap going off," says Tom.
There are concerns about how this could have happened in the first place.
"It was an accident, but somebody was negligent in not inspecting the weapons. I don't know who you could blame - the people who did the filming or the person who did the firing," says Tom.
Now Tom, along with his friends and family hope investigators find the clues they need to piece this painful puzzle together.
"I would like to see them catch, get a hold of this person that did this and bar him for life from doing this because we don't need people like him reenacting."
Lord is also worried this accident could shine negativity on his main passion.
"It's hurting reenacting when they hear something, a reenactor was shot at a reenactment."
Tom says reenacting creates a way for children and adults to actively become involved in history, something he never thought he'd be so much a part of.
"I'm the first one in reenacting that's ever earned a purple heart," says Tom with a laugh. "The good Lord was looking over me. That's all I can say. The good Lord was looking over me."
Isle of Wight Sheriff Paul Phelps says they are investigating to find out who shot Lord. In the meantime, Tom says he may be done with the "physical" part of reenacting. Instead, he may become a narrator at the reenactment scenes.
Stay with WAVY.com and WAVY News 10 for new details in this developing story.
Was Cheney there? Sad deal all around. At least he wasn’t killed.
Glad the guy is okay.
So what movie is this? (crosses fingers for third installment of Gettysburg series)
Typically, it is the ram rod left in the barrel in the excitement. After the Gettysburg, anniversary and several incidents, our unit removed ram rods entirely during actual reenactments. Not realistic, but keeps it from being real.
That wasn’t a peace treaty. That was just a cease-fire...
I wonder if they found the bullet.
The closest to this I had ever witnessed was a drunk on the sideline yelling a lot of inappropriate insults. After the the “battle” was over, a large group took the guy out of the crowd and “executed” him by “firing squad” complete with blindfold. The crowd loved it.
I'm a former CW re-enactor, with years of experience at both small and big events. After a guy with the 7th Virginia Infantry got shot accidentally at the huge 135th Anniversary Battle of Gettysburg re-enactment by a Frenchman who had flown over for the event without any training or experience and had fallen in with a less-than reputable Union cavalry unit, the hobby at large instituted wide-spread safety inspections before each scenario and required accountability on the part of battalion and brigade commanders.
Although there was a subsequent accident at Raymond, Mississippi, in which a guy got shot (through his testicles) with a .36 pistol round, the safety guidelines and intense weapons inspections have been quite successful since then. Obviously, at this event, the safety regime broke down, and someone got hurt. Both the event organizers and the the re-enactment community at large will suffer for it.
My guess is that it was some stupid cavalryman (infantry don't carry pistols--and they weren't close enough for a Confederate officer to have done it), who likes to target shoot his pistol at home and forgot that he had loaded it with a live round before coming to the event. That this guy's unit failed to properly inspect and pass the pistol is damning in the extreme. And he should NOT have been aiming directly at this Union cavalryman with the pistol, like it was a water gun.
According to all safety guidelines, ramrods should NEVER be pulled after leaving camp and after unit inspections, certainly never on the field.
Ramrod for a pistol?
Battle reenactment is a great way to impress history on kids and adults. But it just takes one careless person. Hopefully, this incident will have the typical positive safety effects of a close call.
Battle reenactment is a great way to impress history on kids and adults. But it just takes one careless person. Hopefully, this incident will have the typical positive safety effects of a close call.
What he was saying is that usually these types of accidents involve someone using their ramrod on their musket against safety rules, getting carried away, leaving it in the barrel after packing the powder, and then shooting it down range toward the opposing battle line. It happens occasionally, but almost never hits anyone.
Back in the 1990s, at an infamous event at Monmouth, New Jersey, a guy did get hit in the head by a worm that someone had left in their musket barrel. He almost died, and as a result, the hobby almost collapsed because of the lawsuits that followed.
Yes, they extracted the round from his shoulder and gave it to him. More info here.
And, no, I had nothing to do with this 'un...
Just keeping it real.
Not realistic, but keeps it from being real
After the battle of Gettysburg, guns collected off the battlefield were found to contain more than one “load” as well as the ramrod. Quite a few rifles were found to be loaded with up to 5 bullets. In the excitement of battle, many soldiers forgot to aim and pull the trigger but just kept on loading.
The reenacters are saying the shot came from the confederate infantry side.
Officer then? Unless, it was one of those stupid local “shoot-out” events where the Confederate reenactors think they are Josey Wales. I’ve seem my share of those too, and have walked away.
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