More than 70,000 gather at Gettysburg to relive pivotal Civil War battle

Post Gazette ^ | August 11, 2003 | Mark Scolforo

[blackdog]

Are you a big Kathryn Hepburn fan? "Lion in the winter" is as good as it gets.

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out.

[XRdsRev]

Smoke & Fire is a newspaper that lists many reenactments and living history events around the country. They also have a website www.smoke-fire.com/smoke-fire-newspaper.asp

Most Revolutionary War Reenactments are listed on one of the following sites (check all 3 since there are some that are listed on one but not the others).

www.britishbrigade.org/

www.continentalline.org/

www.brigade.org/

[angkor]

I find the battle re-enactments of the civil war a very odd phenomenon in american culture

Well that's a very odd and myopic perspective, since historic and battle reenactments are deeply embedded in American and other cultures.

Jamestown, Plymouth Plantation, Mt. Vernon, Gettysburg, Concord, Lexington, Williamsburg, Ft. Ticonderoga and hundreds of other sites are devoted to reenactments of American history, whether cultural or military or both.

In Europe, there are epic battle reenactments like Les Féeriques de Montgothier, the Medieval Spectacle, and Vikings In Normandy, all in France. In England, the Battle of Hastings is presented every October. In Scotland there are several dozen medieval battle reenactment societies.

I might add that movies - another form of reeanctment - come from all cultures depicting battle reeanctments: Das Boot, Ran, the dynastic battle films from Hong Kong, Bollywood battle epics, etc.

Your assertion that reenactments are "divisive" is unsupportable, and your subtext that they are a strange American curiosity is profoundly stupid.

You sound like a Rat political theoretician, since you start from an utterly false premise ("phenomenon in american culture [only]"), and bolster it with a completely unproven and unprovable outcome ("divisive").

[blackdog]

Oh, OK.......Despite your not reading additional posts, maybe you could explain the dynamics of the public viewing battle re-enactments of the civil war(war of northern agression) in perhaps say.....Gastonia, North Carolina, or Columbia, South Carolina. I'm sure any discussion on battle re-enactments will not be divisive with the populace!

Maybe it would be as interesting as walking the streets of Harlem, shouting for your lost dog named "Tigger" at 2:00AM.

My whole argument has nothing to do with the participants of these events, it has to do with the dynamics of a crowd that has never watched Das Boote, or even read anything about any war who seem to dominate the arena of spectators. They attend for the purpose of being entertained and intoxicated where I live. The historical aspect never bounces in their upper paddock once.

[warchild9]

Uhh...I shouldn't mention that, during my reign of terror as SS Mann Warchild, I infiltrated a GI post outside of Orlando because the sentries had too much beer, and grenaded all of them. Eh, yeah, I won't mention that.

[Alouette]

I find the battle re-enactments of the civil war a very odd phenomenon in american culture.

There are American Civil War reenactors in Europe. I have met British, German, Russian reenactors and even a Croatian.

I also know an Israeli who is a Civil War buff (not a reenactor though, he says he had enough of battle during his tour in the IDF). He got interested because his ancestor was a Lieutenant in the Union Army, 29th NY Infantry.

The Russian guy said he got interested in the U.S. Civil War after participating in reenactments of Napoleon's seige of Moscow.

[sarg]

You said this should be done in schools. I did teach the subject of Rev. War in schools until I could not bring any historical type of weapons into any schools even for teaching. Most history books do not teach history right and flavor subjects to be politicaly correct.
I have been a Rev. War reenactor/interperator since 1975 and I have never seen what has been decribed as a drunken display durning the hours that the public was there. There was also care that no one or article was not of that time.

[angkor]

Gastonia, North Carolina, or Columbia, South Carolina.

If you feel that the residents of Gastonia or Columbia cannot understand the purpose of reenactments and derive "incorrect" meanings from them ("entertainment" is wrong?), perhaps you should do something to change that sitation.

But from Bull Run all the way up to Boston, I have never seen anything "divisive" in any reenactment. In Lexington, the crowd doesn't guzzle whiskey and call for the heads of Brits. Just as your inference that Gettysburg is packed with beer swilling yahoos is simply wrong (I've attended that reenactment off-and-on for nearly 40 years, apparently you have not been even once).

And I did read the entire thread, yours was simply the most egregiously silly.

Finally, you have not remotely addressed the reality that battle reenactments are held throughout the United States for the Revolutionary War, the War Of 1812, The French American War, and just about anything else you can imagine. Would you ban those too? Indeed reenactments are held throughout the world in all kinds of cultures for all kinds of battles. It is quite the opposite of being uniquely American phenomena, as you imply.